Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Collin Sexton and Darius Garland with their top picks the past two years, a new report indicates that the team may choose another guard in LaMelo Ball when the 2020 draft takes place.
Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com took part in a Friday radio interview on Cleveland radio station 92.3 The Fan and indicated (at the 11:15 mark) that the Cavaliers’ choice will be guided simply by choosing the best player available.
“The sense that I get is that they have a top tier of guys and it’s three of them. It’s James Wiseman, Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball,” Fedor said. “And I think no matter what the Cavs do, they’re not going to let fit and position drive this decision. They’re going to take a bunch of different factors and they’re going cluster them together and weight them. But they’re not going to say, ‘Because we drafted Darius Garland last year and Collin Sexton the year before, LaMelo Ball is out.’ They’re not going to do that. They don’t feel like they’re in a position to do that.”
If the Cavaliers do end up choosing Ball, they would no doubt be inundated with questions about finding enough playing time for not only him but Sexton and Garland as well.
The fact that the Cavaliers need help at other positions as they continue their rebuild would also leave them open to criticism about the wisdom of this approach
Ultimately, drafting Ball could lead to a trade involving one or more of their guards.
The reality is that the Cavaliers need as much talent infusion as possible to get back to being not only playoff participants but also championship contenders.
Bolstering the team with great talent in whatever form it takes appears to be the route the team is taking right now.
One off-the-court issue unique to Ball is that the Cavaliers would likely have to deal on a regular basis with comments and second-guessing from his bombastic father LaVar.
However, if the younger Ball is as talented as is being projected, the Cavaliers sound as if they’d be willing to deal with that situation in exchange for improvement on the court.
