Can the Cleveland Cavaliers DRAFT a HIDDEN GEM?! | NBA Draft Names to Know! | Looking back at 2016!

Can the Cleveland Cavaliers DRAFT a HIDDEN GEM?! | NBA Draft Names to Know! | Looking back at 2016!

on today’s show the NBA draft is a week away the Cavs don’t have a pick in the first round but they’ve got two in the second round who are some names to know when that time gets here we’re going to talk about a few of those guys plus the Cavs make an assistant coaching hire we’ve got an anniversary to talk about that’s all straight ahead on today’s edition of Locked on Cavs you are Locked on Cavs your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day what’s up everybody my name is Danny Cunningham you might know me from my time covering the Cleveland Cavaliers places like my Substack The Inside Shot Cleveland Magazine 923 The Fan and a number of other stops along the way i want to say thank you to you for making Lock on Cavs your first listen today and every day you can find the show anywhere you get your podcasts Apple Spotify anywhere else drop us a fivestar rating leave us a nice review be a friend tell a friend about Lock on Cavs make sure you’re subscribed make sure a friend is subscribed as well and if you’re watching this show on YouTube as we get started here do me a favor hit that thumbs up button for me click subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss the latest lockdown on Caps content a proud part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day today’s episode brought to you by Game Time download the Game Time app create an account and use code locked on NBA that is L O C D O NA for $20 off your first purchase again download the Game Time app create an account use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase the NBA draft is one week from yesterday that is when the first round will take place of course the Cleveland Cavaliers do not have a first round draft pick they have two picks in the second round their first pick at number 49 overall their second pick at number 58 overall if you are interested their first round pick is now with the Phoenix Suns it’s the number 29th overall pick by virtue of the Cavs having the second best regular season record in the NBA that was of course traded to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Donovan Mitchell i think that was worth it and then the Jazz traded that pick this year to the Phoenix Suns because they saw the writing on the wall and said “Hey the Cavs are pretty good we don’t want this pick we would rather have a Phoenix pick in the future we’ll give you a Cavs pick right now in exchange for that so that is why the Cavs are not going to be selecting on next Wednesday unless they make a trade into the first round which as of right now and of course you can never say never on these things but as of right now that’s not something I would anticipate happening i’m not sure that they’re going to make two second round picks but as of right now they have two second round picks and I am not somebody that is a big college basketball guy i spend most of my nights in the fall winter and spring watching NBA games whether the Cavs are on or not I’m watching games every single night so I don’t necessarily have a ton of bandwidth for college basketball that said I do watch some of the tournament i know a little bit about these guys not a ton about these guys but what I have done for today’s episode is sort of go through some of the mock drafts that are out there and not everybody has complete two round mocks there are a lot of great mock drafts out there um I know the guys over at NBA big board do a great job however they only have a first round knockout so I couldn’t necessarily rely upon them places like ESPN The Athletic Yahoo and some other places do have two two round mock drafts out so we’re going to go through those um and I wanted to start with ESPN’s because their latest mock draft and they did have a top 100 player r rating as well too um but they had the Cavs making both picks and I do think one of them is pretty interesting because it’s a name that we know uh the number 49 overall pick which again the first pick that the Cavs had ESPN had the Cavs selecting Latislav Golden a center from the University of Michigan um he is a Russian center 7 feet tall certainly a big body and I think that there’s going to be a little bit of a theme here as we go through this list because it’s not necessarily that you are expecting these guys to be replacements right now but I do think that with second round picks and even with first round picks I think you’re drafting for the future more so than the immediate and the Cavs are in a spot right now where they are drafting for maybe some future help i say maybe because second round picks very very rarely pan out um the number 58 overall selection espn had the Cavs picking Ryan Nemhard a point guard out of Gonzaga why does that name sound familiar because Ryan Nemhard is the younger brother of Andrew Nemhard who of course we all know um as a member of the Indiana Pacers and I’m sure for Cavs fans he’s been in maybe a handful of nightmares that you may have had over the last month or so since the Cavs were eliminated from the playoffs because Andrew had such a fantastic series against the Cavs and maybe hasn’t been necessarily quite as good lately in the NBA finals as he was against the Cavs but he is somebody that was a a I believe a four-year player at Gonzaga his brother also went to Gonzaga do like when you’ve got guys I do like the bloodline aspect of things where you already know that somebody in the family and this has I this doesn’t mean that Ryan’s going to pan out obviously but I do like that you just kind of know okay that family kind of understands it the family kind of gets it I do think that is certainly a good sign um moving on to the Athletic latest mock draft had Kobe Bray a wing out of