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The NBA finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat is in full swing, but the 28 other teams are looking ahead to the best way of improving their own hopes of making the finals – the NBA Draft.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are going into the 2014 NBA draft with the number 1 overall pick.
This will be their second number 1 pick in a row and third in four years. They have also had the fourth pick twice. Drafts yield different talent and drafting is not an exact science but Cleveland have squandered most of the picks they have received, and in potentially the deepest draft in recent history they need to get this pick right.
Previously they have drafted with the idea of putting pieces together to fit around LeBron James in an attempt to lure him back. Cleveland needs to suspend this idea. The priority now is getting a team together that can keep Kyrie Irving, their current star player, in the state of Ohio.
After the disastrous season in which LeBron took his talents to South Beach, the Cavaliers ended up with the first and fourth overall picks. The Cavs took Irving from Duke University with the first pick and he has turned into a top-level point guard, with a knack of scoring in clutch situations. His only drawback is a tendency to pick up injuries.
Heading into the 2014 Draft, there seems to be three players separating themselves as potential number 1 overall picks. Joel Embiid is a 7 foot centre out of Kansas, Jabari Parker is a 6’9 forward out of Duke, and Andrew Wiggins a 6’8 wing player also from Kansas.
Wiggins is a spectacular athlete and has the potential to be an elite scorer and wing defender. Parker has the size and strength to excel on the wing and has enough physicality to play as a stretch power forward, which would bring an extra dimension to any offense.
That aside, the pick is Joel Embiid. He is a very fluid athlete, has an expanding offensive game and has an incredibly high ceiling. He is coming off a back injury which may concern a few teams, but a player of his calibre and skill set is a risk Cleveland should take.
Having an elite interior player in Embiid and a perimeter talent like Irving are the makings of a good young core. Barring injuries and some diligent recruiting during free agency, this team can certainly make a run at the playoffs in a fairly weak eastern conference.
Irving can spend all the time he wants telling the media that Cleveland is where he wants to be, but everyone knows he wants to be on a team playing in June, and he doesn’t care where that team happens to be.
Now is the time to fashion a new identity around Kyrie Irving instead of trying in vain to appeal to LeBron James. If the Cavs don’t act soon they could end up losing them both.
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