Cleveland Sports Forum

Chad Ford's draft grade ...

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS | GRADE: A-

Round 1:Dion Waiters (4), Tyler Zeller (17, from Mavs)

Round 2: None

Analysis: For the second straight year, the Cavs took a player at No. 4 who was ranked in the late teens on our Big Board in May. Like Tristan Thompson last year, Waiters had a meteoric rise the last month of the season. Unlike Thompson, his rise happened without ever doing a workout or interview with the Cavs. The Suns shut down Waiters early in the draft process, but it only seemed to start a Waiters feeding frenzy for teams ahead of them.

Waiters is the most dynamic scorer in the draft -- his ability to get to the basket is truly special -- and a handful of GMs felt that after Davis, MKG and Beal, he was the guy in this draft with the most star potential. He has NBA skill and, together with Kyrie Irving, should create a dynamic backcourt in Cleveland. Some will say taking Waiters at No. 4 was a bold pick, but I think it was a smart one with both MKG and Beal off the board. People said the same thing a few years ago when the Thunder took both Russell Westbrook and James Harden higher than expected.

I'm more agnostic about the Zeller pick. He's not going to be a great NBA center, but he runs the floor well and can play right away. At No. 17, you can't really ask for more than that.

Jay Jay, respectively, I could have wrote your post word for word as I drove back from the mountains. I know kind of sick but I actually thought about what your response was going to be to the draft. I expected a RCF mind melt response.

Could not disagree more. Why do you think JV will be the next Wilt Chamberlain ? You and most of the Cavs fans over at RCF are still whining about Tristan Thompson. Time to get over it.

Hopefully both JV and TT go on to great careers. At the same time if you have a problem with a great kid that is a hard worker that trys to improve every day, then I give up. Last year everyone whined about TT's free throw shooting. How much did he improve through hard work and coaching this year ? Last year hardly no off season training with the Cavs coaches and almost no training camp. Why don't we wait and see what happens this year after both.



I

COMMENTARY

Inside the Cleveland Cavaliers' draft

Why Waiters? We were behind the scenes with the Cavs' front office on draft day

Updated: June 29, 2012, 6:28 PM ET

By Brian Windhorst | ESPN.com


Cleveland fans panned the pick, but the Cavs' brass got the player they wanted in Dion Waiters.

Editor's note: ESPN.com writer Brian Windhorst was embedded with the Cavaliers on draft day. With four picks in the top 34, the Cavs were in one of the most intriguing positions in the draft. They did not disappoint, making what many considered the surprise pick of the first round and then executing the biggest trade of the night. This is how it all happened behind the scenes.

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- It's 5½ hours before the NBA draft but Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant doesn't know that. He has volumes of information -- too much, probably -- on the dozens of prospects who are nervously waiting for men in his position to decide their futures. But Grant doesn't seem to actually know when the draft actually begins.

"It's at 7:30, first pick about 7:35," said a Cavs staffer sitting across the room when Grant asks.

"So we should know by about 8," Grant said, referring to the Cavs' first pick, No. 4 overall.

Grant was drinking a San Pellegrino and wearing an open-collared shirt, khakis and loafers with no socks. His was making some light-hearted jokes but his eyes showed fatigue -- he hadn't slept much in the last few days. It'd been a while since he'd been home in time to put his three young sons to bed.

"Yesterday I felt pretty good about what we are going to do," Grant said. "Today, we'll see."

This is a huge day for Grant. It's the second year of a draft-centered rebuilding process he's undertaken. Since taking over as GM in 2010, Grant has followed this plan by trading for five extra first-round picks. He's devoted a huge portion of his year, as has his staff, to prepare for how to use the team's two first-round and two second-round picks.

"We're going for a wing at No. 4," Grant said in the afternoon. "We're probably not coming out of this with four players, you don't want to have four rookies. I'm thinking two, maybe three; I'd prefer two."

Grant meant he was planning on a trade, something he'd been working on for days, to parlay one or more of his picks to improve his position. And, perhaps most important, he was trying to find a perimeter player to pair with Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving. That's something he'd been incrementally building toward for nine months, scouring the country during the college season and going through a detail-driven draft season filled with dinner meetings, private workouts and film study.

