About the Cavaliers...
1. The draft is the first step in the front office convincing the owner of a business named Quicken Loans to take a patient approach. Dan Gilbert is deal maker, and guy who sometimes says "Take the roast out of the oven." But cooking up a good team after years of low or no draft picks and trying to win now to keep LeBron James takes time.
2. As it turns out, the Cavs could have taken Derrick Williams first and Brandon Knight with the fourth pick. But from what I understand, they had these four players in their top four: Kyrie Irving, Williams, Tristan Thompson and Enes Kanter. They had Irving rated the top player in the draft by a significant margin. They didn't want to risk failing to grab their top target.
3. Their point is not all freshman point guards are created equal. They believe Irving is a true point, a team leader. They see Knight as a very good combination guard who can develop into a point guard. While Irving shot 52 percent from the field, 46 percent on 3-pointers and 90 percent at the foul line, Knight was 42 percent from the field, 38 percent on 3-pointers and 80 percent at the foul line.
4. Byron Scott knows a lot about point guards. He likes Knight, but he's in love with Irving and the idea of putting the freshman from Duke in his system. I happen to think Knight will develop into a good pro, and some teams will wonder what they were thinking to allow him to drop to Detroit at No. 8. But I prefer Irving.
5. The Cavs rated Thompson in their top three. They believe he runs the court better than any big man in the draft. They say his 49 percent free-throw shooting is negated by 2.4 blocks per game. They want to upgrade their defense, and say Thompson will do that along with rebound and become a significant shot blocker. They believe a key element in the NBA is the pick-and-roll play, and Thompson defends it extremely well.
6. I'm showing my very old age, but Thompson reminds me of Roy Hinson -- the Cavs' top pick in 1983. In four years at Rutgers, he averaged 12.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and shot 60 percent from the foul line. He developed into a very solid pro whose long arms helped him play bigger and block shots. He also played four years of college, as most players did back then.
7. As for feeling old, Scott said that crossed his mind as he watched the first seven picks of the draft. The only players from college were Irving (1), Williams (2) and Thompson (4). The other four were Kanter (3), Jonas Valanciunas (5), Jan Vesely (6) and Bismark Biyombo (7). Odds are against Valanciunas and Biyombo even playing in the NBA this season. At 21, Vesely is the oldest of this group.
8. No wonder Knight didn't look happy at dropping to No. 8. He has to feel some teams just hate and underrate American players. He may be right, as the real reaches aren't someone such as Thompson -- it's some of these guys from overseas with very limited experience but who stand very tall.
9. Thompson and Irving come to the Cavs after one year of college, but at least there is lots of tape and scouting on them -- because the pros start watching the top high-school players in summer camps after their junior years. The elite prep players now play with and against each other in AAU, and at the top prep schools.
10. Here's a list of point guards picked in the top five since 2005: John Wall, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Rose, Mike Conley, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Raymond Felton. All are good or star quality players except Rubio, who just joined Minnesota after two years in Europe. Odds are that Irving will continue that trend.
11. The fans who wanted Williams and hoped to get Knight will not be satisfied by anything said by the Cavs. The debate will continue for a few years, until Irving, Thompson, Williams and Knight establish themselves.
12. Grabbing Milan Macvan at No. 54 to control his rights makes some sense because the 21-year-old power forward has played some top European competition. But I'd have kept Justin Harper (or drafted someone else) at No. 32, rather than trade that pick to Orlando for two future second-rounders. There had to be someone in the top 32 who could help. I like Harper because he's a prime shooter, 44 percent on 3-pointers and is 6-9.
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2011/06/terry_plutos_talkin_about_brow_13.html
