I get that, and trust me, I agree on Drummond.
If Muhammad had been in last years draft, I still would have preferred Drummond to him. However, I dont see a big with Drummonds rare potential/nba ready D in this draft enough to pass on Muhammad. As much as I like Len and Noel and think they are swing for the fences kind of guys, I think both are a notch below Anthony Davis and Drummond on potential. Then I think Cody is a safer bet but much lower on star potential than Len and Noel, though I could see the Zellers together being pretty marketable (just about as important as production in todays NBA, which makes me sick).
If we pass on Muhammad as a result of drafting Waiters, it would be an instant replay of passing on Drummond and TRob just because we already had their perfect backup in TT.
Cant do that twice in a row. This and next draft are the last two for this rebuild to set its core with lottery picks of our own. I think we have to go BPA.
I feel like in the 2011 draft with TT, we really felt like we were trying to draft BPA and not positionally. However, in the 2012 draft, I do agree that we may have possibly drafted positionally. However, here are some of my thoughts as to how the Cavs may have been trying to still draft BPA in the 2012 draft with Dion. I think that the Cavs may have been seeing Dion as more of an equal to guys like Lillard (at least in the long run). Dion is about 2 years younger than Lillard, so that has to be taken into account as well. Lillard also would have never been able to have shone here like Dion has the chance to because Lillard wouldn't be able to guard the 2 position, and he wouldn't get enough minutes at PG to really maximize his potential or trade value. It's still to be seen whether or not Dion will become anything like Lillard although, again, Lillard is a decent amount older.
As for worrying about Thomas Robinson, he really hasn't done much of anything yet, and I don't think he will amount to much. I'll take Dion over him no question. At least for now.
As for Drummond, I am seeing him as a steal at 9th, but his concerns were very legitimate. Legitimate enough that 8 teams--teams that consist of dozens of the world's best scouts and people with decades of basketball experience--passed on him. However, Drummond is still getting limited minutes, and he still has a lot of development to do in order to reach his potential. I think that Drummond has the biggest "we really missed out on him" potential out of anyone we passed on. We'll see how Dion develops, and we'll see how Drummond develops. Dion has been showing me enough to think that he can be an all-star shooting guard. The things he has been doing right are hard to teach, and the things that he is weak on right now are more easily fixable. That gives me a lot of hope with him.
I agree though that we need to take BPA in this next draft regardless of who that is. I think Len will be a better player than Zeller. Zeller's lack of strength, severe lack of length, and average athleticism (besides running, which is good) will hurt him. Len may not be quite as talented in the post (yet) as Zeller, but he is showing a lot of promise, and he is already excellent on defense and has elite size at 7'1" (7'5" wingspan). I feel like Len could be like a Roy Hibbert-type player, but better on offense and a little better of a rebounder (closer to 10 rebounds a game or more). I'm almost kinda hoping that Len ends up being the BPA because (1) he's at a more premium of a position than Shabazz, (2) there is no one of huge importance that he would be taking minutes from, and (3) he is a perfect fit into this team, being a guy who can get up and run, play great defense, and score efficiently and out to the midrange, thus spreading the floor for Dion and Kyrie.
I actually think waiters has shown a lot of potential and I'm a fan....but even I wouldn't let him block a BPA pick. We need as much elite talent as we can get. Plus waiters, even though I think he's a good fit at SG, has the skill set to be an elite combo guard 6th man.
The thing I'm afraid of, though, is that, if we move Dion to 6th man, he won't become worth keeping and actually become valuable to other teams than he is to us kinda like what happened with Harden. I know OKC came out ok in that situation (still to be seen), but who is to say we'd be able to do the same? It would be hard to have a max-contract 6th man if he ends up at an all-star level.
