REACTION: The Cleveland Cavaliers draft Tyrese Proctor & Saliou Niang in Round 2 of the NBA Draft

REACTION: The Cleveland Cavaliers draft Tyrese Proctor & Saliou Niang in Round 2 of the NBA Draft

Start with some Cavs draft stuff after a quick word from FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you’re in baseball mode, golf mode, or you’re into high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action, so why not make it a little more thrilling. With FanDu you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. If you’re new to FanDuel, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if their 1st $5 bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com/UCSS to get started. Guys, the Cavs did not have a draft pick in the first round of the NBA draft. They did have two picks in the second round last night. And with those two picks, the Cavs came away with Tyrese Proctor, the guard out of Duke, and Sallyu Nang, the draft and stash wing from Senegal. You can never have enough Ne Yangs in Cleveland. That’s what everyone said when they had George a couple of years ago. Proctor was a guy who consensusly was marked higher than 49. Cleveland, but we had heard in the aftermath of the selection that he may have, uh, forced his way to Cleveland because they had a guaranteed roster spot available on the NBA level. Jason, Jason, we’ll start with you. What do you make of the Cavs’ two second round picks here in Tyrese Proctor and Sally Yang? Long term plays, I think for both of them, uh, roster spot doesn’t mean playing time. And uh I think this is a long play to try and start to backfill some of the guys that they could lose and uh you know I don’t expect Sam Merrill to be back next year and uh Proctor is a guy who could eventually sort of slide into that spot. He’s got some good size to him. Um, I heard Mike De Courcy on this morning on 923 talking about he just needs a little bit more confidence and he needs to have, uh, just the more confidence in his game. So listen, if these guys were ready to play and contribute right away, they’d go in the first round, and the fact that they fall to where they are sort of means they got some development to do and that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with that. We’ve seen it with Jalen Tyson last year, uh, sort of as a first round pick there was no spot for him because the rotation was full. Now he’s gonna get an opportunity this year. The same thing will probably be true with probably be true with Tyrese Proctor. Uh, he’s a guy who I don’t know that he’s gonna get heavy minutes. You know right away next year, but he’s a guy that if he develops and stays the course, he could help this team in the future. Yeah, uh, it reminded me like um. A, a taller, uh, better shooter than Craig Porter Junior, uh, he has, uh, he plays real like he plays real under control like he, he has his nice control to his game. Uh, he can shoot threes, 40, 40, I think 41% behind the arc. He’s not a super duper athlete. I’m confused that I can’t find a, a, a real height for this dude. I don’t know. People keep saying he’s a combo or the height, he was at 4. He was listed at 6 on Duke’s website. So he’s probably 66 with shoes without shoes. Well, he’s a little different because he’s an overseas. The one thing with Proctor. The confirmed wingspan measurement for Proctor. This does make a difference. 6 7.5. So he’s he’s long. — How tall
— he means he may not be done growing. 21 but yeah but I just want to clarify, because I was gonna ask because I couldn’t really find nothing. But the thing I, I, I agree with Jason, these are, these are the roles that we’re looking at down the line. So like say for instance, Sam Merrill, shooter, you want an opportunity, you probably. Not gonna bring Sam Merri back and he’s a little bit bigger, maybe more athletic than Sam Merrill. Hopefully he can shoot the same as Sam Merri so you replace him. Uh, uh, you got Ty Jerome. I don’t know what’s going on in his deal, how much somebody else is gonna offer Ty Jerome, but if they grossly or outbid or overbid for Ty Jerome, they may decide that they got, they’re gonna go with a, with a youth movement and give somebody else an opportunity at the back of the roster to earn that position. Now, when you’re in the 2nd apron. You’re not, you, you have to be very judicious in in what you’re looking at like I, I think that the thing that I’ve learned a little bit and a lot of people’s learned is, you know, we, we were talking about how the Celtics were gonna dismantle their stuff, uh last year and earlier than that and you know, Drew Holiday gets traded, Prazenas gets traded, uh. You know, you hear Jaylen Brown’s name, so there is some ramifications, so you, you can’t just keep running it back. It don’t really work that way, especially if you’re not winning championships. So I think he’s a dude that you, you, you plug in, see what he can do. And for the Cavs, for me, looking at the, the finances. They’re gonna have to find some somebody in in the back in their bench whether it’s Porter Jr. Jalen Tyson, and