When the draft started, Grant and his team had to rely on all the work they had already done and have the discipline to keep to the decisions that that work had led them to. By their very nature, draft nights can quickly go from organized to chaos because of the pressure and time constraints. The Cavs had five minutes to make their pick once the Washington Wizards made their selection at No. 3. Simply, there's never time to wish you'd taken more time.

"You've got to try to take the emotion out of it; it can be easy to act like a drunken sailor," Grant said. "It can be easy to lose patience. You have to trust your process."

That process played out in a narrow boardroom down the hall from Grant's office. Considering it's within the team's palatial $25 million practice facility, the team's austere draft room actually seemed a bit out of place with its utilitarian setup. A simple long wooden table was surrounded by four white walls all made of dry-erase board. There were markings and magnets with information everywhere like some sort of executive kindergarten. The table was covered in color-coded charts and notes, the product of thousands of man hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars all to help the team, and specifically its head of basketball operations, make these tough yet vital decisions. Decisions, so the plan goes, to be executed without emotion.

Two months ago, when the team really started its draft process, there were about nine players who could've been its first pick. (Then several dozen or so more possibilities for the second pick, No. 24 overall.) By Thursday night, it was down to about four. There were numerous opinions and each scout and coach had slightly different lists. But it was pretty clear there were two names at the top once everything had been culled: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist of Kentucky and Dion Waiters of Syracuse.

The Cavs were also quite high on Bradley Beal of Florida and Harrison Barnes of North Carolina. They had done exhaustive research on all four players. There wasn't much separating them. That's the real edge of any draft: Even with so many trained eyes and objective measurement tools, there's always an uncomfortable uncertainty. This is generally accepted if not at all embraced.

The Cavs' rankings did not totally jibe with what many outside the room felt. Especially on Waiters, a prospect who was not highly regarded in many mock drafts because he came off the bench in his two seasons at Syracuse and, more likely, because he'd shut down pre-draft workouts a month ago. He did not come to Cleveland for a private workout and meeting, for example, even though the Cavs and other teams had wanted to host him.

Waiters had gotten a promise from a team that it'd pick him and he and his agent, Rob Pelinka, were content to skip the normal process. There's a belief this promise came from the Phoenix Suns with the No. 13 pick, though Waiters and the Suns have so far refused to talk about it.

As a result, Waiters was not ranked highly and many fans did not read or hear much about him in the days leading to the draft. There had been some buzz about the Cavs' interest but only if they traded back. But looking for an aggressive and tough scorer, the Cavs had done highly detailed work on Waiters and he kept impressing them.

"I just couldn't get him out of my mind," Grant said.

Trent Redden, the Cavs' director of college personnel, had been to Syracuse's campus several times to see and gather information on Waiters. Grant spent three days there watching Waiters practice and play and attended a couple of the Orange's NCAA tournament games. Several of the team's other decision-makers had watched Waiters extensively as well. In addition, the Cavs had talked at great length with Syracuse's coaching staff. Grant has known Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins since they were both in high school.

Waiters' basic statistics didn't seem all that impressive for a player under such consideration: 12.8 points a game off the bench, a couple rebounds and a couple assists. But the more advanced stats the Cavs looked at impressed them further. He shot a high percentage on the kinds of shots they felt he'd take in the pros and they liked his numbers scoring out of the pick-and-roll.

So even as Waiters' name stayed out of the mainstream news, as the days passed he was in the Cavs' internal headlines. Coach Byron Scott had fallen in love with Waiters' ability after watching plenty of film. As far as Scott was concerned, getting the 6-foot-4 shooting guard would be hitting a jackpot.

The draft started right on time. But while the viewers were focused on Anthony Davis becoming the No. 1 overall pick the Cavs were focused on something else. They were one of several teams that had talked to the Charlotte Bobcats about trading up for the No. 2 pick. They were waiting on a final indication of whether the Bobcats were interested in their offer.

This is a common dance every year, teams checking each other's temperature, and sometimes it progresses to offers. The Cavs were interested in liquidating some of their other picks. They would repeat this exercise throughout the evening. The phones were worked mostly by Redden, vice president of basketball operations David Griffin and director of player personnel Wes Wilcox. Grant would usually get involved if anything got serious. By the very nature of the event, most of it didn't.

