Since the NBA Draft lottery was held last month, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been on the clock. The Cavs have also supposedly been deciding which of the consensus top two picks to take with the first overall pick.
“Kyrie Irving or Derrick Williams?” has been the question within the Cavaliers organization, the city of Cleveland, the NBA Nerds heads, etc. for the past 4 weeks or so. If the Cavs were smart, they wouldn’t have to choose.
Instead, they could have them both.
By Peter Christian
This draft class has widely been thought of as awful downright putrid. No sure things, probably no all-stars and a ton of bust potential. That being said, the two players atop everyone’s draft boards and mock drafts are the pair that have the greatest potential to have worthwhile NBA careers. Maybe not careers typical of a first and second overall pick, but they’ll at least stick in the league.
For the Cavs, that’s a good start. The upside of both players is something that could make people forget about King Pauper James, (though the downside is that they could be just two more rotation guys to play alongside an entire roster of rotation guys) and to land both of them would be a huge victory for the team, the fans and anyone who honestly thought LeBron was going to say he was going to keep his talents in the rust belt.
Of course the hard part is actually pulling it off.
First, the Cavs would have to throw a Tim Lincecum-like curveball to the league (which would catch the Minnesota Timberwolves off balance the most) and select Derrick Williams first overall. Then, they’d have to go to work and they’d have to be faster, smoother and more on point than Danny Ocean and his crew.
That “curveball” would go against everything that makes sense and has been reported for the past few weeks. The Cavs have heaped so much love on Kyrie Irving in the past 14 days that it would be a serious shock to the Timberwolves if suddenly the guy they thought they’d be drafting went first overall. The Timberwolves would then be stuck in a position to either
A) Draft Irving and add a 4th point guard to the roster
B) Trade the pick and move down or
C) Pass on Irving and draft Enes Kanter.
If I’m in the Timberwolves war room and that scenario presents itself, I’m posting my resume on Monster.com immediately and then running out to my car to slam my face into my windshield a couple hundred times.
Meanwhile, the Cavs need to work the phones immediately to use their 4th overall pick and another future pick (like one or both of the picks they’ll get from the Heat over the next few seasons) to trade with the shell-shocked Timberwolves (and also leapfrog the Utah Jazz who would also be itching to grab Irving if he fell to them) and get the 2nd overall pick in the draft to select Irving.
The Cavaliers would then own the rights to the two surest prospects in the very weak 2011 Draft Class that is likely to be among the worst ever. But none of that would matter to the Cavs and their fans. Because they would have just walked away with the two players that are well on their way to avoid being busts.