Kentucky going into the cabs at number 49 overall um I do like so far that we’ve done three different players from two different mock drafts we’ve had three different positions because the Cavs and I do think that you can sort of anytime a wing is picked and there are a couple of other wings that we’re going to bring up here in a second anytime a wing is picked I think you kind of look at it and say okay you can just never have too many good guys at this position and of course I I feel like every guy I talk about I need to reiterate like the hit rate on late second round picks is extremely low it just it is I I mean there are not very many guys and of course there are guys that do hit but there are not very many guys selected between 45 and 60 that go on to even be rotation players like if the first round and I think even when you get past five it sort of becomes a crapshoot in the draft and of course the Cavs have made some good selections in that area they’ve made good selections certainly in front of that area evan Moley comes to mind but the the further away you get from number one and this of course not rocket science but the f further you get away from number one the more of a crapshoot it gets and I think it becomes this way more in the NBA than any other draft um the other guy they had going at number 58 was Ding Pate a guard played in the G-League with Mexico City Capitan he to me is a guy I’ve watched a little bit of i’ve not watched all of these guys i’m familiar with some of them i’ve not watched all of them but I have watched a little bit of G-League stuff and he is I think kind of what the second round should be about in this spot i have no idea if he’s going to be good or not i don’t think anybody does he’s a 19-year-old but he’s a crazy athlete he to me is sort of the guy that if you get him in the right type of setting if you get him in a good developmental system which I want to talk about that with the Cavs in coming up in a minute on today’s show but if you get him in that type of system can you mold this guy into an NBA rotation player i think there’s a chance you can doesn’t mean it’s a lock it’s far from it again mocked at number 58 overall but I do look at it and say okay that is the type of guy that you should be taking a swing on i thought the pick that they made with Ammani Bates the exact kind of pick that the Cavs should have been making in that spot now Ammani hasn’t necessarily panned out um I think there’s still probably a little bit of time before I’m ready to write him off as an NBA player that said I would be not surprised if Ammani Bates is not with the Cavs organization next year i don’t know if he will be but I would not be surprised if he isn’t and I just think that that’s the type of guy though a high upside guy and maybe it doesn’t pan out maybe it never never clicks the way that you thought it would doesn’t mean that they’re a bad basketball player just means it’s really really difficult to find guys that are NBA rotation players it’s really really hard to do um Yahoo had Elijah Martin a wing out of Florida going to the Cavs at number 49 overall and Isizen Almansa a big from the Perth Wildcats of the NBL of course that probably sounds familiar because as we know Luke Travers played in the NBL so I think we’re a little familiar with NBL teams but those are the guys that I have seen mocked to the Cavs so far there are some other guys too that are in the range the Cavs are picking um John Tani guard out of Wisconsin thought of as a very good shooter we’ll see what he translates into the NBA he is somebody that could be somewhere between 49 and 58 and RJ Lewis Jr from St john’s um I think he’s a wing that does a lot of really good stuff in the limited St john’s action that I watched which was essentially the NCAA tournament um they really really struggled to shoot the basketball and I think he was part of the problem like I think if he were a better jump shooter that St john’s team probably would have been maybe a little bit more successful in uh the NCAA tournament they may have gone a little bit further than they actually did but just kind of to wrap up this thought before I move on to the assistant coach that the Cavs made drafting at 48 and 59 as I’ve mentioned is a crapshoot the thought when making these picks should be for the Cavs and and really any organization this isn’t necessarily a Cavs specific thought so much as it is a an NBA developmental thought just like how teams develop guys and some teams are certainly better than others and I think that the Cavs have had some success here you look at somebody like Dean Wade who was undrafted started on a two-way contract craig Porter Jr undrafted started on a two-way contract sam Merrill a guy that they developed through the G-League yes he was the 60th overall pick in the draft by the Milwaukee Bucks a few years ago but he bounced around and and ultimately the Cavs got him because they selected him with the number one overall pick in the G-League draft after Sam dealt with some ankle injuries for a couple of years so I do wonder if that I don’t wonder that should be the plan the plan should be okay we find a guy that he’s going to spend most of this year if not all of this year with the Cleveland Charge he could be on a two-way contract i think that certainly should be in play um like I said I’m not I would not be surprised if Monty Bates is elsewhere next season um and that would open up at least one two-way slot i would certainly expect Naquan Tomlin to be back on his two-way considering that he is on a two-year two-way contract and we’ll see about Luke Travers but I would think that if the Cavs find a guy they like here they’ll be able to open up a two-way slot for one of them and of course being the second apron the Cavs can sign a second round draft pick using an exception there that is one of the very few exceptions that they have