Who are the MOST INTERESTING PLAYERS on the Cleveland Cavaliers for next season?

Who are the MOST INTERESTING PLAYERS on the Cleveland Cavaliers for next season?

[Music] Happy Wednesday morning everyone. Mikey McNuggets joined by Danny Cunningham of the Locked On Cavaliers podcast. This is a little bit of a locked on locked on family crossover. Danny, that we’ve had you on UCSS before, but this is your inaugural Ultimate Cav Show appearance, and frankly, it’s it’s long overdue. How you doing today, man? I’m well, man. Thanks for having me. Uh, very very much looking forward to the conversation that we are about to have here in the best days of the NBA calendar, of course. Yeah, this is the thick of it. You can’t stop 10 minutes without getting some sort of update on an NBA superstar. But no, in all seriousness, not a lot going on right now, Danny. So, we are going to rank the Cavaliers bench in terms of the players we are most interested in for the upcoming season. Now, I use the word interesting intentionally because I wanted to leave it up to your interpretation. What I find interesting may not fit your definition of interesting and vice versa. So, we’re going to do a little draft. You’re going to have the first picked, I’ll have the second, you go third, I’ll go fourth. So on and so forth down the Cavaliers bench. We are excluding the starters. So, no core four, no Max Struce, even though the starting lineup may change next season. We’re going to exclude those five for the sake of this discussion. Danny, we’re going to dive into and spend a few minutes on each of the other guys on this Cavaliers roster in terms of what interests us about them for the upcoming season. So, without further ado, Danny, you are officially on the clock and I don’t think the number one pick in this draft is a slam dunk like Cooper Flag was a couple months ago. Yeah, I’m with you there. Like just as as I am talking right now, I’ve not made my decision and it’s been about I don’t know 90 seconds since we started recording and about two minutes before that you said by the way you have the first pick. So I’m like okay there’s a lot of pressure here. Um and I’m between a few guys and obviously we are going to talk about all of these guys. Um but as far as interesting goes I think I’m going to take Lonzo Ball with the first pick here. That was my one. I I’m going that direction because he’s not an unknown. Like, we know who Lonzo Ball is as a basketball player, but when you talk about a guy that has played in 70 games in the last four years, you’re not exactly getting a sure thing. Like, we know what Lonzo Ball does well. We know maybe what he does as well, areas where he could improve for the Cavaliers next year. We don’t know exactly what he’s going to look like as far as health goes. and the Cavs are pretty confident that he’s going to come and be healthy. And he missed the end of the season this year with a wrist injury, which no injury is a good injury, but a wrist injury is certainly much better than what he went through with that knee injury that kept kept him out for basically two and a half seasons. So, we don’t know the health aspect of things. But when I look at what he can do on the floor, I think that they wanted to this off season go from a roster that had some guys that were one-way players and Ty Dome and Isaac Aoro to a guy in Lonzo Ball who is a two-way player. He’s a good defender. He’s a very good offensive player that you do have to guard. So, I do think that he can really change the way some of these second units look. And I think maybe most importantly, I think he can make Evan Mobley a lot better when those two are on the floor together. Yeah, he was my one-1. Danny, I’m glad you went there because there’s so much unknown with him when he was coming out of UCLA. I loved his game. I thought he’s been a little bit of a disappointment in the NBA, but injuries have played a major role in that. But when he’s healthy, every team he’s on, he makes everyone around him better. And I think that’s one thing the Cavaliers lacked last season from their bench. They had a lot of guys who can do individual things very well. Ty Jerome the prime example who Lonzo’s replacing. But Tai was a score first, shoot first kind of player. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It led to some incredible moments last season. But I think to your point, part of the reason they brought Lonzo in was to help emphasize Evan Moble’s offensive progression with some of those second units because Lonzo’s not looking to score. Lonzo’s looking to pass, then he’s looking to pass again, then he’s looking to pass again. And only when his third option is taken away is when he’s really becoming a scorer. He’s also went healthy and it’s a giant when and the giant if maybe their best second best perimeter defender. He graded out very well last season throughout his career. He’s been an active defender and he just gives the Cavs something that they frankly didn’t have on the roster last season. And to me, because of that skill set, I thought he was the one-1 pick in this draft. And I’m glad you went with him at 1-1. So, I I think that he is I think he’s an amplifier. like that might be the best way for me to describe him. And and you mentioned what he was coming out of UCLA and I understood why the Lakers picked him. I never thought that he was going to be some superstar guard just because I didn’t think the scoring was ever going to be there. Um and it hasn’t been and his shot has gotten much better since he’s been in the NBA. But I look at so I look at him as somebody that whoever the other four guys are on the floor, he’s going to make them better. And I think that’s really important thing for a bench player. too. I think he’s going to be somebody that, and you have listened to, you have sat in on many of Kenny Atinson’s press conferences from the last year, but there are certain guys that he just gushes about, and you can tell Kenny Atinson really likes this guy, whether that player plays for the Cavs or