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| Irving and Waiters have formed a great backcourt duo, could Nerlens Noel be the final piece to a Cavs playoff run? (Credits: Jeff Gross/Getty Images) |
Three summers ago the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise was flipped on its head. Of course, I don't need to go into detail about the who, what, when, where, how and the why. But most importantly, he-who-shall-not-be-named's decision prompted a statement out of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert that elicited overwhelming passions out of Cav fans alike. You know what I'm talking about, "I personally guarantee that the Cavs will win a championship, blah, blah, blah." For the sake of paraphrasing, Gilbert was so angry that he made the kind of statement that he'd love to retract at somewhere down the line. Anyways back to the point, the Cavaliers rebuilding process had to begin immediately.
Following that summer of hell for Cleveland, the Cavs won only 19 games, struggling to find a semblance of identity in the post-LeBron era. Things looked up though, as that awful regular season ended and the playoffs began. First, the Cavs won the lottery for the first time since 2003 when they drafted the man (and savior) that they now hated. Secondly, LeBron's superteam crashed and burn in the NBA Finals. Most importantly, James had a putrid Finals and made a complete fool of himself in a Game 6 interview. Although Dallas did actually lift the Larry O'Brien trophy, there was a figurative one held up in the city of Cleveland. The final wonderful thing that came out of the summer of 2011 was the drafting of Kyrie Irving first overall, who was a risky pick considering he had played only 11 collegiate games before breaking his foot. It didn't matter, the next franchise cornerstone was found.
Now we can fast forward to this summer. The Cavs might not be much better record wise, only winning a combined 46 games in the past two seasons, but their future is extremely bright. Irving has morphed into the best young point guard the game has to offer. I'd even go as far as to say if he played on a contender he'd be considered top-5 maybe even top-3. Cleveland's other first round pick (fourth overall) was Tristan Thompson who took some time to develop but eventually earned himself second team all-rookie honors in 2011. Last year they selected combo guard Dion Waters, who like Thompson slowly developed into a legitimate player (first team all-rookie team this year). Later on in last year's draft, the team picked up big man Tyler Zeller who has morphed into a solid rebounder and low-post defender. These core four guys might not have produced a lot in terms of record sake, but their promise and upside as a whole unit had people excited. Then last night happened.
Call it rigged. Label it Stern's last dance. But Tuesday night's lottery victory for Cleveland could immediately boost them into the playoff picture. It's the second time in three years that the Cavs hold the top pick and it's a sort of "rightfully so" situation. This franchise and fanbase had their hearts ripped out in such a menacing and awful way that they deserved another moment like this. That it was time to bring the Cavaliers back into winning basketball. Or maybe in Stern's eyes, how often we believe he sees it, it was time to fire up the first Cavs-Heat playoff series. Sounds more like it, right?
Who knows what Nerlens Noel will bring, of course that's if they draft Noel. Who knows how healthy Noel's knee is, but I don't see any of their needs being filled by any of the top-5 picks except for Noel. Who knows if Noel is even that good, but we could've say the same thing about Irving's first-overall selection. Scouts know when they see legitimate talent and rarely do they whiff on the first-overall pick (beyond that it's a crap shoot). Noel will be good, but how good will he be? That's the question. He brings supreme athleticism, a polished low-post defensive game and a lot of work to be done offensively. But much like Anthony Davis, you have a seven-foot monster down low that will hopefully clog the interior and, in the future, give you a solid inside-out game.
The Cavaliers can't become a playoff team overnight just by adding Noel and whoever they draft with the 17th overall pick, but last night allowed them to take one giant step toward's that goal. Bringing in Mike Brown will certainly help get the best out of the defensive prospect in Noel, but he as a coach hasn't proved himself to be anything but a successful product of LeBron James. Kyrie Irving also needs to stay healthy. He's only played 110 out of a possible 164 games in his career; hopefully for Cleveland that's just a coincidence. I don't care how good Noel or Waiters become, Irving is the key cog to any Cavalier success going forward.
I can't tell you exactly what the future holds, but it's impressive that the Cavs have built such a monster core of solid young players (with a little outside help) so fast. This team should make the playoffs next year, but should doesn't mean a sure thing. Just ask the Heat two fond years ago.
Cleveland is back...well...at least in theory.
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