WRG 2012 Mock Draft - #24 Cleveland Cavaliers

As we mentioned before, we are a few years away from contending and are much more interested in players with potential than finished products more suited to be immediate contributors.

With our earlier pick, we grabbed an ELITE prospect who needs development time.  We are going the same route here.

The way we look at it is we are getting a player at #24 who we think would be a mid-to-high lottery pick next year.  We're not positive he'll pan out, but we cannot pass up that kind of value.  We feel a small risk here could give us a HUGE reward.  That's one way good teams become great.


This player comes with some health concerns, is young and underdeveloped and was inconsistent in his brief college career.  However, 6'10 SFs who can create offense for themselves and have a 7'4" wingspan are - um - tough to find.  We like having the opportunity to put one in our pocket.


The Cavaliers select Quincy Miller, SF, Baylor

This dazzling talent has a bright future.

WRG 2012 Mock Draft - #4 Cleveland Cavaliers

Our plan:

1. Draft around our NEW franchise player.

2. Wait two years.


3. Sign our OLD franchise player.  All is forgiven.


4. Win eight Championships.

And since we need almost everything and won't be contending until 2014, we will take an intimidating, freakishly built, athletic rim protector even if he is a bit of a project.  He might not ever be good during his rookie contract, but we shouldn't have any trouble re-signing him if everything goes according to plan.  

If it doesn't (and it better) - hey - these guys don't grow on trees!

The Cavaliers select Andre Drummond, C, Connecticut

Everybody pretend this guy never went to college.

WRG 2011 Mock Draft - #4 Cleveland Cavaliers

We got our man with the first pick, and now we want to hit another home run. We want a big man to pair with our little man. Our fans may curse our former superstar till the day he retires, but they loved the other mainstay of our team, Big Z, so we feel like it would be a disservice to our city to try to replace him with another Lithuanian big man in Jonas Valanciunas. Plus, we don't want to deal with the hassle of his reported buyout.

This leaves another mystery big man. The little that we've watched him play, he's been very impressive. He dominated the Nike Hoops Summit last year, and we are sure he's not another Saer Sene. His coach has nothing but the best to say about him, but he never played. There are questions, and Enes will give us the answers. Kyrie to Enes for the next 10 years? We love it and hope our fans do too.

Cowboy up mystery man

WRG 2011 Mock Draft - #1 Cleveland Cavaliers

The last time we were in this position, there was no decision to be made.

Whether that was a blessing or a curse will forever be debated by pundits, contemplated by historians and duked out over cold brews at every corner bar from Akron to Zanesville.

What's great about having this pick now is that the flotsam that remains from our last-ditch attempt to keep the last guy will be mostly cleared away by season's end.  There's been a year to heal, to go through the five stages of free-agency grief, and we have arrived at acceptance.

We are cleansed, and have emerged clean and new and ready to face the future.

And while we understand that this one will never be as good as the last one, that comes with a small, guilty feeling of relief.

We see a player here we like a whole lot, but we'll never love again.

Not really.

Cleveland selects Kyrie Irving - a beautiful girl, a wonderful mother and a hell of a life partner.  We just don't want to die alone.

A beautiful whaaa?  You best be calling me a bad mother. Hear me? I went to Duke.

WRG Mock Draft #30: Cleveland Cavaliers

There is no Cavaliers anymore. There is only LeBron.

He ate our franchise. Every decision we make, every second we waste, every dollar we commit relates directly to our ultimate ability to remain daily Witnesses.

So there are two roads to take here. We can take a young guy with potential and hedge a little so we still have some players on our team under thirty if LeBron bolts. That's risky because it's money we are spending that has nothing to do with getting the King to his rightful place above all others, ruling the world.

Or we could stash or trade the pick so we can focus every resource on bringing people in here that can get help our guy get where he is bent on going. The problem with that is that we don't want to be paying tax on an old, expensive losing team with no hope of improving should LeBron leave.

What we are going to do is get a player here that we think can turn into a decent scorer - both down low and on the perimeter. A young, hard-working, versitile big man that - unlike others we were considering with this pick - has legitimate size for the PF position. We believe he can give our team an added dimension we are seriously lacking.

Our pick is Jeff Pendergraph, who would have to lock LeBron in his trunk to be any factor in keeping him in town, but we feel is a step in the direction of reclaiming our franchise from the ravaging monster that has all but consumed it.

And if we and do that, we like our chances of keeping that big, bad all-consuming meanie in town.

"Number 4 sucks! I demand number 23!"

That concludes the first round of the draft.

I'd like to introduce Ru--

Huh? Who the hell is ADAM SILVER??!!