for the team that they’re playing that night. I think Lonzo Ball is somebody that Kenny Atinson is absolutely going to love having on the floor for him. He’s just coach the way he thinks. And last thing on Lonzo, but if you look at some of the best shooting guards in basketball, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, just we use those two for example, their numbers are significantly better with a traditional point guard playing alongside them. Anthony Edwards numbers with Mike Connley are significantly better than Anthony Edwards when he’s running the de facto one in Minnesota. When Devin Booker was at his peak, he was running alongside Chris Paul when he’s become more of a initiator. His offensive efficiency drops a little bit and he’s not the same player. We’ll see if it’s the same thing with Donovan, who back in Utah thrived next to a traditional point guard. He’s played better with Darius than he has without Darius. And now this gives him another point guard off the bench to take that traditional ball handling responsibility away from Donovan when he’s not sharing the court with Darius. I’m glad you brought up those four guys because those four guys all have one traditional point guard in common and it’s Ricky Rubio. Like Darius Garland’s first all-star season, Ricky Rubio was here in Cleveland. When Donovan was young, Ricky Rubio was in Utah. Ricky Rubio was in Phoenix alongside a young Devin Booker, alongside a young Anthony Edwards in Minnesota. And I look at what Lonzo does because especially by the time Ricky was here, like he was not a good defender and of course is a much smaller guard, but can he be like sized version of Ricky Rubio? I don’t think that’s a crazy thought. No. All right, my first pick here, Danny Lonzo went one. I’m going Jaylen Tyson at one two. I wanted to see that was the guy I was debating between. Those were the same. Those were the two. Yes. Jaylen Tyson was the 20th pick last year. He saw sporadic minutes in the regular season. Didn’t really get a chance to showcase what he can do in the playoffs. He was too good to be in the summer league. His skill set, his physicality, his body type is something Cleveland desperately needs. He’s a guy who’s energetic. I think he’s a hustle player. He showed more offensive game in Cal and in college than we necessarily saw in his minutes for Cleveland last year. But there’s something to his game, Danny, that I can’t quite put my finger on, but I want to see more of. And when he did play last season, it was mostly in cleanup minutes and garbage time. When he played with the starters, I thought he did a really good job fitting in, not trying to do too much, kind of filling in the gaps as the connector between the starting unit he was playing alongside of. I think his ceiling is maybe not all-star level high, but I certainly think he’s more than just a bench guy, a guy who can turn into a, you know, reliable role player and contributor on a playoff rotation. So, because we didn’t see much of Jaylen Tyson, and I think there’s a lot more to it. I think he falls incredibly high in my I’m quite interested to see what you have left category. Yeah. And I think coming out of summer league too, like we we learned in summer league. And in summer league, I don’t think you can learn who can play. You can learn who can’t play, I think, pretty easily in summer league. And Jaylen, like he looked like he didn’t belong in summer league in the best way. Like he was just too good for that stage. But he was also doing it in a role that’s going to be so different than what the Cavs are going to ask him to be in this year and and really for all of his career because he’s going to always be on a team in Cleveland. I would imagine that’s gonna have one of Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland and he’s just not going to be an onball creator, not going to be the focal point of an offense the way that he was in summer league. But you use that word connector which is a word that Kenny Atinson has used I I wish I could count how many times particularly when describing Max and I do think that there are some things in Strus’s game that could Tyson be a little bit bigger version of that guy. I think so. Now, the movement shooting and being able to run off screens and do all that stuff that Max does that I don’t think that’s ever in Jaylen Tyson’s future. Like, I just don’t see him being a guy that has that kind of shooting gravity or even that type of shooting ability in the NBA. But I do think a lot of that other connected connector stuff are things that he can do. Can he be a bigger version of the guy we heard compared to a lot during the draft with Josh Hart? Can he be a bigger version of Josh Hart? I don’t know. We need to see it on an NBA floor, but the Cavs seemingly have a spot in the rotation. And if we know anything, guys are not going to play like the whole, you know, right now on paper, there’s probably a 10-man rotation. Tyson might be the 10th or 11th guy. The all those guys are not going to play 82 games. I I am willing to stake my life that all of those guys will not play in all 82 games. So, at some point this year, there will be an opportunity for Jaylen Tyson. It’s just what is he going to do with that opportunity? I think that could be not a not necessarily the biggest story of what this year looks like, but I think that could be a big a pretty big story for the future of the Cavs. They need Jaylen Tyson to turn into a a contributor, like a legitimate contributor just because of their salary cap restrictions. Now, with how expensive the Core Four and some of their other top bench guys are, you have to build through the draft. without control of their first round picks for the next couple of years. Jaylen Dyson as the 20th pick last year. Might be the highest draft guy they bring in for the foreseeable future. He’s a guy that I really like his game. And another thing with with Jaylen, he’s just an energy guy. And maybe that isn’t as high when he’s playing more minutes and not coming in