Monty Bates, this guy, some they’re gonna have to develop two of those guys and, and, and plug those guys in and play and figure out what they got because you can’t just keep bringing other people and trading for big name players. You gotta, you gotta find somebody to develop. Yeah, the Cats have reached a point and we’ve been talking about this for 2 years. They’ve reached a point where if they’re going to improve from the team they are today, it’s pretty much gonna have to be this way. It’s gonna have to be from guys they’ve drafted that overachieved. Mike, can we see that graphic again about where everyone had him mocked because I want to know what’s the consensus as to why he dropped so far. So it’s very interesting and this kind of came out last night. I heard from some people this morning the same thing. He was telling teams, don’t draft me. I want to go to Cleveland — because Cleveland
— said no one ever because Cleveland had a guaranteed NBA roster spot available. The teams between 41-ish and 48 only had two. G League contracts, — but
— that’s a smart move. Tyler Proctor said, I want to sign a multi-year deal. I want, now this is all reported. Danny Cunningham from Lockdown Cavs mentioned this last night. I heard the same thing this morning from someone. The Cavs organization. It, it all the It all adds up, you know, just hearing it from sources, the Cavs didn’t say this last night. Proctor’s Camp will never admit this publicly, but all of it adds up. He was a guy that and all the mocks was somewhere between 35 and 40, you know, I mean, that’s that’s a late first round draft pick. And the Cavs said in they they may have said this about any player they drafted, but Mike Ganzy, who did his press conference last night, said they had a late first round grade on Tyrese Proctor when he was available at 49. It was a no-brainer for them. I think part of the reason he was available at 49 was he told teams, I want a full, fully guaranteed NBA roster spot. I don’t want to be a G League guy. I don’t want to be a two-way guy. You don’t have that to offer. Cleveland does. Don’t take me because I want to be a part of this Cleveland Cavaliers team, knowing that I’m gonna get a fight. — I
— like him more. I like, I like him more now. First of all, he’s a Duke guy, so I think he’s probably a relatively smart guy and and anybody with the name Tyrese is good, obviously now. Yeah, apparently Halliburton protect your Achilles. Yeah, yeah, I like it was like, hold on, he’s light skinned. Can I give you a couple, uh, I like him, couple other things on Tyrese Proctor. Yeah. So my first thought when this happened, I did a live draft stream last night, so if you wanna go back, you can tune in. When I watched Duke, I was always a little disappointed in Tyrese Proctor. Well, he was a 5 star kid coming in. He played 3 years at Duke. He was good, but he was never great. But then I had to take some time to think about it, and maybe the reason he was never great was even though he was a 5 star last year, he was playing with Cooper Flag, Canipple, Malalas, 4 guys who were drafted ahead of him. The year before, Duke also had. The best freshman class they’d ever had until this most recent freshman class, so he kind of got phased out, but I dove into some of the shooting numbers and I basically, I see this pick is Sam Merrill Insurance. If you lose Sam Merrill, you are now potentially adding a guy who shoots the ball, maybe not at Sam Merrill’s level yet, but it’s probably a better ball handle than Sam Merrill now, better kind of creator off the dribble than Sam Merrill ends longer than Sam Merrill. But if you dive into some of these advanced shooting stats, and they take tagboard here full. He made 47% of his threes off the dribble. Wow, which is an absurd clip, like absolutely absurd clip. He shot 43% on catch and shoot 3s this season. That was in the 95th percentile of all of college basketball. Off pick and roll situations where he was the ball handler. He shot 46.4% as a three point shooter. So off the dribble, very, very, very good shooter. Is it to the level of Kobe Bryant, the guy I really wanted who was making a 41? No, it’s not, but still a very efficient shooter, especially in those specific situations. For his career, he had a 2.3 to 1 assisted turnover ratio, so he’s very careful with the ball. He played on ball, he played off-ball. He came in as a point guard. He transitioned more to an off-ball guard, can run off screens and that 6, 7.5 wingspan is at least appealing because he’s not the strongest guy. Like the weakness is on Tyrese Proctor as he’s 6’4, waiting in the combine at less than 1. He can work on that though. That can change. But yeah, he has the frame that you would hope can put on a little bit of weight. He’s not a one and done guy, so he’s a little older. So he did have 3 years in the Duke weight system to put on some weight. He came in at 175. He waited at the combine at 181, so it’s not a lot of weight, but It’s a solid pick. It’s a guy with a good pedigree, an all ACC player, led Duke, or, uh, lead is not the right