As it turned out, that was the case with the Bobcats, who held on to their pick.

Wilcox and Redden believed that if Charlotte indeed kept the pick that it'd take Kidd-Gilchrist. Other people in the room weren't as sure, thinking the Bobcats were very interested in Kansas forward Thomas Robinson. This was the pick that would have the biggest effect on the Cavs' first decision. The team had gone equally as deep with the Kentucky small forward as it had gone with Waiters. In addition to being the kind of impact wing the Cavs were really looking for, Kidd-Gilchrist was a high school teammate of Irving's and had the same representation team as Tristan Thompson, the Cavs' other standout rookie from the 2011-12 season.

The Cavs also had real interest in shooting specialist Beal but were rather certain he would not get past the Wizards. So it came down to the Bobcats' call. The Cavs were either going to have their choice of Kidd-Gilchrist or Waiters, or have the choice made for them.

When it was Kidd-Gilchrist whose name was called by Charlotte, Waiters was aligned to be a Cav. Barnes was under consideration, yes, but Waiters was the consensus pick. This wasn't known outside the room, which was the point, and certainly not very expected at the Cavs' draft party in downtown Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena. The fans there, unfamiliar with Waiters because of the limited discussion about him before the draft, booed when the pick was announced.

There was no false pretense; the executives and coaches were genuinely elated. They'd gotten a player they felt better about the more time they put into making the decision.

"I was very excited his name was still on the board at No. 4," Scott said. "I think we got a steal."

Instantly the outside reaction was that the Cavs had taken a risk, choosing a player who wasn't even a starter over more well-known and higher-rated players. The Cavs had done a similar thing last year with the No. 4 pick, taking Thompson when other players with more buzz were available.

The reaction in the Cavs' draft room couldn't have been more different. They had just taken the player they had rated highest who was still available. That included team owner Dan Gilbert, who fully supported the decision. Every pick has risk but the Cavs felt Waiters had emerged as their selection because of how their process worked, not because they wanted to pull a surprise.

"This was the right fit for our team," Grant said several times, including to the local media at a news conference after the draft.

By the time some of the response was playing out on local radio and on Twitter, and Waiters was expressing surprise on national television that he went fourth, the Cavs had moved on. With their first goal realized, their second was to move up and try to improve their lot with their second pick.

Moving around in the draft, however, was proving to be more of a challenge than in recent years. With new rules on spending, the value of cost-controlled first-round picks had clearly increased. It's a trend that has been developing over the past few years and really played in this draft. In fact, despite the usual amount of chatter, there was virtually no movement.

[+] Enlarge
Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE/Getty Images
After some dealing by GM Chris Grant, Zeller became a Cav.
The Cavs had a handful of players they were looking at in the mid-teens, hoping to use their other three picks to move up. This is again where planning came into play. Before the draft started, they had agreed that moving into the teens was worth their No. 24 pick plus their two high second-round picks, Nos. 33 and 34. Three picks for one seemed like a lot but Grant had decided that he wanted a better player now much more than four rookies or the option of dumping a second-rounder this year for a second-rounder in the future. That was an issue that was put to bed long before David Stern took the podium Thursday night.

Wilcox, Redden and Griffin continuously worked the phones, checking several picks ahead and then circling back. Several players they had interest in came off the board and there was dwindling hope that they might be able to move up. After all, no one had moved up or down all night. But then, after trying for nearly an hour, the Cavs found some action.

The Mavericks, conscious of clearing cap space, were willing to give Cleveland the No. 17 pick for those three other picks. Still available was North Carolina center, legit 7-footer and four-year college player Tyler Zeller. The Cavs had him ranked just outside the top 10 on their board and he was a big man, certainly a position of need.

Over the previous two months the Cavs had brought nearly 60 players into Cleveland for workouts, but Waiters and Zeller, interestingly, were not among them. This is unusual but it did not give the team pause. Grant and his scouts had seen Zeller play for years. He was the ACC Player of the Year, but that didn't impress the Cavs as much as some of his advanced statistics, which showed he was one of the most efficient scorers in the draft. His shooting numbers were especially attractive.

