Cleveland Cavaliers: Trade of No. 1 Overall Pick Worth Exploring

Nerlens Noel of Kentucky is considered to be the best of a draft that has been called “historically weak” by one NBA general manager. The Cleveland Cavaliers have the first pick in next month’s annual talent drawing. Photo Credit: SportsAngle.com

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, a draft with a talent pool that has been characterized by one NBA general manager as “historically weak.”

Could the Cavaliers be better served by attempting to deal the pick for some talent that is ready to perform at the NBA level right now?

In February, a general manager—speaking on the condition of anonymity because of rules prohibiting front-office personnel from commenting publicly on draft prospects—told SNY.tv:

"It’s a historically weak draft that, as a result, you’re going to see a lot more guys putting their name in knowing they’ll go higher in this draft, even though they may not be ready, just because next year’s class has such incredible depth that they could actually play better and improve [as players] and drop their draft status next year."

The GM said there were six players from the potential 2014 draft pool that he would take ahead of anyone in this year’s draft.

Most draft analysts still have Kentucky big man Nerlens Noel as the top available talent, even though he missed the end of his freshman year due to a torn ACL.

Cleveland has a need for strong players on the interior. Anderson Varejao was leading the NBA in rebounding at 14.4 boards per game in the early going this season. But Varejao only played 25 games before missing the rest of the season with a blood clot in his lung.

The Cavaliers not only have the No. 1 overall selection. Cleveland also holds the No. 19 pick in the first round as well as the No. 31 overall choice to start round 2.

ESPN.com’s Bradford Doolittle explored (premium subscription required) a couple of potential trade scenarios involving the bounty of draft picks that might be worth considering.

Scenario 1: Cleveland Cavaliers trade Varejao and the No. 19 and No. 31 overall picks to the Chicago Bulls for Luol Deng and Marquis Teague.

Deng’s future in Chicago has been a hot topic for awhile. ESPN’s Tim Legler explored that issue here:

The positives for this potential deal, according to Doolittle, involve a potential push to bring back LeBron James in 2014 (provided he exercises his early termination option). Deng would be a solid veteran to add to the rotation with youngsters Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson and Tyler Zeller while that core of four players is still playing out their rookie contracts.

Varejao is three years removed from his last full season—he played only 31 games in 2010-11 and 25 each in 2011-12 and 2012-13—and at age 30, isn’t likely to get either better or healthier. Thompson and Zeller could fill the 4 and 5 spots, respectively, while top overall pick Noel gets a season to get better physically and develop NBA-level skills. Deng gives Irving a veteran option on the offensive end while bringing perimeter defensive ability to a team that was woeful on the defensive end (Cleveland allowed 106.9 points per 100 possessions, tied with the Portland Trail Blazers for 26th in the NBA).

Teague, meanwhile, provides needed depth at the point behind Irving and, looking ahead a year to a potential James return, LeBron excelled while playing the 4 this season and could team with Deng and Thompson in a smaller lineup or could move to the 3, with Deng playing the 2, if the Cavs wanted to go big.

For Chicago, it would be a $5 million savings between the salaries of Deng and Varejao and the Bulls could use its amnesty exemption to clear Carlos Boozer’s contract from the salary cap. Should Chicago buy out Richard Hamilton’s deal, it could give the Bulls enough cap flexibility to keep free agents Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli while using picks 19, 20 and 31 in the draft to flesh out the roster.

Scenario 2: Cleveland Cavaliers trade Waiters, Zeller and the No. 1 overall pick to the Sacramento Kings for DeMarcus Cousins.

On the one hand, Cousins is as talented a young big as there is in the NBA today. On the other hand, he’s been a nightmare from a consistency and maturity standpoint.

But Cousins is a known commodity, whereas Noel is anyone’s guess at this point and Noel’s offensive upside might not even be close to where Cousins already is as an offensive force.

Cousins’ tantalizing talent is on display in this collection of his top plays from this season:

This trade would allow Cleveland to look at someone such as Kansas’ Jeff Withey at the No. 19 spot in the draft to come in and back up Cousins. The downside of this deal, however, is the loss of Waiters—an All-Rookie selection who averaged 14.7 points in just 28.8 minutes per game this season. Waiters and Irving showed signs of being able to develop into an elite backcourt tandem if allowed to develop together.

In any event, Cleveland might be better served to look another direction as it tries to build on the core of young assets it has already assembled. I see Noel, at best, as a Shawn Bradley sort of player—a guy who will get you two or three blocks a game, but who will struggle because of his lack of bulk to become an effective rebounder or scorer in the rugged NBA environment.

As the NBA game continues to evolve into one oriented more toward the perimeter, I’m not sure a classic defense-first, offense-occasionally big man can translate into long-term success, particularly not when such a player would bring with him the pressures and expectations associated with being the top selection in the draft. The Cleveland Cavaliers might be better off going another direction.