access to but these guys should be looked at as maybe they can help out in the future maybe they can be the eighth or ninth or tenth guy two years from now if that happens that is a massive success if that happens that would be something worth celebrating that would be a big deal that would be a real feather in the cap of the player development staff that the Cavs have and I do think one of the things that the Cavs do really well is they care about player development they care that these guys are getting better and I think it’s a very easy misconception to look at and just say player development is only for organizations and teams that are not currently good when you’re good you shouldn’t have to worry about player development i think that couldn’t be further from the truth i think that no matter where you are at in your team building cycle and the Cavs are at the point now where they are competing for a championship no matter where you are at in your team building cycle this should be a thing where you want to keep getting better because that is how you remain sustainable you don’t become a sustainable organization you’re not a sustainable roster unless you can develop players that’s why hitting on somebody like a Craig Porter Jr is a big deal that’s why I think it’s pretty important to the Cavs success maybe not this year but maybe two years from now that Jaylen Tyson is an NBA quality rotation player these things are important because you only get so many ways to make moves you can’t really afford to miss on draft picks and of course you can afford to miss on number 49 or number 58 it’s much different than the 20th overall pick which Jaylen Tyson was last year but you have to be an organization that is not only majoring in winning basketball games and competing in the playoffs you have to be an organization that is majoring in player development too that is something that really does matter and I think that the Cavs really do have have their right foot forward as far as that goes and they made a higher on Wednesday today’s Wednesday yes Wednesday as I record this it’s Wednesday it’s Thursday as you’re listening to this but Wednesday they made a hire that really fits that bill we’re going to talk about Jawad Williams coming home next right here on Locked Uncast today’s show brought to you by Ollie Pop ollie Pop a new kind of soda a new kind of pop right i am somebody who I I enjoy pop i do it’s I’ve always enjoyed it there’s sometimes nothing like it but it also is not something that you look at and say “Yeah this is the best possible thing I could be putting in my body right now.” No typically you’re not doing that sometimes you’re doing that for the taste well with Olop you can be getting the best of both worlds because one of the things that I like aside from the taste because this vintage cola Olip it tastes like the vintage cola taste that you are looking for which is personally my favorite i got a few flavors sent to me um this is the one that is is my favorite i got the apple one too which is good but it’s not as good as the vintage cola but I look at this can and one of the things I like about it supports digestive health that matters to me i want to try and be a little bit healthier i think you’ve probably heard me say this a number of different times with Olly Pop I can be getting the taste of that vintage cola that I enjoy so much while also getting the health benefits that I need so if you want to be like that you can get a free can of Olop just buy any two cans in store and they will reimburse you for one of them head to drinklyop.comlockdownnba to claim your free can and to find Olipop near you again that is drinklyop.com/lockdonba thank you again for making Lockdown Cavs your first listen today and every day like I said earlier you can find the show anywhere you get your podcast Apple Spotify anywhere else make sure you drop us a fivestar rating and leave us a nice review as well the Cavs were in the news a little bit on Wednesday as they hired Jawad Williams to join Kenny Atinson’s staff as an assistant coach of course Williams did play for the Cleveland Cavaliers during his playing career uh he played much more professionally overseas than he did in the NBA the only NBA experience I believe he had was with the Cavs he played a little bit what was at that time the NBA DLeague as well and then spent a long time playing professionally overseas he is a northeast Ohio when he played at St edward High School in Lakewood and I do think it’s a really cool thing to have a little bit of local flavor on the coaching staff i know that that doesn’t actually matter that doesn’t help the the team win basketball games but I do think it’s a really cool story to have somebody that went to high school here that is from here that is a Northeast Ohioan that played for the team be able to come back and be part of the staff i think that’s a really cool thing and I do think too I talked a lot in the first segment about player development but in Williams’s previous role he was on the staff with the Sacramento Kings under Mike Brown who of course was fired during the season in Sacramento makes sense because Jawad Williams played for Mike Brown when he was in Cleveland but Williams also in addition to being an assistant coach in in Sacramento he held the director of player development title and player development is something the Cavs care about it is something I think every NBA team should care about so bringing on somebody that is that has that player development experience I do think is a really good thing i think having a former NBA player even if it is not a player as decorated or as experienced as the guy that I kind of think he’s going to slide into the role of Demari Carol I do still think it’s a good thing to have anytime that you can have somebody that spends time playing in the NBA on your coaching staff i think it is a good