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I don't recall any specific comments about Avdija. However, Fedor said this in his column from a week ago:Did they have any comment on Avdija? Maybe they assumed he wouldn't make it to five. It looks like the takeaway from this is the cavs would go Toppin in this scenario. Personally i think we still gotta take BPA and let the chips fall. I actually have no idea who that is from looking at all these guys. Could it be Okoro? Halliburton? I'm afraid Toppin is just going to be a complete mess defensively. From what i have seen his lateral movement is slow. I tend to lean towards Okongwu. I think he's already there defensively and he can improve offensively. I can see the pick could go in many different directions and I won't complain about any of them,,,hopefully they take the right guy.
If Wiseman, considered one of the top players in the class alongside LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards, slips to No. 5, he would be the pick. The Cavs would be thrilled…Bigs are the most accessible commodities in the NBA. Nonetheless, the future of the center spot is murky at best, pushing it higher up the priority list. Given that, I still think the most likely draft pick is a big (Toppin, Okongwu) or wing (Deni Avdija, Devin Vassell, Isaac Okoro). I get the sense the Cavs will ignore guards -- unless Ball or Edwards unexpectedly drop or someone wows them during the interview process.
I agree with the posts about not taking Toppin. The Cavs were historically bad defensively last year. I read somewhere recently that only one playoff team last year finished in the bottom third of the defensive rankings and that was a team with a high-powered offense (maybe Portland?). The point being that a really bad defensive team has very little chance of making the playoffs. So why take another bad defender to add to the ones we already have?
I've read that the biggest need is a good perimeter defender who can also shoot from deep. No question that would be a big help. But then the Cavs would be locked into committing to Drummond long term, right? And there's a question of whether you can win in the modern NBA with a traditional post player like that. The Pistons never won with him and practically gave him away.