and slop up duty, but they don’t really have a ton of those just energy completely change the feel of a game guys when you put in off the bench. I think he can be that. And I’m just really excited to see Jaylen Tyson in an expanded role this year. I’m not sure if that means 22 minutes a game, but I certainly think it means more than three minutes at the end of a blowout on a more regular basis. And I I I think there is a chance that he turns into a guy come playoff time, Danny, when the rotation gets dwindled down, he could be one of those guys that Kenny’s looking around and saying, “I know we got to go from 10 to to eight maybe, but I don’t know how we get take Jaylen Tyson off the floor for prolonged periods of time.” So, I I think one of the things like a role that I could see him playing and I don’t know if the Cavs have a guy that fits this description right now, but there are guys in the NBA and Josh Hart is one of them. Anderson Vera here was one of them forever. There are guys in the NBA, Draymond Green, I think fits this example, that you love to have on your team and you hate to play against. like you just when your favorite team is playing against that guy. You absolutely hate that guy. Marcus Smart’s another one. Marcus Smart. Absolutely. Another one. Um I don’t know if the Cavs have anybody like that right now, at least for like reasons other than like if you’re a Celtics fan, you hate Donovan Mitchell because he just lights Boston up every time he sees a Celtics jersey. But that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. I think if you kind of look at the the archetype of the players that I brought up, it’s like the hustle stuff. I don’t think the Cavs have a guy that other fan bases like unanimously or by consensus hate to play against. I think Jay like there’s an opportunity for Jaylen to be that guy as he continues to develop as a basketball player. Jaylen becomes Cleveland’s Mo Vagner. Danny, who’s your pick number three here? So, my third pick, um, and it’s actually a little bit less about this guy and a little bit more about somebody else, but I’m going to go with Sam Merrill. And I’m gonna go with Sam because I think that with some of the increased lineup flexibility that the Cavs should have this year because of Lonzo Ball, who we already talked about, because of Larry Nanch Jr. who we will talk about, I do think that Sam’s role is going to look a little bit different than it did before. And I have been, I think, higher on Sam Merrill as a basketball player than most of this fan base. maybe not as high on Sam Merrill as the Cavs are organizationally, but I do think that he’s a good player on both sides of the ball. And I do think that for a good chunk of last season, he was a little bit miscast. Like I think he was playing a little bit too much small forward. And I think that is one of the primary complaints of this fan base is that he was playing out of position. Um, and Kenny Atinson used him in that way and maybe gave him a little bit too much responsibility. I think that his role is actually going to grow this year. And when you look at the contract that he signed, kind of has to. Like if you go from making the $3 million a year Sam was making last year to now making just under nine this upcoming season with a lot of money comes more responsibility. So I do think his role is going to change. And I think that when I say it’s less about Sam and more about Lonzo, like I look at some of those roles or some of those lineups that Sam was in when he was playing the three in the back court would be Tai Jerome and Donovan Mitchell. And Sam would have to defend the best perimeter player on a lot of other teams. And I think Sam is a good defender, but he’s not exactly the guy that I look at and say, “Yes, I want you taking the toughest assignment for 20 minutes a night when you’re on the floor.” Well, now if Lonzo Ball is healthy, that can be something, as we touched upon with his defense, that can be something that falls into Lonzo’s um job description. And I think that can make life a little bit easier for Sam. And I think the way that we talk about Sam as a basketball player could be much different 12 months from right now than it was after this past season. Well, we have the same top three, Danny, because Sam was number three for me. I’ll keep this short because you hit on a lot of the main points, but he’s on a giant contract. and Giant, not in terms of like a max contract, but look at some of the role contracts that guys in the Sam Merrill realm got last season. Sam got it four for 38 and Gary Trent Jr. got two for seven. Like the Spider-Man saying, with great power comes great responsibility. With a contract like Sam Merrill signed, there are now legitimate expectations for Sam Merrill to execute at a higher level and show some more than he’s shown in the past. I don’t think it’s an overpay necessarily from the Cavs. I I don’t even hate the contract. I just think you’re looking at a guy who was a GLeague guy who turned into a rotational guy who’s now getting paid just under $10 million a year. He’s got to take his game to another level next year. I’m not quite sure what that looks like. But I also agree to your point. He was he was miscast a little bit and I think we see him more in a Joe Harris Brooklyn Kenny Atinson role than we did in the Sam Merrill Cavs Kenny Atinson role last year. Which kind of brings me to number four here. And this is a two-way answer in the same way you just had Lonzo and and Sam Merrill, but the Cavs don’t have a ton of front court depth. No, they did sign Larry Nance Jr., but he’s not my pick here because I kind of know what Larry Nance Jr. is. There’s not a lot of intrigue with what Larry Nance Jr. brings to the table. So, I’m with Naquin Tomlin here because similar to Jaylen Tyson, a I’m intrigued by what there is. I don’t have a ton of answers to what there is. There may be a ton of upside. He may be capped out. Every time I watch him play, Danny, he does things offensively that I’m like, what the hell are