word, but was part of a Duke team that reached the Final Four this season. So clearly can play. And at the end of the day, he’s a guy that has an NBA ready jump shot. And it’s Sam Merrill’s replacement if you lose Sam Merri. So, I think it’s a good pick. I like it. Um, I, I, I kept getting texts from people saying, who are these guys? And I’m like, listen, this, it’s not 1986 anymore. You know that this is what the, the NBA draft looks like now and the fact that. The Cavs don’t have a number one draft a first round draft pick. Um, you have to temper your expectations to reality and After hearing all of the experts talk about this guy, because I have to tell you, I only saw Duke a handful of times, and he did not jump off the floor to me. He just didn’t. And it’s hard to jump off the court when you have Cooper flag, that’s, — that’s right and
— I couldn’t take my eyes flag. I was just, he’s so good. I, I, he was phenomenal. He does everything. And so I just, he didn’t jump off the floor at me, um, but. We don’t need a guy that’s the pillar. We don’t need a guy that you can build around. We need a piece, and I think he can be a piece. And as for Nang, who knows, he’s probably a 2 or 3 year project. — He’s already been in Europe a
— couple of 2 years till he’s an NBA. — And
— if they get anything out of him, it’s a bonus. Second round draft picks, especially the nearly the last pick in the draft. It is what it is, you know, you can hope that the player develops and they did their due diligence on him to make sure that he’s the kind of guy that’s gonna put in the work and that he’s gonna really commit to being a great player. If he does, it’s kind of a a found asset. It’s a bonus, but right now I’m just pretty much focusing on Proctor as well I guess we’re gonna give grades in the TV show, so I’ll hold off on that. I need them I need them to to take that Oklahoma City playbook. It just seem like Oklahoma City, they got, they got one dude, right? And they seem like everybody they got overachieves, all of them. Like if you was to take them off, you’d be like, take this guy off this team and put him somewhere else. I just don’t think that they would perform the same, but they get, it seems like everybody they draft, everybody they bring in free agents, they all play over their head. I just want a couple of these dudes to get them and pay over their head for the Cavs. That’s all I want. If he, if they can get it done that way, second round, who knows, but is it gonna be a summer league? Yeah, Proctor. Oh absolutely, yeah, — they’re hoping they didn’t rule that out last
— night. Yeah, has a chance to be a league. Proctor. He just won’t be a guy. He’ll be on the NBA roster when the Cavs break camp. Uh, oh, the summer league. I mean Bush cancels picnics. Well, you hear? They did announce the, no, no, but the first is gonna be Cooper Flags of course it is. It’s Jason. Stop playing, man. We got, we got, we got the summer league start? — Middle of
— July, — uh I
— go out there like that. I go out there. That’s a week away. Yeah. When am I out there? July 10th through the 20th. — How do you not
— know you, you’re supposed to have, see this is, this is how white people get. Y’all get me like this, man. How do y’all have plans that involve major plane tickets and don’t even be on out? Oh, that’s been my life. They’re like, oh yeah, I’m I’m, I’m supposed to be going. My wife will ask me the night before I leave for somewhere. She’ll say, what time is your flight? I’m like, I don’t know. It’s like, what do you mean you don’t know? I said, I don’t know. I was booked a couple of weeks ago. I, I think it’s in the afternoon because I’m not too worried about it. Well, can you look? Yeah, like I don’t need to know until tomorrow. — I’m
— like this guy I’m like, listen, if I’m going anywhere and I gotta get on a plane, I know 3 months in advance. You do 3 like because yeah, like at the end of the day that is coming out my checking. And my savings. I know and it’s for two people. Oh hell no. I know where I’m going. No, — I no I got and then see y’all got that y’all got
— that. Jay, you’re like that too, right? You’re like me, right? I mean, — I’m looking
— to see how do you not know the flights? How do you it was booked weeks ago. I mean, I don’t and then you forget it. I book it and forget it. I don’t think I booked it yet. OK, well, at least I book it. You guys operate in different ways. Before we get to the next part of the draft, I just want to give you 2 minutes here on Sally Yuni by the way, he was actually the most commonly mocked player to the Cavs at 58. So somewhere there was information going past the Cavs like Nang. Uh, he ends up being the pick at number 58 from Senegal, plays in the Italian League, was on nobody’s radar until two years ago, kind of made some significant improvements, but Depending on which measurements you want to look at and his range all over the board from 65 to 69. I know it’s tough to get a good grasp on — what’s a huge
— difference between a 5 a birth certificate? — Do we know he’s not