sign um the Cavs of course are not going to be done hiring assistant coaches i still think that this is a hire that I do think you can look at and say this is the guy they’re bringing on to replace Deamari Carol um I don’t think that Jawad Williams is necessarily somebody that should be thought of as the replacement for Jordan but I think this is a good hire i think the player development stuff matters and of course he does not have an extensive resume as a coach but he played professionally for a very long time and I think that coming from coaching under Mike Brown I think is a good thing i know that it didn’t work out for him in Sacramento i think that probably says a lot more about Sacramento than it says about Mike Brown but I think that Mike Brown is a good head coach to have some assistant coaching and player development experience under we I don’t know what Jawad Williams is going to ultimately be able to bring to this coaching staff i don’t think anybody can tr truly tell you what he’s going to bring until we actually see him get to know him a little bit more but I do think it’s a good thing again the player development stuff is something that when you’re looking to fill these behind the bench roles and that’s what I think this is when you’re looking to fill that having guys that have experience and player development that have the ability to help guys get better because if you’re not getting better you’re not doing enough and I look at the guys at the end of the bench for the Cavs that they need to continue to get better because at some point whether it’s this year next year further off into the future the Cavs are going to need those guys to make significant impacts if they want to be a sustainable organization at a championship level because you can’t be in the Second Apron forever as I’ve said many times on this show I expect the Cavs to be a second apron team this year after that who knows but I expect them to this year but they can’t be there forever and because they can’t be there forever they’re going to at some point have have to cut salary in some way or another and by doing that they’re going to have to replace that stuff with guys that are cheaper with guys that are a little bit unproven with guys that they have developed internally so making a player development focused hire I think for the Cavs could be something that is looked at as a good thing and I’m very excited to see what Jawad Williams can bring to Kenny Atinson’s staff as a member of it as an assistant coach and we’ll see if he has a player development title as well of course today is June 19th we all know what happened on June 19th we’re going to talk about the Cavs beating the Warriors in game seven of the 2016 Finals just for a little bit next right here on Locked on Cavs today’s show is brought to you by Game Time there’s nothing like the NBA playoffs which could be ending tonight i don’t know we’ll see the intensity buzzer beaters fans losing their minds it’s the kind of atmosphere that you want to experience live but there are other things that have that sort of atmosphere certainly some baseball games do football games do maybe not losing your minds but I think there’s a pretty big um show that is in town that maybe you want to see while it is in Cleveland i don’t know if you want to go see it i don’t know if I’m going to go see it but I do know if I do go see it the way I’m going to get into the door is with Game Time because Game Time makes it fast and easy to get seats for the biggest events and prices on the app actually drop closer to the start plus killer last minute deals panoramic seat views and something very important to me no surprise fees game time is a total game changer if you’re trying to get in the door whatever event it is comedy theater concerts football baseball basketball whatever it is Game Time has you covered so take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time download the Game Time app create an account and use code locked on NBA that is L O C K D O NA for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply again create an account redeem code locked on NBA for $20 off download the Game Time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed so today is June 19th and June 19th will always be a day that Cleveland Cavaliers fans and Clevelanders really look at and just always will rever and they should and I think there is a part of me that thinks that we don’t in Cleveland do enough to celebrate that championship because that’s the only one we have for a really really really really long time i’m 31 years old that is obviously the only one I have seen and chances are if you are listening to this show or if you are watching this show on YouTube just chances are that’s the only championship you’ve seen now there are some of you that maybe aren’t lucky enough to have been around in 1964 when the Browns won a title i wasn’t but for the most part most of us have only seen this and every time this day comes around I’m sort of reminded about what that felt like and I’m not at the point now where I’m I’m certainly I think more journalist than fan at this point um as somebody that’s in the locker room that’s somebody that goes to all these games that covers them that that has journalistic integrity um I’m not somebody that like I don’t consider myself to be a diehard Cavs fan but at one point I certainly was um and this was I I don’t know if I would say the peak of it but this is kind of the moment that I look at and just that game is one that you’re always going to remember where you were you’re always going to remember who you were watching it with and there are very few moments we get like that just as sports fans right because there are so many games and there are certainly games that I could tell you what I was thinking during them or how I felt watching it but those games aren’t super common and I don’t know