you? Oh, that went in. And then he does it again and I’m like, is that just a good shot for Naquon? And then and I’m like, okay, that’s a horrific shot for 97% of the NBA, but that’s something that is in Naquon Tomlin’s bag. And Dean Wade is a guy who I like Dean. I think he makes winning plays. He’s a connector. He’s been absolutely putrid in the playoffs for as much as I like Dean in the regular season. I don’t think you count on him whatsoever in the playoffs. And right now, your backup bigs behind Jared Allen and Evan Mobley are some combination of DeAndre Hunter, Dean Wade, and Naquin Tomlin and Larry Nance Jr. That’s not a ton of depth in terms of like big bodywise. And I’m curious if Naquin Tomlin can surpass and samp Dean Wade at some point this season. And it won’t happen right away. It probably won’t happen at all because I think Kenny does appreciate the defensive uh capacity of Dean Wade, his rebounding. The Cavs are a significantly better rebounding team with Dean on the floor at any position they are with Dean off the floor. But there’s something in Naquin Tomlin’s game that I can’t quite put my finger on that has me completely intrigued at what his ceiling is. It may be and it may end up being nothing, but he just moves in a unique way you don’t often see on an NBA court. And sometimes those guys in the same sense as Ty Jerome was last year, Danny, where it’s funky and it doesn’t necessarily look like it works, but it does. Sometimes those guys can carve out a real nice role for themselves. And the way he shot the ball in summer league, if he can have that in his arsenal, too, I think he can be an efficient offensive player in the NBA. Well, I think I think we know he can score. Um, at least at the GLeague level, at the summer league level, like every level he’s played professionally, he’s shown he can put the ball in the basket. Now, does that translate to the NBA level where things are much more difficult? Obviously, because you’re playing against the best basketball players in the world, and you’re not doing that at summer league, and you’re not doing that in the G- League, you’re playing against good competition, but it’s a much much different level. I I think that because he didn’t play basketball until he got to college, which is a wild story, crazy. I think that is something that makes him even more intriguing because while he is probably getting pretty close to his athletic peak, right? Like he’s 24, 25 years old, that is just when you know as a human you are sort of in your athletic prime or at least getting close to it. maybe 26 27 is a more accurate way to look at that, but he’s getting close to there. But he is essentially a newborn baby as far as being a basketball player goes because if you look up and down in this Cavs roster, and I know we’re not talking about the core four and we’re talking about all these other guys on the bench, every single player that we are talking about started playing basketball at a younger age than Naquan Tomlin did. So, he’s still not only learning how to, you know, figure out if he can be an NBA player, he’s still like developing his basketball instincts and doing a lot of these things that are just so ingrained in you from such a young age when you are a professional basketball player. And I do think that that makes it really interesting to see what he can become. And I think the right question as it pertains between him and Dean Wade because Dean Wade is on an expiring contract this year. And I know there was that rumor out there about the Houston Rockets wanting to trade for him and offering him the full mid-level exception, which is not necessarily a value that I would see Dean Wade at. Like I think that’s a little bit rich for Dean Wade. But one year from now, if Dean Wade walks away in free agency because the Cavs are in the second apron and they need to make cost cutting moves and they cannot afford to pay him $10 million a year when he’s not proven to be a postseason player. Can Naquin Tomlin step into that role? Can he be the guy that takes over Dean Wade’s spot in the rotation? That I think is the question we should be asking about him. So, I find him very interesting. But similar to Jaylen Tyson, I think he’s really interesting for the 2026, 2027 Cavs, maybe more so than the 2025, 2026 Cavs. That’s why I left it up to interpretation. Interesting is, you know, I’m looking ahead. the the thing you mentioned with Naquin picking up basketball so late, Danny, by the way, offensively he’s way ahead of where he is defensively, but he seems to have a good knack to be in the right spot at the right times. His offensive rebounding, his intuition to read the ball off the rim is really impressive. He’s got a lightning quick second jump and if he could understand some defensive principles better and his defense can take a sizable step up that’s a body type and a skill set I think a lot of teams are banking on. We talked maybe not we talked but the online Cavs Twitter sphere has talked at length about the Cavs not having wings with size. He projects as a guy, even if it’s more of a smaller big than a bigger wing, per se, he projects in that body type category that the Cavs have been frankly missing for quite a long time. So, he was my second pick. Dan, let’s move on to round three. Your number five pick, your third or your third pick, number five overall. Who you got next? So, my third pick, I’m I’m torn here between two guys and and I think that these are kind of like the last two very important players, at least as far as like a playoff rotation goes. I’m torn between DeAndre Hunter and I’m torn between him and Larry Nance because and I’m going to go Nance, I think, because we have seen this version of DeAndre Hunter in a Cavs uniform where I don’t think that we’ve seen this exact version of Larry Nance Jr. in a Cavs uniform. Like I just think that he is a different basketball player right now than what he was when the Cavs traded him to Portland in the Li market and in signing trade so many years ago. Obviously his