Cavs: ESPN NBA mock draft somehow gets everything wrong

The ESPN Mock Draft has the Cleveland Cavs drafting in the top-10 again, and that is not even the worst part about it in our opinion.

The Cleveland Cavs are a team on the rise. As of press time, they’re 10-11 and are not too far out from the return of All-Star forward Kevin Love to the lineup. So the notion that this team, which is already a borderline playoff team, will somehow be so bad they have the odds to land the number two pick in the 2021 NBA DRaft is absolutely absurd.

Granted, they could just miss the playoffs and still land a top pick (the NBA Draft Lottery is broken) but this is a listing of the teams that are based on presumed records. Meaning, the folks at ESPN don’t think this start is for real.

Fair enough. The Cavs are a streaky team at the moment, in part due to some players in the starting-five not playing defense. That’s not just it, however, as Clevland also deals with the fact that unless they’re playing with a lead, they probably aren’t going to win. Closing deficits in basketball is hard enough, but to come back from 10+ points down in the final six minutes of the game without three-point shooting is nearly unheard of.

The Cavs have no three-point shooting. The Cavaliers have big men. The Cavs even have their center of the future, assuming Jarrett Allen is happy in Cleveland.

So why oh why are the Cavs projected to take a center at No. 2?

If you had Jalen Suggs, ok, we’d disagree, but we wouldn’t think you were typing this while at Happy Hour. The Cavs don’t need any more big men. Even if Andre Drummond is traded, the Cavs still wouldn’t need a big man.

They need perimeter play, namely three-point shooting. Right now the best prospect for that is Suggs’ Gonzaga teammate, Cody Kispert. Kispert is a great case for why staying in college can help a prospect. As a freshman, while getting nearly 20 minutes a game, he shot 67% from the free-throw line, and 35% from three. Now, as a senior, he’s playing 30 minutes a game, while shooting 90% from the free-throw line and a whopping 49% from three.

As the Cavaliers are 29th in free-throw accuracy, and 22nd in three-point percentage, why would you want the Cavs to take yet another big-man, when there’s a player that directly addresses its’ two biggest issues?

If the Cavs have a top-pick, or any pick that can net them Kispert, then they need to use it on him.