The Mavericks wanted to add injury-plagued guard Kelenna Azubuike to the deal to get it done. The Cavs weren't totally sure of his health status -- he played in only four games last season -- but were so focused on upgrading in the draft that they agreed to take on the remaining year of his contract at just over $1 million.

When the trade was done the room burst into applause, a release of the adrenaline that had been building in the chase.

Nearly four hours later, Grant sat behind the desk in his office trying to decompress from it all. It was after 1 a.m. and Tad Carper, the team's senior vice president of communications, was going over Grant's media schedule for the next day. Radio appearances, a news conference with Waiters and Zeller after they'd been flown in with their families on a private jet from New York, and various other items. The Cavs had one of the most interesting nights of any team and people were going to want to talk about it. Meanwhile, Grant scrolled through the Internet, catching up on everything else that had happened.

For the second straight draft, the Cavs were able to get a guard and a big man. They got a backcourt mate for Irving and a frontcourt mate for Thompson. They hope they'd just gotten closer to being a contender. Of course, nothing like that could possibility be known now.

That's where the true suspense is.

A Cleveland Cavaliers

Just because the Cavs made a surprise pick at No. 4 doesn't mean it was the wrong pick, and I'd be killing them here if the guy they got Syracuse shooting guard (Dion Waiters) was someone on whom other teams weren't nearly as high. But that wasn't the case, as Waiters also appealed to Golden State at No. 7 (where Jerry West, among others, wanted him) and Sacramento at No. 5. He's tenacious, efficient and confident, even if he wasn't a starter for the Orange. At No. 17, grabbing North Carolina center Tyler Zeller in a trade with Dallas is tremendous value for a team that needed size and scoring up front. Cleveland traded No. 24, No. 33 and No. 34 to get him, but the chance to grab an ACC Player of the Year was well worth it.

Read more: 2012 NBA draft team grades - Sam Amick - SI.com

Thanks for the Windhorst article, great read.

I was surprised by both picks but the more I learn about these guys the more I like what we did.

Waiters at a minimum fills a hole at SG and as a combo guard. His upside is much higher than I imagined though, everything I read indicates that he could be a star in the NBA (not a lock, but a good possibility).

Zeller will be a guy who can start and play at a decent level from day one. He'll give us solid defense and low post scoring, and we need scorers wherever we can find them. He has a legit jump hook from the elbows, and he can knock down the 15 footers along with being able to run the floor as well as any big man out there. He'll have to add some muscle and bulk but that's a given going from college to the NBA.

He'll have AV to mentor him in a lot of valuable ways unless we pull the trigger on some kind of trade involving AV. But I don't think they'll consider trading AV until the trade deadline at the soonest, if at all.

These are sound and solid moves with very little "bust" potential, and quite a bit of "upside" potential.

Shock, Anger, Denial, Realization
by jscottgrad on Jun 29, 2012 8:30 AM CDT


Shock: And with the 4th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft the Cleveland Cavaliers select: Dion Waiters

At this point I am shock and numb and no other words can describe how I feel at the point of this announcement. MKG has gone to Charlotte (didn't see that coming, great pick but didn't see it coming), Beal has gone to Wizards (saw that coming) but after that my brain was set, "Harrison Barnes" that's the only name that could possibly come out of David Sterns mouth, small chance of Andre Drummond but nope its going to be Harrison Barnes; I couldn't of been even more wrong, it was Dion Waiters.

Now I'm thinking to myself "o.k we have the sleeper pick and I've seen dude play, boy can ball", but hold on not only that but if I know Chris Grant he wouldn't take that big of a leap unless he had something up his sleeve; I'm thinking Andy and the #24 pick for Barnes, yeah that's it, he's going to trade for Barnes. To walk away from this draft with Waiters AND Barnes....WOW LET'S GO or in worst case we will move up to get Drummond. Little did I know, this Shock that turned into a little dash of hope would soon turn into Anger.

Anger: We just got word that the Dallas Mavericks have just made their last pick of Tyler Zeller for the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 24th, 33rd and 34th pick.

