Cleveland needs talent. Much more of it. They got a star in Kyrie Irving but have missed on other picks in recent years and they remain in the lottery despite owner Dan Gilbert saying he wanted to be back in the playoffs (which in the East should not be that hard to do).
They have another No. 1 pick and can’t blow it. Not again, as they did on Anthony Bennett last year (he could still pan out to be a rotation player in the league, but they passed over some much better guys to get a rotation player?).
Who do they take: Andrew Wiggins? Joel Embiid? Jabari Parker?
Embiid, the 7-footer out of Kansas, looked good, moved fluidly, got banged on by some former NBA big men and his injured back held up well in workouts in Los Angeles recently. That had a lot of people saying he jumped to the top of the Cavaliers draft board.
But PBT’s draft expert Ed Isaacson of NBADraftBlog.com and Rotoworld says not so fast, there are other factors in play here.
“For many other teams, Embiid being okay physically would leap him ahead of the other main options, Wiggins and Parker, but this is Cleveland and how they handle this pick may require a lot more thought,” Isaacson told PBT. “The team clearly reached the past couple of years with Dion Waiters at #4 in 2012 and Anthony Bennett at #1 in 2013. Embiid could be a star in the NBA, but he still has a long way to go, and if you watched him play against similar sized players last year, it becomes more evident. Parker may be considered the “safest” of the three options, but I don’t see where he fits with the current team, especially if the team isn’t ready to give up on Bennett yet. Wiggins to me is still the best option at #1 with a great combination of being able to come in and make some impact immediately, but enough untapped potential that Cleveland should see significant growth from him over a number of seasons.”
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Fair or not fair, Parker is often third in these discussions with the reason being he is projected to have a lower “ceiling” than the other guys at the top of the draft board. Which is really not fair, Isaacson notes.
“I think the idea of Parker’s “ceiling” becomes more prominent when you put him in a discussion that involves the likes of Embiid, Wiggins, and even Dante Exum,” Isaacson told PBT. “Unfortunately, no matter how often people want to use the term ‘ceiling,’ it has no concrete meaning, and it becomes less meaningful when it gets tied to a player’s age.
“The general idea with Parker is he is so advanced offensively for his age, that there can’t be any real significant improvement likely, which is wrong. There are plenty of ways he can improve, especially over the next few seasons, but when you factor in the defensive part of the game, it’s easy to see why people get “down” on him compared to Wiggins and Embiid. When people envision Wiggins long-term, they see a player who could make a big positive impact on both ends of the floor, and Embiid, even if he just tops out as an average offensive player, could still be the rim protector that teams are looking for. I just don’t see Parker ever having that kind of full impact, even if he can become one of the top scorers in the league.”
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To me, Cleveland needs to bring in all three of these guys, grade them out after workouts, have the doctors look them over (particularly Embiid’s back) then take the best guy. Not the best player today, but the guy who will be the best player in three years, Position doesn’t matter, talent matters, the Cavs need to get as much of it as they can.