shot has improved since he left Cleveland. Like he’s become a much better three-point shooter than he was. He’s a good not great defender. But I think the thing that is most interesting about him that pertains to the Cavs this year is he can play both the four and the five. When we have talked about the Cavs having backup bigs in the past, we’ve mostly talked about guys that can, you know, just play one of those spots. And it’s been been Tristan Thompson who at this point in his career is a center only. He is not somebody that you can run out there at the four. But Larry Nance Jr. I do think can play alongside either Jared Allen or Evan Mobley. And they’ve not had somebody like this in the last three years when they’ve been a playoff caliber team. Obviously now they’re a different team than they were when they had, you know, three bigs out there having Lowry Markin and Evan Moy and Allen when Evan was a rookie. And Evan is a much much different player. But I look at this and say, okay, if Lonzo Ball can give Kenny Atinson a lot of backcourt flexibility as far as lineups go, I think Larry Nance Jr. can do that in the front court. And I also look at him with the improved three-point shot, too. And I think the thing that is most important as far as what he does offensively is he is a quick decision maker. He’s not somebody that the ball is going to stick in his hands. He is a good playmaker and a quick decision maker and a good shooter. And I think that combination is going to be something that can open up some really fun lineups for the Cavs. um and and give a lot I I think he is somebody that can make Evan Mobley better, which a lot of what this roster looks like. That should kind of be the goal. You add him and Lonzo Ball to the rotation, you have added two guys that are extremely quick at processing information from an offensive standpoint, making the right play, being unselfish, which should un not un should the entire offense allow Donovan and other guys to play more off ball and utilize their skill sets in ways we didn’t see last year. In terms of Nance, I just keep going back to these two numbers. And he has to stay healthy. That’s another part of the Lar Nance Jr. conversation, but according to Queen of the Glass, he was the single most efficient three-point shooter for any big in the league last year. He was in the 100th percentile in three-point efficiency. Granted, small sample size, he played 24 games, but a very, very, very efficient three-point shooter. And in the last two seasons in games in which he’s taken legitimate volume threes, Danny, in games where he’s taken four or more threes, he’s shooting 50%. He’s 32 of 64 on those three-point attempts in games where he’s taken volume. So the three-point shot is not a mirage. It is legit. He’s not the same athlete he was a few years ago. But the Cavs need spacing. And I’m going to die on the hill. I don’t know how you feel. I’m not sure you and I ever had a conversation about this. that the Cavs best closing lineup is Evan at the five and shooters around him and Larry Nance Jr. gives you size and shooting in one. Is he part of that closing lineup? Probably not because DeAndre Hunter, who I’m going to take next, probably fits better alongside Evan at that four spot. But Larry Nance Jr. is by no means a bad alternative to a secondary big man that can play the four, space the floor, make quick decisions, and he’s not an absolute zero on defense. Yes, that that is that is something that they they just so badly have needed. And two, it does give them the ability to close out, you know, they’re not they’re probably not going to close a ton of games with Larry Non the floor and they were confident closing out the game with Ed Moy last year at the five. They we saw Jared Allen and maybe not in the postseason, but we saw him in the regular season close out games on the bench at times and Kenny Atinson was willing to do that. But I think that this could give the Cavs a lot of that front court flexibility. It can make Evan Mobley better. And I I think I am almost a little bit more interested to see what Larry Nance Jr. looks like alongside Jared Allen than I am alongside Evan Moy just because we we know how great Evan is. And I think we kind of know what that might look like. But having him alongside Jared Allen, having two of those bigs that are not Evan Moley on the floor, I think that could be fun. I don’t know that that’s necessarily gonna be something that we want to see in the biggest sample size, but I think it could be fun. Count me in. Uh, next up’s DeAndre Hunter for a lot of the same reasons. He came in mid-season last year, and I know people just assume in basketball, hey, here’s the playbook. Read it for three days and you’re you’re good. You get it. It doesn’t work like that. Is an NBA playbook. I mean, Danny, you played college football. I played college basketball. Your playbook was significantly bigger than mine. But an NBA playbook and the terminology and the way Kenny Atkins and that staff wants a player to think is very different than how Quinn Snyder in Atlanta wanted his players to think and the way they defend certain situations and their pick and roll coverages and their respons. It’s not just plugandplay. And with a full off seasonason under his belt, DeAndre Hunter, for lack of a better word, better have a much better understanding of the things that Kenny Atinson and this offense and defense want to execute. I didn’t think he was lost at times last year. I just didn’t think he looked 100% comfortable in certain situations, Danny. And that was because, to no fault of his own, he was traded here in February, placed into the middle of a playoff push, coming from a team that was by no means a championship contender. and he needed time to adjust and I think he got better as the season went on and I want to see that pick up from where it left off at the end of last season and then we go back to the lineup flexibility whether he starts which I’m all for him starting at this point whether he comes off the bench