Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has a column out ranking the players available in this year's draft. I thought his comments on the overall quality of the draft are interesting.
Is this draft as strong as everyone thought entering this season?
It depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re a fan of a team that projects to have a top-five pick, you should be extremely excited. I wrote in the preseason within the first mock draft that five players were tracking better than any prospect in the 2020 iteration. That remains true to an extent. Indeed, I would take five players over Anthony Edwards at No. 1 in last year’s class. But two of those players, to me, would be in a similar boat as LaMelo Ball, who was my No. 1 overall player. This class is extremely top-heavy, with Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jonathan Kuminga, Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs making up an elite top tier of talent every team should be legitimately excited about. I’ll do something deeper on this at a later date, but in the eyes of many evaluators with whom I’ve spoken, this top five stacks up favorably against any top five of the last decade.
Now, if you have a mid-tier lottery pick or later selections, I think the jury remains out. Right now, I wouldn’t say this class is tracking particularly weakly in that regard, but there is more uncertainty than ever. Teams, coaches and agents all have very different takes about what the next tier looks like.
As of now the Cavs are tied for the fourth worst record but that could change if they continue to play as they have the last three games, not to mention the second half schedule being easier (21 of 36 games against teams with losing records) and the expected return of Love and Nance.