The Cleveland Cavaliers and GM Rangersking669 entered this new beautiful league with pick number 9 under his belt. Not a bad position to be in. With the way the draft had panned out Cleveland had the choice to go a number of different directions.

Players still available when the clock struck Cleveland were the timeless LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Karl Anthony-Towns, Paul George and James Harden just to name a few in the top tier.Cleveland, taking a few minutes shy of their allocated 24 hour time limit, selected Nikola Jokic. The 6’10”, 24 year old, do it all, centre.

This gives The Land a young star to build around. Its crazy to think Jokic is only 24 years old. He seems like a wiley vet with his bag of tricks and he doesn’t exactly look like a kid either.

But regardless he is a current and future star of the league and an amazing player to build your franchise around.

                                          

The rest of Clevelands draft went like this:

Pick 2 - #52 - Malcom Brogdon
Solid 2 way guard in similar age bracket who appears to have more upside than originally believed. He is showing that he can be a lead guard.

Pick 3 - #69 - Robert Covington
I am always a sucker for someone that goes undrafted then carves out a great NBA career. He has become a great 3 and D guy. injuries have upset him recently but at full strength he is great.

Pick 4 - #112 - Zhaire Smith
Mid first round draft pick in 2018 with high potential but sat that whole year with injuries. Back this year, so lets see what he can do. An incredible athlete and scoring guard. He had big raps out of college, so we will have to see if he lives up to them.

pick 5 - #129 - Kevin Huerter 
Red Velvet had a stellar rookie season. I would say he produced more his rookie year than most had predicted. He demonstrated his shooting ability along with his playmaking and willingness to do what his team needs. good mature traits from a then 20 year old. Hopefully can continue to improve on them.

Pick 6 - #172 - DeAnthony Melton
I am a fan of Melton. A defensively specialist who needs the rest of his game to catch up. He fell in his rookie draft as he was suspended and withdrew from college to prepare for the draft. has shown flashes in his small sample size.

Pick 7 - #189 - Danny Green
Solid role player. Completely different timeline than the previous three picks, but they can’t all be rookies and someone needs to nurture them.

Pick 8 - #232 - Cory Joseph
Pick 9 - #249 - 2019 draft pick (16)
Pick 10 - #292 - Jared Vanderbilt
Pick 11 - #309 - Iman Shumpert 
Pick 12 - #352 - Shake Milton
Pick 13 - #368 - Tyler Lydon
Pick 14 - #412 - Wenyen Gabriel
Pick 15 - #429 - Langston Galloway
Pick 16 - #472 - Rawle Atkins

It is clear that RangersKing along with numerous other teams went full steam with the youth movement.
Cleveland have a good young core with Jokic, Brogdon and Huerter. They have drafted with upside in mind with a lot of their guys.

2019 Rookie Draft
Pick 1 - #16 - Grant Williams
By the amount of trade offers the Boston GM has sent him which were never enough, its obvious Rangersking isn’t the only GM who likes him. Unsure why he didn’t counter with a ridiculous offer, as seems Boston may have taken it.

Williams is an intelligent, mature young man who finished his college career with many accolades. He is a do it all kinda guy. He wasn’t a scoring machine but his passing, leadership and mostly his defence separated him from the rest. He is undersized at centre, but has the strength to hold his own. needs to develop his jump shot for the NBA.

Pick 2 - #45 - John Konchar
A 6’5”, 23 year old guard. A bit of an all round guy with nice scoring and playmaking. One of those that lack the one elite skillset, which plenty of them make names for themselves. Currently on a 2 way contract.

Focus Points for Cleveland
The focus for this team is 100% the youth developing. The proven players on the roster are Jokic, Covington, Brogdon and Green. Besides a few other bench role playing guys there are 9, yes, NINE players on the 15 man roster that have either 1 year experience or are in their rookie season.

So what Cleveland is banking on, is a few of these guys taking the next step and developing in to good contributors. Like i said, other GM,s went a similar approach, but is a lot of risk when with the initial draft, every player in the league was available.

Favourite Picks
Obviously I am a fan of the Grant Williams pick in the 2019 rookie draft. I think he will become a very solid complimentary player on a good team.
Look at one of his interviews the kid is smart. He was offered numerous Ivy League school scholarships and his mum worked for NASA. That combined with his basketball abilities could be a good match.

Favourite pick main draft, obviously besides Jokic, would have to be Kevin Huerter with pick 5 at #129. He had a great rookie season and was able to contribute straight away. He has a real nice jump shot and was also able to contribute statistically across the board. If he continues to progress then he can be a very solid NBA player.

Season Outlook
I am finding it hard to believe that Cleveland will me making much noise, if any, come playoffs time. It all depends how the big three gel together, because outside of them there isn’t a lot of immediate  contributors, unless some of the abundance of youth develop and become solid players.

Having a star like Jokic I'm sure will get you some marks in the wins column, but i think the Cavs need some more firepower and depth before making a run at the championship. Maybe The Cavs are eyeing off another solid draft pick to add to the plethora of youth. In that case the fewer wins might be the idea.

I have heard whispers that in order to get the ball rolling on the season and ignite the fan base, the organisation has hired Drew Carey to be the teams mascot. Apparently he was thrilled with the job offer and accepted straight away. He is obvioulsy doesnt need the money as whose line is it anyway re-runs keep the cash rolling in. Perhaps he just misses the bright lights. Either was, lets see how many times he can sing "cleveland rocks"