you I’m not going to argue I mean someone wants to die in the hill that he should be a six-man so be it if he’s closing games that’s more to me what matters whether he starts or finishes but regardless he needs to take a step up he needs to be more efficient and I Think most importantly for DeAndre Hunter and the part that interests me the most, he’s a much better high post scorer than I think we saw in Cleveland last year. He did a lot of it in Atlanta in some of their secondary units when he was a six-man. If they needed a bucket, they would throw him on the high post, clear out, and say, “DAndre, go get a bucket.” And that’s not how the Cavaliers offense operates. That’s not what Kenny Atinson wants to do. They don’t take a ton of mid-range jump shots. They don’t stop the ball and isolate in that situation quite frequently at all. So, I understand it’s a bit out of character, but I just keep going back to that Indiana series. And when Indiana stopped switching and forced those guys to beat him one-on-one off the dribble and Donovan was hindered and Darius was hurt and Evan had the spiralled ankle and DeAndre had the the messed up thumb, they don’t really have a counter. And I think one of their counters this upcoming season to when their offense gets stagnant, when their motion isn’t working, when teams stop switching and stop helping as much is let some of their bigger players go one-on-one against smaller defenders. And with his 68 73 reach, his ability to shoot over his head and shoot over defenders. I think it’s a counter we didn’t see quite often last year that I think could be a much bigger part of the playbook this season. Not as terms of their their overall offensive flow, but when things break down, give it to DeAndre. Let him do his thing. More often than not, it’s probably going to result in a good shot. I think that is something that he’s very comfortable doing, too. Um, and I think if you watch him in Atlanta, like he was able to get buckets that way. Of course, Quinn Snider’s offense is different than Kenny Atinson’s offense. And I actually think the biggest adjustment for him. Probably not even the playbook. Like, of course, that is an adjustment, but it’s the guys you’re playing with, right? Like, he spent his entire career playing alongside Trey Young. Guess what? Playing alongside Trey Young is very different than playing alongside Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. Like, and it’s not to say that those Hawks teams weren’t good. Obviously, they were not to the level that the Cavs were last year at any point, even though they did go to a conference finals. I just don’t view them as I I think that the Cavs last year were closer to a championship than the Hawks were when they went to the conference finals. Um, I think if you look at the like who he has played alongside, the style of player is so different and I think that is the biggest adjustment and even defensively like he’s a good defender, but he’s not somebody that creates a lot of stocks. And I had a conversation with him in Boston last year about it and he’s like you kind of had to play a little bit more conservative defensively because of who was behind him and now I think having a full off seasonason and probably more importantly having a full training camp in Cleveland alongside Jared Allen alongside Evan Mobley like I think that defensively we will see a different version of DeAndre Hunter too because I think that now he’s going to be able to wire his brain into being a maybe a little bit more of an aggressive defender now he does have to um I think be a little smarter in terms when he commits fouls because I do think that is an issue with him on that end of the floor. But I think the defensive end of the floor with him might be a spot where I’m maybe even a little bit more interested this year. Yeah. And the last thing on DeAndre, he’s huge. It’s one of those guys that, you know, you see people list at 66, 67, Danny, or even some guys list at 6’3 and you see him in person, you’re like, you really 6’3? Like DeAndre is a legit 68 and his arms go down to his ankles. It’s absurd. He looks like an alien. like he has the prototypical frame to be one of those three, four wings that can give you all different kinds of positional flexibility. And there are going to have chances or there are going to be opportunities next year for Kenny Atinson to deploy defensive lineups of Moley, Wade, Lonzo, Hunter, and pick your point guard at that point. I mean, it’s probably Donovan or Darius, but just for the sake of this, let’s go Sam Merrill or somebody. And that’s going to be a nightmare for other teams. That’s just length on length on length on length. And you know, I don’t think we’ll see that quite often, if at all. I keep saying quite often. I’ve never said that in my entire life before today. I don’t know where the hell that came. Sounds like crap. So, I’m going to try not saying that the rest of this podcast, Danny, but we didn’t see it often. But I I do think there’s a chance for Kenny to get uh creative on both ends of the court with DeAndre Hunter. And with that full training camp, with that full off season, with the better understanding of what situations and positions DeAndre likes the ball, where he doesn’t, where he’s better defensively, we’ll see an even better version of DeAndre than we saw this year. Your last pick, Danny. Our fourth and final round here, seventh overall pick. Who you going with? I’m going to go with Tyrese Proctor. Um because obviously we don’t know much about him. like the only time we’ve seen him in a Cavs uniform is summer league. Uh the last look we had at him was a 35point performance and that was you know I I was in attendance for that and that was one of the things that it stood out to me not just that he scored 35 points but the way he scored 35 points because in that game he was just four of 14 on threes and he has the type of jumper that I look at and say you know every time the ball leaves his hand I’m just like that’s going in that’s a made