Dating back to last off-season, the Cleveland Cavaliers made some aggressive moves in the draft, free agency, and via trades in hopes of surrounding their young core with veteran role players. However, those moves didn’t pan out as management anticipated and the Cavs still finished sixteen games under five-hundred. As a result, they fired their general manager and head coach, Mike Brown. Again.
Luckily, the Cavs struck gold at the NBA Draft Lottery for the third time in four years by winning the number one overall selection. Management now faces the envious dilemma of who to take with that top pick while also trying to re-sign some important free agents or take another stab of adding talent on the free agent market.
Cleveland Cavaliers (33-49 last year)
2014-15 Projected Depth Chart:
C: Anderson Varejao/Tyler Zeller
PF: Tristan Thompson/Anthony Bennett
SF: ^Alonzo Gee/Sergey Karasev/Carrick Felix
SG: Dion Waiters/Matthew Dellavedova/^Scotty Hopson
PG: Kyrie Irving/Jarrett Jack
NBA Free Agents:
SF-Luol Deng (UFA)
C-Spencer Hawes (UFA)
SF-C.J. Miles (UFA)
^SF-Alonzo Gee (TO)
^SG-Scotty Hopson (TO)
2014-15 Team Salary: Approximately $45.1 million
Team Needs:
1. Small Forward:
The Cavs went all in for a three-month rental of Luol Deng who is an unrestricted free agent. Unless Cleveland decides to overpay to keep Deng, the former Duke Blue Devil will likely move on to a winning franchise. Therefore, the Cavs are faced with the task of finding a replacement.
Sitting at number one in the 2014 NBA Draft, there are two great options out there in Duke’s Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins of Kansas. To me, Wiggins is a better fit because of his versatility, upside, and ability to defend the wing. Adding Parker to an already ball-demanding backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters just seems like there wouldn’t be enough ball to go around. If Cleveland ends up taking Joel Embiid with the first pick, they must address this need in free agency.
2. Center:
Anderson Varejao actually managed to stay relatively healthy this past season but is entering the final year of his contract. Plus, the Cavs used a safer approach with him by cutting back on his minutes some and using him more times than not in a reserve role. Tyler Zeller is nothing more than a back-up center at the next level which is why Cleveland will give serious thought to taking Embiid over Wiggins or Parker if Embiid’s back condition doesn’t seem to be a problem.
3. Head Coach:
The hiring of Mike Brown didn’t make any sense last summer and that’s part of the reason Chris Grant lost his job as GM. The Cavs need to find a fresh face who can fix what was, at times, a bit of a troubled locker room. Cleveland was also a rather poor defensive team so whoever gets hired to replace Brown must bring some energy and discipline to that side of the floor.
4. Stop Thinking LeBron is Coming Back:
Not. Gonna. Happen.
OTHER NBA OFF-SEASON TEAM NEEDS PAGES:
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Milwaukee to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the internet (Yup, repeat champ… #humblebrag), and finished with the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft (nearly a three-peat.) You can follow him on Twitter at David_Kmiecik.