WTF, NO REALLY WTF, ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!!! Our draft night is over for Zeller, Chris Grant just gave up all those picks for Zeller? Zeller? smh What about Barnes? You mean to tell me Chris Grant was that stubborn to not trade the later picks for Beal but he does it for Zeller? WTF man!!!! Why didn't he trade Andy and all the other picks for Barnes instead, you past on an possible All-Star for a guy that will just be pretty good? Why? Why? Why?!!!!

Denial: Oh yeah Waiters is going to be D. Wade and Zeller is a very good center and he's 7'0 can't pass that up.

Oh yeah, Cavs are going to be great next year, I swear to you I dreamed last night that Chris Grant made a trade in the middle of the night and got Harrison Barnes for Andy and next year's pick. I woke up to check Fear The Sword to only be disappointed once again.

Realization: Waiters and Zeller are solid and maybe just maybe Chris Grant couldn't pull off those trades.

This is where I am right now and to be honest it's a "happy place" check this out, we LOVED BEAL and LIKED BARNES because they can shoot the lights out right. Cavs needed a shooter that could put the ball in the basket along with Kyrie. Ok out of Waiters, Beal and Barnes guess who has the highest shooting percentage of the three?

Waiters .476 Beal .445 Barnes .440 Waiters

Ok but what about Beal's 3 pt shooting, we need a guy that can shoot the three now that Anthony Parker is gone (by the way 2% milk is the best type of milk). How does Waiters match up when it comes down to 3 point shooting compared to the two guys we wanted?

Waiters .363 Beal .339 Barnes .358 Waiters Again

and just for kicks, Waiters averaged less turnovers than both, more steals than both, more assists than both, and he is more athletic than both. All of this while Waiters played 5 less minutes a game than Barnes and 10 less minutes than Beal.

As for Zeller, look he was the ACC player of the year (that means he won it over Barnes as well), he shot .553 from the field, .808 from the free throw line, let's pause here, he's a 7'0 footer that shoots 80% from the FT Line, that's better than Beal and Barnes and he got to the line more times than both of those guys. The guy clearly knows how to run the floor and is great in transition plays playing with Kendall Marshall,16.3 pts and 9.6 rebs LOVE IT.

OK so I'm SOLD on Waiters AND LOVE THE ZELLER PICK, on to Chris Grant

Look as angry as I was with Chris Grant last night, I got to think he just isn't an idiot, I see now why he didn't want to give up so much for Beal when he could wait and get Waiters whose numbers were JUST AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER. As for not getting Barnes, maybe the rumors were just rumors and he just couldn't get Barnes, GS could've turned him down, given the backlash he HAD TO KNOW he was going to get, I'm pretty sure he tried to get another lottery pick no matter what because if he gave ALL of our remaining picks away for Zeller, I would have to think he would do the same and throw in Andy V for Barnes. If that's the case than its not his fault, plus with me calming down, taking a breath and looking at what we just got, I think he might of did a Great Job last night. Don't forget we did draft Zeller and gave up alot for him, I have to believe Andy will be gone in a trade this summer, hate to see him go but excited to see what we would get in return.

Summer League couldn't get here fast enough.

Cavs signed Kevin Jones to a 3 year partially guaranteed contract.


Kevin Jones - West Virginia



Crowder edged out Jones for the Player of the Year, but Jones wasn’t far behind. He led the conference in scoring and rebounding, and earned a spot on the All-Big East first team as well as the AP All-American Second Team (an honor Crowder isn’t lucky enough to claim). But like Crowder, Jones isn’t getting much hype in the upcoming draft. He is expected to be drafted, but just not very early.

Like all the other prospects I’ve looked at in this series, perceived physical limitations are what hold Jones back. Sure, he’s 6-8 and he has a 7-4 wingspan, but he plays a style of basketball that analysts like to call “below the rim.” According to Kyle Nelson at Draft Express, “he is an underwhelming athlete and very much a below-the-rim player at this level.”And according to Chad Ford, “Jones’ lack of size combined with a game that is decidedly below the rim have kept him on the margins for the past two seasons.” Okay, so maybe there is a size issue? Man, what is it with these NBA guys and size? 6-8 isn’t big enough for a power forward anymore? Patrick Minton sarcastically captured this mentality best

it doesn’t matter if he actually produces as if he were 6’10″, he has to actually be 6’10″. Cause, you know. Whatever, dude.

