Cavs News: Team had no plans for the 2013 NBA Draft

Details of the Cavs nightmarish draft from 2013 have emerged on a new Adrian Wojnarowski podcast that detailed Giannis Antetokounmpo’s draft.

The 2013 NBA Draft is considered one of the worst of all time. Sure, there were some nice talents that were expected to go in the first round like Tim Hardaway Jr., Dennis Schroder, Kelly Olynyk, Steven Adams, and C.J. McCollum to name a few. While some others who went undrafted wouldn’t have gone undrafted if things were redone. Names like Robert Covington, Seth Curry, Dewayne Deadman, Matthew Dellavedova, Nicolò Melli, and Daniel Theis. Any of those names would’ve been a good selection at No. 1 overall for that year. Yes, even Dellavedova. Why? Because the Cavs selected Anthony Bennett, a player so bad he was out of the league four years later.

The worst part? The selection came out of nowhere, and the front office at the time apparently had no idea what was going on. On Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast that detailed the Bucks drafting Giannis Antetokounmpo in that 2013 draft (No. 15 overall), details of how bad the Cavs were with talent scouting came to light.

Wojnarowski spoke about the team that night, saying;

"For the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 2013 NBA Draft represented the third time in the decade the franchise landed the number one pick. Those were easy choices. Coronations. Raucous Draft night celebrations. This time, number one felt more like an albatross than a blessing. In a perpetual state of pre-draft crisis, The Cavaliers front office searched out trade scenarios and talked themselves in and out of players. They never stopped hoping for someone to bail them out."

Wojnarowski’s comments were made even more damning when former Phoenix Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough spoke about the draft, and how they were sitting at No. 5, wanting to move to No. 1. McDonough described trying to trade with the Cavs as “sheer lunacy”.

"I believe the deal was the 5th pick and the 30th pick for number one and then we were going to take back Alonzo Gee’s contract, whom they were trying to move to clear cap space. And I think the Cavs seriously considered that…I got a call back from some of the people who worked for Chris (Grant) and said ‘we’re not going to do the deal with you, we’re sticking and keeping #1.’And this is after David Stern had gone up to the podium and said the Cleveland Cavaliers are on the clock, they have five minutes. The guy I talked to in Cleveland said, ‘I don’t know who we’re going to take’. ‘What do you mean you don’t know. You’ve got three minutes left’ or whatever it was at this point.And he said, ‘yeah we’re still talking about it in the room’. If I can sum it up, that draft was sheer lunacy."

The pick of Bennett shows the Cavs had no clue who they needed or wanted. It’s not that surprising the team passed on Victor Oladipo, considering they had just drafted Dion Waiters and Kyrie Irving in back to back drafts, but to pass on Otto Porter Jr. or even Steven Adams? That’s lunacy indeed.

There’s no harm in them passing on Antetokounmpo, as he wasn’t that vaunted of a prospect in 2013, but to pass up on the trade with Phoenix is inexcusable considering the team didn’t even know what to do with the pick. Who knows what happens if Phoenix moves to number one. Maybe because of the draft shakeup, Denver goes with someone else and Rudy Gobert is still there at No. 30 for the Cavs to take with the second pick. Maybe the Cavs are blown away by CJ McCollum and take him early at No. 5.

Or maybe the Cavs end up taking both Antekounmpo and Gobert in the same draft, giving them the most imposing defensive low-post in the history of the NBA.

If only the Cavs had any clue back then. Here’s hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.