CLEVELAND, Ohio — With a wine-colored blazer draped around his shoulders, general manager Koby Altman walked into his hotel room at the Four Seasons Chicago to set up for the virtual NBA Draft Lottery — the biggest night on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offseason schedule.
Without a reversal of fortune from the last three years, when they dropped to eighth, fifth and fifth, it would be a disappointing repeat, choosing from a lesser pool of players outside the range of potential cornerstones.
In 2020, they weren’t in range for LaMelo Ball or Anthony Edwards — first and second in Rookie of the Year voting, respectively.
The front office made the most of those spots, snagging Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Isaac Okoro — three members of the promising Core Four.
Call Philadelphia about Ben Simmons and try to revive his diminished value? See if New Orleans is willing to deal Brandon Ingram? What about Bradley Beal? Gauge Boston’s interest in a roster shakeup with Brad Stevens now in charge? Is Toronto going to stand pat or blow it up? Any chance Minnesota, which lost its selection to Golden State, moves Karl-Anthony Towns? Would the Los Angeles Clippers make changes if they fall to Phoenix in the Western Conference finals, leading to Paul George becoming available? Some of those options are more realistic than others.
When you look at our young core, we’re in good shape from a talent perspective and we’re going to have another large injection of talent coming soon.
If that’s the direction that we want to go with that ammunition, we can certainly get in some conversations.
After finishing 22-50, tied with Oklahoma City for the league’s fourth-worst record, the Cavs lost a pre-lottery coin flip with the Thunder, pushing them down to the fifth slot.
The percentages pointed to better odds of drafting outside the top 4 and the possibility of dropping down to ninth existed.
We might have to do some internal adjustment to how we gauge what we wanted to do right out of the gate, but we still want to supplement that four that we talked about.
You can’t say with 100 percent certainty that someone is going to be an All-Star, but when you go through drafts the first thing you are looking for is that superstar.
Bickerstaff, director of scouting Brandon Weems, senior director of basketball operations Andrae Patterson and a few more — gathered with their trinkets for a private dinner at nearby LuxBar.
But in this case, with this top-heavy class that has four highly-regarded prospects that stand above the rest, picking third is still a victory.
One of those bowties that arrived in a package at Altman’s hotel room earlier in the morning had a piece of the championship hardwood.
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