basket and of course that day most of them weren’t. He missed 10 threes, but everyone’s like that. I don’t know how that doesn’t go in. And this isn’t necessarily super interesting for this year because I don’t think that right now there’s a spot in the rotation for him. It’s I think that either he would have to be one of the best second round picks ever or there would have to be some significant injuries for him to be just like in the playoff rotation this upcoming season. And maybe those things are possible. I don’t know. But with the way the Cavs are built right now, and they’re a very expensive team, obviously they’re in the second apron if you haven’t heard. Um I don’t know if everyone knows that, but they’re expensive. They’re in the second apron. They’re going to have to, and the same is true of Jaylen Tyson, and the same is true of maybe Naquin Tomlin, and you know, just so on and so forth. They’re going to have to, for lack of a better term, find some cheap labor. And Tyres Proctctor is by NBA standards cheap labor. They need to find guys that can be contributors on this roster that don’t cost a lot of money because they’re paying Evan Mobley a lot of money because they’re paying Donovan Mitchell a lot of money. Darius Garland, Jared Allen, go on down the list and those guys are worth that money. It’s really good to have expensive players that are really good and the Cavs have that. But it means you have to find wins the way you did with Sam Merrill. And Sam Merryill is not in this conversation anymore because he’s making by NBA standards real money now. But finding a Dean Wade that was an undrafted free agent. Sam Merrill who was once upon a time the first overall pick in the G-League draft, hitting on Jaylen Tyson. Um Craig Porter Jr. guy, you know, we could talk about him too. Like they need to find guys like that. And I think Tyrese Proctor looks like he could be a hit from the number 49 overall pick. Of course, he probably is one of the more talented guys to ever go in that slot, and him falling to 49 wasn’t by mistake. It’s not just like, oh, this guy’s got a bunch of red flags. We’re taking a shot on him at number 49. Like, that’s not how that pick worked out. So, I do think he’s got a real chance. Maybe it’s not this year, but I do think he has a real chance to make an impact on the Cavs. And if he does so on the contract that he currently is on, that is a huge win for them organizationally. Danny, you were out in Vegas and during that 31point game, I I’ll be honest, that was the week I was in Italy. I did not see any of summer league. I’ve only seen the highlights. How did Tyrese look in terms of being able to get past people on the dribble? We know he can shoot. We know he’s a decent playmaker. We know he has great size. One of the knocks was, is he a good enough athlete on the NBA level? from your up close and person observations, how was that part of his game in the summer league? So, I thought he got better as the week went on. Um, like if you go back and watch that first summer league game, he looked like a guy, truthfully, like he looked like a guy that was nervous to be playing professional basketball for the first time and his handle wasn’t very tight. And I just thought he struggled and you know, he scored, I think it was 14 points in that game. like he made some shots, but I thought as the week went on, he looked better. Even as that last game went on, like he scored a lot of his points because he was able to get to the rim. He was able to to get to some spots in the mid-range. Yeah, he hit four threes, but he missed 10 of them. Um, he was able to get to the free throw line. I believe he was nine of nine from the line in that game, meaning not just that like he made his free throws, which, you know, good, congratulations. You’re a professional. You should be able to do that, but he got to the line nine times. Like, that is what was important. the fact that in that game and of course it is summer league competition. But if you look at who was defending him Carter from the the Sacramento Kings, a guy that if you think back to the game the Cavs played in Sacramento, he basically beat the Cavs that night while playing for the Kings. He was on their summer league roster and Tyrese Proctor torched him in that summer league game. So, I don’t know if that’s going to be something that immediately translates to the NBA, but I also think that there were maybe some people that were a little too quick to write off his ability in that category, too. Fair enough. Before we get to our last pick, we have to remind everybody that FanDuel is the official Sportsbook sponsor of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. If you’re not new to FanDuel yet, what are you waiting for? And right now is the perfect time to sign up because FanDuel has a new promo going for new customers only. If you bet $5 and that first $5 bet wins, you get $150 in bonus bets to use on any bet of your choice. Just head over to FanDuel.com/uss to get in on the action. FanDuel’s an official sports betting partner of both Major League Baseball and the NBA and most importantly is the official sports book of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. All right, Danny, we’re down to our final pick. The Cavs need guys who can pass, dribble, and shoot. They did not have enough of those guys in the playoffs last season. And so for the final pick of this most interesting role player draft, it comes down to a guy in my opinion that I know can dribble, I know can pass, I’m just not sure if he can shoot. And that’s Craig Porter Jr. And to me, the reason he’s so interesting is he’s on a great contract. When he’s played, he’s shown his value. But you can’t be an undersized guard that can’t shoot and have a major role in an NBA team. A good team, a bad team, a championship team, or a lotterybound team. Craig Porter Jr. to become a consistent rotation guy has to be able to hit three. We didn’t get a chance to see much of it in summer league. Not that I would have watched anyway because I