Despite belief around the league that the Cavs will use the top pick on Duke point guard Kyrie Irving, coach Byron Scott told Yahoo! Sports last week that “no way are we set on a guy” and private conversations with Cavs personnel reveal the same sentiment.
The top two candidates remain Irving and Arizona forward Derrick Williams, and the next couple of days will bring that decision into focus.
Both Williams and Irving have been to Cleveland for their private workouts and aren’t expected to return. On Monday, the Cavs will get their first look at Kentucky freshman Brandon Knight, considered the second-best point guard in the draft behind Irving.
Knight will work out for the Cavs along with Enes Kanter, who will be making his second trip to Cleveland. Kanter and Knight were teammates at Kentucky, although Kanter was ruled ineligible and couldn’t play for the Wildcats last season.
Williams dazzled the Cavs with his athleticism during a private workout last week. If the Cavs view Knight as comparable to Irving, they could select Williams first and hope Knight is still available with the fourth pick.
Even if Irving and Knight are drafted second and third, the Cavs would be left with either Kanter or Jonas Valanciunas with their fourth pick. It’s important to note that the Cavs still have Baron Davis and Ramon Sessions under contract for the next two seasons, so they don’t feel as if they absolutely must take a point guard with one of their first two selections in this draft.
At this point, however, the rest of the league would be stunned if they took anyone but Irving first overall.
International affairs
About half of the first 10 picks in Thursday’s draft could be international players, but no one is certain who is considered the best of the crop. The Eurocamp (Europe’s version of the NBA combine) last weekend didn’t offer much clarity.
While Kanter could be the first European off the board as high as No. 3 to the Utah Jazz, he isn’t considered to have the highest upside. Listening to those who attended the camp last weekend, that vote seems to be split between Jan Vesely and Valanciunas.
Cavs general manager Chris Grant flew to New York on Saturday to watch Vesely in a private workout. Grant did not attend the Eurocamp and the Cavs were one of five teams invited to watch Vesely this weekend.
The Cavs are high on Valanciunas, who is seven-feet tall and has a seven-foot-four wingspan. One league executive who attended the Eurocamp told NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper that Valanciunas is “a future franchise center.”
The question is how long a franchise would have to wait to get him. The Cavs are leery of Valanciunas’s European contract, which lasts for two more years and does not include an NBA buyout. Valanciunas is represented by Leon Rose, who is still negotiating the buyout.
Working in Valanciunas’s favor is the fact his Lithuanian team, Lietuvos Rytas, is reportedly hurting financially and open to a deal. The team that drafts Valanciunas would probably have to pay Lietuvos Rytas $500,000. Valanciunas would then pay his former team a portion of his first contract based on his draft position. The exact percentage is part of what is being negotiated.
Although it is pushing close to the deadline, both sides seem to believe a deal can be worked out before the draft. That is important to the Cavs, who don’t want to have their own Ricky Rubio dilemma.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have waited two years for Rubio since drafting him fifth overall in 2009. Rubio will finally come over from Europe and play for them next season.