if there is a game that I could probably tell you more about who I was with or what I felt than game seven of 2016 because it didn’t feel great for most of it i I mean watching th those Cavs teams play those Warriors teams was I think just like from a fan experience it was terrifying because you always felt as if the Cavs were or just watching the Warriors play anybody because of course if you were a Cavs fan then you just did not like the Warriors and you didn’t want the Warriors to to beat anybody i think you probably felt this way watching them play the Thunder in the conference finals that year but you were always watching through like this lens of terror as if the Warriors were just going to be able to at any given moment go on a 90-0 run and that would be that it felt as if watching those games the Cavs were always in this danger zone of the game being over and it was a terrifying feeling as if and that game certainly had some of that but watching the Cavs overcome that particularly at the start of the quart third quarter with J.R smith doing J.R smith things like that is something that I think will always make him beloved in this town and it should and watching what LeBron was able to do in that game with a game seven triple double after going 41 points in game five 41 points in game six i to my for my money I’ve not seen three more incredible impressive basketball games strung together with that sort of importance on them um coming back from down three games to one something that they are the only team in NBA history to do in the NBA Finals I think is a really cool thing um and I I just I think it is an awesome time to reflect if you’ve got a second today i think today is a really good day especially with the season potentially just as a whole ending tonight game six between the Pacers and the Thunder in Indiana where the Thunder can close out that series if you’ve got a minute or two today um go back pull it up on YouTube when you’re done watching this video if you’re watching on YouTube just go back and watch the final three minutes and 39 seconds of game seven and try and remember what you felt like because that was it it it it felt like you couldn’t breathe the whole time and I remember LeBron was fouled on a three-pointer made all three free throws made a three-pointer and then Klay Thompson made a layup pretty quickly at the other end with the Steph Curry behind the back pass that went out of bounds happening in between that whole sequence there but from that point on nobody scored until Kyrie hit his three-pointer from the right wing and it felt like for those three minutes and 39 seconds you couldn’t breathe you you didn’t feel good and I don’t know how Warriors fans felt but I can’t imagine they felt very good either because it felt as if a I would imagine it felt as if a 73 and9 season was just collapsing and and stalling out and withering on the vine in front of your eyes and for Cavs fans it certainly felt like a they’re so close to completing this incredible comeback against the greatest regular season team of all time but it also felt like if one thing goes wrong it’s all going to go away and obviously it didn’t go perfectly for the Cavs because they couldn’t score either but LeBron’s block of that Andre Guidow layup is to me the greatest basketball play I’ve ever seen uh Kevin Love being able to stop Steph Curry and then I believe it was LeBron grabbing a rebound and getting it to Kyrie um just incredible incredible moments um if you have a chance today today the day to go back and rewatch that today’s the day to and it’s been nine years at this point i cannot believe that next year is going to be the 10-y year anniversary of of the Cavs winning the title but if you have a chance go back and watch that game go back and watch highlights of that series because that for me was and will always be the peak of my my basketball fandom my Cavs fandom um and I think it’s a really really cool cool thing to go back and relive so if you’re watching this obviously that means you are a Cavs fan go back rewatch it and and go through the rest of your day with a smile on your face because the Cavs won a title in the greatest way possible they have in my opinion the greatest championship in NBA history so go back rewatch that and and go through your Thursday with a smile on your face and thank you for giving this a listen before you go and watch those highlights that I know you’re going to watch now you can find the show anywhere you get your podcasts Apple Spotify anywhere else make sure you drop us a fivestar rating leave us a nice review be a friend tell a friend about Locked on Cast make sure you’re subscribed make sure a friend is subscribed as well and as we get out of here on YouTube do me a favor hit that thumbs up button for me click subscribe hit that notification bell and I’ll be back tomorrow with a mailbag unlocked on cabs

On this episode of Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham (The Inside Shot, 92.3 The Fan, Cleveland Magazine) previews the upcoming NBA Draft, focusing on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ late second-round picks. He discusses potential selections and emphasizes the importance of player development for sustainable success. The podcast explores the Cavs’ recent hiring of Jawad Williams as an assistant coach, highlighting his local roots and experience in player development. Danny commemorates the anniversary of the Cavaliers’ 2016 NBA Championship, recounting key moments from Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors. He concludes with a brief look at the current Cavs roster, expressing optimism about the team’s future under the leadership of Koby Altman and Kenny Atkinson.
Check out Danny’s Substack, The Inside Shot: https://theinsideshot.substack.com/
Email the show: LOCavsmailbag@gmail.com
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