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Anthony Bennett

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Cavatt said:
I wanted Steven Adams or the Greek Freak
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A deal the Cavs possibly could have had was the OKC pick (12, I think, which turned into Adams) and Jeremy Lamb for #1. Something along those lines.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been much, but it's a deal I would have taken given the time bomb the #1 pick was in 2013. And I didn't have much hope that Lamb would amount to much after his disappointing rookie season in 2012-13. Moving down to 12 would have given them the freedom to get an Adams, who is a very solid rotational big, or Antetokounmpo. I doubt the Cavs would have reached for him though.

Ironically though having Bennett and his inflated salary made the Love trade easy to carry out. Even if Bennett was considered just filler by Minny -- and I'm not sure whether that was the case or not -- the Cavs would have had to come up with ~$5M in salary to make the trade math work. If they had included Waiters, they wouldn't have had him to pawn off on OKC to make the Mozgov trade work. And I didn't get the sense that Minny particularly wanted Waiters.

My point is that it's probably not worth worrying about the Bennett pick at this point.
 
Looking at our team now...wouldn't change a thing.

I wish Bennett luck.
 
Bennett to the Raptors on a min deal via Woj.
 
I think it's good for everyone involved. Even we got something out of Bennett.

Minny got Wiggy, we got Love, and the Raps get Bennett. Bennett gets to go home, seems like a good situation to me.
 
From number one pick to a minimum salary in two years. What an impressive failure.
 
What a bum. I can't believe we used the #1 on this guy. He brings so much shame to our community.
 
When the franchise drafted Dion Waiters, they took him a little higher then most experts had him because they felt his skill set would mesh. They never had Dion in for an interview, and found out afterwards he was a headcase.

So, the franchise then overthought the #1 pick the next year because Bennett spoke and acted on his best behavior in interviews. I personally didn't think too highly of Bennett as a college player, but I doubt anyone would have guessed his motor and desire to be an NBA player was this bad.

All I learned from this process is that the Cavaliers scouts were always looking for a reason to seem "smarter than everyone else" at every turn, and eventually overthought everything they pick. Additionally, the modern era of one and done players have too many stories exactly like Anthony Bennett's story. Something needs to change.
 
Randolphkeys said:
When the franchise drafted Dion Waiters, they took him a little higher then most experts had him because they felt his skill set would mesh. They never had Dion in for an interview, and found out afterwards he was a headcase.

So, the franchise then overthought the #1 pick the next year because Bennett spoke and acted on his best behavior in interviews. I personally didn't think too highly of Bennett as a college player, but I doubt anyone would have guessed his motor and desire to be an NBA player was this bad.

All I learned from this process is that the Cavaliers scouts were always looking for a reason to seem "smarter than everyone else" at every turn, and eventually overthought everything they pick. Additionally, the modern era of one and done players have too many stories exactly like Anthony Bennett's story. Something needs to change.
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Reminds me exactly of the Browns. Except we got two headcases in Manziel and Gilbert and then the next year Farmer made the "safe" picks of good guy Danny and model citizen Erving.

So it was double the fun
 
Randolphkeys said:
When the franchise drafted Dion Waiters, they took him a little higher then most experts had him because they felt his skill set would mesh. They never had Dion in for an interview, and found out afterwards he was a headcase.

So, the franchise then overthought the #1 pick the next year because Bennett spoke and acted on his best behavior in interviews. I personally didn't think too highly of Bennett as a college player, but I doubt anyone would have guessed his motor and desire to be an NBA player was this bad.

All I learned from this process is that the Cavaliers scouts were always looking for a reason to seem "smarter than everyone else" at every turn, and eventually overthought everything they pick. Additionally, the modern era of one and done players have too many stories exactly like Anthony Bennett's story. Something needs to change.
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I always thought grant liked to claim he had some magic analytic that would predict NBA success and they tried to out presti everyone. But they screwed it up
 
Adam said:
I always thought grant liked to claim he had some magic analytic that would predict NBA success and they tried to out presti everyone. But they screwed it up
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Chris Grant deserves to be mentioned in the same vein as some of the worst GMs to ever grace Cleveland sports. Sure, he provided us many "assets", but many of those were acquired thanks to Dan Gilbert opening up his check book to take on shitty contracts for picks. Grant lucked into #1 picks in 3 of 4 years. That's simply amazing, especially given that two of those had such a low chance of hitting.

There's really no debating the Kyrie and Wiggins pick, at the time or even now. Although Grant wasn't here to draft Wiggins, I'm going to go out on a limb and give him the benefit of the doubt (although I shouldn't) that he wouldn't have passed on him. Kyrie and Wiggins were slam dunks whether your the GM of an NBA franchise or a casual fan with a hot take. I know someone is going to bring up Jabari Parker, but I wasn't buying the hype of him over Wiggins then, and I'm not buying it now. Wiggins was the superior talent then, now, and liekly forever. Embiid isn't being included due to his injury being discovered pre-draft.

Now, the other picks...

2011: I like TT, and it's hard to be overly critical of the pick especially considering the other possibility would've likely been Jonas V, but man do Klay or Kawhi sound good in hindsight. Or, Brandon Knight even... but Grant just refused to pick BPA, regardless of position, and allow the coaching staff to figure it out. Which was a trend in '12 and '13 drafts also.

2012: Dion Waiters at 4 despite the organization doing zero homework on him. Taking him above Lilliard and Drummond, who I think we can all agree would be amazing to have right now, and would've likely helped us win a ring last year or at least be in a better position to win one this year. He also took Waiters over Barnes, which may not have been completely awful given that Griffin cleaned up Grant's mess by trading Waiters for JR/Shump, but Barnes would have filled a glaring need at that time. Not to mention this team desperately needs a young SF whether it's today with LeBron or 3 years ago without LeBron.

He also traded 3 picks to move up a few spots to draft Tyler Zeller. He's a solid player with a limited ceiling, but the price is silly given the return. Two of those picks, 33 and 34, were one spot ahead of Draymond Green. Pick 34 is where RCF darling Jae Crowder went.

2013: Already mentioned Anthony Bennett... who's best contribution was matching contracts to trade for Kevin Love. He literally could've picked almost anyone in that draft and it would have been a better pick. Sergey Karasev at 19. We were all kind of high on him at the time so won't kill him too much for that pick, but man does Gorgui Deng look good 2 spots later, or Rudy Gobert at the end of round 1. Who are also guys I remember being highly touted on this board, and who would have been very impactful on our current roster.

Other moves Grant made that are hurting us now....

1) Jarrett Jack signing
2) Luol Deng trade
3) Spencer Hawes trade

Jack's contract was so bad the Cavs had to give up a 2016 1st rounder and Zeller just to move him. Which, despite the financial impact, it's too bad because Jack could've helped as a backup PG last year... especially after Kyrie went down and Delly was ran into the ground.

Cavs gave up 1 first rounder and 4 second rounders for Deng and Hawes rentals to chase a 8 seed. A fucking 8 seed... that almost cost us Wiggins (Love). Granted, that 1st has still yet to be conveyed because the Kings are consistently awful, but they are still assets that could've been used to facilitate deals today when the cupboard is now bare.

If anyone has anything else to add to this depressing chain of events, please share. I didn't include Bynum, because it was a low risk signing at the time, and for a team like the 2013 Cavs he was worth swinging for the fences on. We really got bailed out by LeBron coming back, and we're a contender in spite of everything above because of it... but man does it still hurt thinking what this team could be today, or even tomorrow, had Grant not been so incompetent.
 
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