was out of the country, but I know he got hurt in the first game and then didn’t play again. So, I don’t know what his jump shot’s going to look like next year. He’s not that young anymore. He’s in that I think he’s what 25 now. 24 25. So it’s not that he’s the youngest cat even though he’s still young in terms of NBA years. It comes down to me can he shoot? Can that jump shot develop? Can he make enough open threes that the opposing team’s going to have to respect that because everything else about Craig Porter Jr. game is very good. Good ball handler, good passer, very adept at getting past people off the dribble. He’s I think pretty good passer in the pick and roll. And I really like his defensive presence both as an onball guy and as a help defender, a sneaky block candidate guy from the weak side. So Danny in my mind, he’s a guy with a ton of upside, but if you can’t shoot at his size, it is really, really, really hard to carve out a role, including or especially considering the Cavs already have a couple guys ahead of him on the depth chart that he’d have to surpass to get a real shot at minutes next year, right? And I think that this summer was so disappointing for him. Um, not because, you know, he was going to go out and win summer league MVP, but I think that he was I think he kind of got the message that you don’t see very many guys go back to Vegas for a third year wearing sneakers and having to play in the games. Like, typically third-year NBA guys, they’re they’re sitting courtside watching the younger guys play. So, I do think that he kind of got the message, oh, I’m playing summer league for a third year in a And of course the hamstring injury was untimely. But when when we met with him prior to the team leaving for Vegas and of course prior to his injury, he spoke like somebody and of course Craig does not speak to the media very frequently because he’s just not a key player and you know guys that aren’t playing much don’t often speak with the media. So when he spoke with us, he sounded like a much more mature um person. Like he sounded like somebody who maybe did some basketball growing up. I’m not going to speak to who he is or what he does off the floor because I don’t know him away from basketball, but he spoke as if he’s somebody that has a little bit more basketball maturity than he did before. Um, so basically I think that the start of the summer we were going to figure out, okay, does this guy get it? And that was robbed because of the hamstring injury and that’s unfortunate and it is what it is and nobody’s at fault here. But I think that this is going to be a really big training camp and a really big season for Craig Porter Jr. because when they signed him as an undrafted free agent, I thought and then watching him make the impact that he made as a rookie would probably be more more apt here. But I thought, okay, I don’t see how this guy just assuming development here. I don’t see how he doesn’t have a 10-year career. And for one reason or another, that development has not been there at the level we all expected it to be. And it’s not to write him off because I’m not. I still, you know, have a little bit of land on Craig Porter Junior Island, but I do think that this is a very very important season for him. Um, he needs to I don’t even know if it’s that he needs to be a better shooter. I think he needs to be a more willing and aggressive shooter. Um, because I do think that the shot looks fine. I just don’t know that he takes enough of them. Like I could say the same thing about Dean Wade. It’s just Dean is also, you know, 6’9 and a really good defender who just is not aggressive enough offensively. So I think that more than anything he needs to for me be a more aggressive offensive player when he is not in an onball role because listen he’s going to at times play next to Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell or maybe even even Lonzo Ball some nights when one of those other two guys is out. He needs to be more aggressive in those settings and I think if he is, he still has a solid NBA future. It’s just the clock is ticking on if you’re ever going to do that. Danny, when I thought of this topic, you were the first person that came to mind because I know you know the ins and outs at the bottom of this Cavaliers roster as well as anyone on the beat. I appreciate you so much for taking some time here on a Wednesday morning to talk some CS. You want to plug the Locked On Cavs podcast, your Substack, your Twitter, everything else where people can find you real quick before we head out this morning. Yeah, you can check out Locked on Cavs uh wherever you’re watching or listening to this Apple, Spotify, anywhere else. coming at you just about every single day. Maybe not every single day this time of year, but certainly for the other 11 months every single day in my substack, the inside shot where I write about the Cleveland Cavaliers on a regular basis. Again, basically every single day during the season in the month of July and August. Maybe not every single day, but you can check out me at those places. And we know Kenny Atinson reads Danny’s Substack, so you should too. That’s Danny Cunningham Dunningham on Twitter. Make sure you check out his Substack. Check him out on the Lockdown Cast podcast. Danny, appreciate you taking some time this morning and we will see you soon, my friend. Thanks for having me. All right, that’s going to wrap it up for the Ultimate Cab show this morning. We’ll see you on UCSS in 2 hours and give or take two and a half hours for Danny McNuggets. Have a good one. Peace. [Music]

The Cleveland Cavaliers have sky high expectations for the 2025/2026 season and need some role players to step up in big ways to accomplish their ultimate goal.

But which role guys are the most interesting heading into the new year?

Locked On Cavs host Danny Cunningham joins McNuggets to draft the 8 most interesting players and why each has a crucial role that can’t be overlooked.

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