— 3? We are on that, but Steve, you want to take the highlights of him. He’s a, — he’s a big athletic wing that you can translate as a defender plays great
— defense, right? I read that about him. Offensively, not there yet. He made 11 threes in 45 games in the Italian League this year. He had more turnovers than assists. Still incredibly raw on that end of the court. You’re gonna see a couple of passing highlights here. Um, no joke. I don’t know how many assists he had, but, uh, Sam Visini of the Athletics said he had more turnovers than assists in the, uh, Italian league he played in 11 3s in 45 games, but he projects as a big, long athletic potential wing defender down the road for Cleveland. But Mike Ganzy said last night. Anytime you take a draft and stash guy, they’re on different timetables. They look at the Yang’s timetable is at least 2 years before he’s ready to make the transition over. — So
— give us a couple of examples of some draft and stash guys that hit Osman. Oh that’s a hit, yeah, well, I mean, for what it is, you have to, again, you have to temper your expectations, but yeah, he, you know, he contributed and there were a lot of people that at the time said, no, this, what are they doing? Who is this guy? He was a high 2nd round pick, high. But it, — it panned
— out it worked. I mean, the reality is most of the guys taken yesterday are gonna play in Europe. They’re gonna have a nice career in Europe. They’re gonna make a lot of money for themselves. There’ll be a few that make it in the NBA. I said before, like you can find talent easier, like two things can be true. You can find talent more in the second round and undrafted guys carve out careers. For themselves, yet still by and large, most of the guys take yesterday, they’re gonna hang around the NBA for a year or two. I’ll give you who was the guy like Sir Dominic Poynter was the guy the Cavs like they took in the second round. You ever hear of Sir Dominic Poynter? He was the 2nd round pick of them in like 2015-ish, whatever happened to him. He went, I think he went to Europe and played a decade in Europe. He might still be playing, but that’s, that’s typically the path is they give it a year or two. They get an offer from somewhere in Israel or Turkey. You can make very good money playing basketball overseas and you bounce around a couple of other leagues over there. You play in the Euroleague — and you have a nice career for
— bad way to spend your twenties if you think about it in Europe, bouncing through Europe, making cash, — playing
— hoops. There was guys that there was a lot of guys like, uh, dudes that I played basketball with in high school went overseas, uh, and they would. We was, we met up and I was like, yeah, so what’s this overseas game talk about? Y’all be good, he said, Man, all depending on where you at, bro. He was like, sometimes you be in these eastern countries and then some days you just, you wait for that check and it don’t come. And I’m like, What do you mean it don’t come? Like they’re like, yeah, bro, you like you just don’t be getting this money from Vladimir. Like it didn’t come through. So there are some in the NBA. Historically speaking, a lot more, and I mean a lot, I mean a lot more misses than hits, but, uh, Jokic was drafted, played another year overseas. That’s the greatest of all time is Bojan Bogdanovich, who’s still playing in the leagues. He played 3 years overseas before coming over to the NBA after being drafted. Dario Sarge played 2 years overseas that game. He’s a decent role player. I mean. We’re going back 10 years now. It’s those three Jetty Osman and Willie Her and Gomez is the only ones who became. — Does
— Ricky Rubio count? No, no, no, — he came right over but
— like, but, but didn’t somebody, — he didn’t stash him like we was like 12 or something
— was more of a thing. Development. OK, yeah, so they had to buy him out of that deal to get him back. OK, well, his, his wasn’t a you’re not ready to play yet. We’re gonna hold your rights and you go over here and I can’t remember he had a contract dispute or something with the team that he was with, — so
— that was that.

After sitting out the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Cavaliers picked Duke guard Tyrese Proctor in the second round (No. 49 overall) on June 26.

The Cavs didn’t have a first-round selection to use on June 25 because they traded it in September 2022 as part of their blockbuster deal with the Utah Jazz for six-time All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell.

Cleveland entered this year’s draft with two second-round choices. After taking Proctor, they had one selection left at No. 58 overall, the penultimate pick in 2025. They used it on Saliou Niang, who spent the past two seasons playing for Trento in Italy.

The players the Cavs draft this year are bets on future development. The franchise is in win-now mode. |
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/pro/cavs/2025/06/26/cleveland-cavaliers-pick-tyrese-proctor-duke-cavs-nba-draft-2025/84336108007/

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