First of all, thanks to sticking to the points I actually made. If you check my posting history in the draft threads, I actually like Haliburton quite a bit as a player and he should definitely go in the top ten in my book. So when every criticism anyone has made about his game gets looped in with my opinion, it is very off-putting. Throwing comments in like "Even if I haven't watch Haliburton" become off-putting. Frankly, it might be why you aren't seeing as many discussions around here.
Just so we're clear, I never said anything like "Even if I haven't watch Haliburton." Maybe you didn't explicitly knock his physical tools, but that was certainly implicit when you compared him to Delly. I don't find that line of criticism very compelling...he has long strides in the open court and regularly makes plays above the rim. He may not be elite by NBA standards, but he's a far, far better athlete than anyone we've had at PG lately.
Your assessment of Cavs forwards does not match mine. Teams that are winning do so with multiple players who can defend multiple positions. I have the Western Conference Final game on and both teams have four small forwards playing big minutes, and that's with one of the few really skilled centers on the court. I would argue that through trades and the draft, the franchise has acquired several mediocre playmakers and rim protectors while ignoring forwards who can do a little of everything.
I don't entirely disagree with this. Improving defensive versatility is a must. Haliburton isn't the best option there, but he's pretty good. He should be able to guard both backcourt positions right away, with the potential to guard 1-3 down the road. As for acquiring several mediocre playmakers and rim protectors...well...sunk cost fallacy, right? Those are still big needs for us regardless of how we spent past picks, and we'd see major on-court performance if we actually manage to fill one or both of those holes.
This process culminated in a season where Alphonzo McKinnie was forced into a bigger role than he should have and Cedi finished second in total minutes played with very inefficient results. Point a finger at Windler's injury, but the really good teams have four. We might have two.
I'm hopeful Nance plays more at small forward and on the perimeter without being exposed. I don't know if his minutes at the three are for real since he never did it before, only did it a short time, and did it out of desperation.
I agree that McKinnie's gotta go, but disagree about Cedi being "very inefficient." By what measure? Unspectacular, sure, but he knocked down his 3's and maintained his usual tidy AST:TO ratio. If we want to contend then yeah we need a whole lot more quality depth there, but we have to take a step out of the basement first, and that means solving more urgent problems.
Again, I do like Haliburton if the Cavs were picking somewhere lower, maybe 6-12. I even had some interest in Ball before the lottery. Why are a few spots a big deal? They really aren't, but he is a year and a half older than some of these other choices, and his body still needs a year or two of development. The Cavs aren't sure if they are thin at guard, and this guy is really too thin to do much more than be a guard only until he fills out, there are a few players I like more than him. That's it.
The youngest wing on the table is Okoro, who's a whole 11 months younger than Haliburton...not quite negligible, but not a huge difference either. And while he's not yet a finished product physically, that doesn't mean that he won't be effective right away. As I've mentioned before, SGA came into the league with a nearly identical physique and his defense translated pretty much immediately.
I also don't think the logjam on the perimeter is as extreme as it's made out to be. Assuming KPJ (once again) plays about half his minutes at SF, you have 5 men (Sexton, Haliburton, Garland, KPJ, Cedi) in the regular rotation on the perimeter. That's pretty standard. Of course, you could replace Haliburton with a wing, lose some playmaking and add some defensive versatility. But if Haliburton is the bigger talent, then that's not an enticing tradeoff in my mind.
And again, how did this conversation really begin? I wasn't high on a trade package that sells low on Garland to bring in Oubre, who isn't that great after five years in the league. I thought we would talk more about that.
Sorry, I admittedly got hung up on the Delly comparison, which I strongly disagree with. I'm not super keen on moving Garland even if we do draft a PG, as we do need a PG to come off the bench and why not role the dice on a young guy with potential to improve? I just don't think Garland should start again this season. Having a subpar PG in the starting lineup holds everyone back.