Anyway, apparently players have to be high flyers to be any good these days. I guess that’s why so many analysts completely ignore all statistical analysis and proclaim Blake Griffin to be better than Kevin Love. Jones may play his basketball “below the rim,” but he’s been able to produce regardless, so I don’t see it as a real issue.
Enough with subjective analysis, how does Jones stack up against his peers from an objective standpoint?

Compared to the other power forwards in this year’s draft, Jones is particularly adept at grabbing offensive boards (4th in the nation in offensive rebounds!), taking care of the basketball (.068 TO%!), and avoiding personal fouls. In addition, Jones has played more minutes over the past three seasons than all but three players in the entire NCAA. This is a testament to his durability, which is an important, albeit often overlooked, attribute of a basketball player. Like Crowder, Jones is a good all around player with a wide range of skills that serve to help basketball teams win. And like Crowder, Jones should be a first round pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Of course, it may turn out that if they go later that they could earn close to their real value.

-James

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I don't know much about Waiters but I hate Barnes and am SO glad the Cavs didn't draft him. He is a bust waiting to happen. Love the Zeller pick. He'll be our starting C for a long time fellas. He is just a good solid starting center who can rebound, run the floor and shoot free throws and hit the mid range jumper. He is going to open up the lane for Irving and Waiters, AV back to 6th man and if we can just sign a legit SF we can bring Gee off the bench too.

Cavs have built a nice roster and I fully expect them to compete for a playoff spot next year and we have loads of draft picks coming up folks.....

Kevin Jones headlines list of eight best college players who went undrafted

By Jeff Eisenberg | The Dagger – Fri, Jun 29, 2012 9:53 AM EDT

To appreciate how little stock NBA franchises sometimes put in a draft prospect's college production, consider this example for a moment.
West Virginia's Kevin Jones earned second-team All-American honors last season, scoring 19.9 points per game, grabbing 10.9 rebounds and shooting 50.9 percent from the field in the rugged Big East. That still wasn't enough to get him drafted, however, as NBA teams apparently found 60 guys they thought had greater potential.

The only good news for Jones is he's far from the only highly successful college player not to be selected in this year's draft. Here's a look at a list of the top college players who were not drafted Thursday night the same way Notre Dame's Ben Hansbrough, Kansas State's Jacob Pullen and Georgetown's Austin Freeman weren't last year:

1. Kevin Jones, F, Sr., West Virginia
Comment: The 6-foot-8 forward did everything possible as a senior to earn a second-round look, carrying an otherwise uninspiring West Virginia team to the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately for Jones, that apparently wasn't enough to change NBA scouts' opinion he's unlikely to thrive in the league as a result of a lack of size and outside shooting combined with a game that is decidedly below the rim

2. J'Covan Brown, G, Jr., Texas
Comment: It's already difficult for an undersized 6-foot-2 shooting guard to win over NBA scouts, but Brown did himself no favors at the pre-draft combine in Chicago. He had the highest body fat of any NBA prospect at 12.5 percent, not a great sign for a player whose shot selection and ability to get along with his teammates were already issues.

3. John Shurna, F, Sr., Northwestern
Comment: Shurna's phenomenal outside shooting evidently wasn't enough to outweigh the other deficiencies in his game. The 6-foot-9 senior shot 43.4 percent from 3-point range as a junior and 44.0 percent as a senior, but he rebounds poorly for someone of his size and he lacks the strength, athleticism or quickness most NBA forwards possess.

4. Jordan Taylor, G, Sr., Wisconsin
Comment: NBA scouts weren't sold on Taylor's ability to thrive at the next level when he was a preseason national player of the year candidate, so of course it didn't help his stock that his senior year was a bit underwhelming compared to the brilliance of his previous season. Taylor's shooting percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio dropped off as a senior and he still lacks prototypical size or ability to get to the rim for an NBA point guard.

5. Scott Machado, G, Sr., Iona
Comment: It's hard to believe there's not a place on an NBA bench for a point guard with Machado's court vision, but the Iona senior went undrafted despite averaging 13.6 points, 9.9 assists and 40.4 percent 3-point shooting last season. NBA teams are apparently doubtful that the flimsy 6-foot-2 has the explosive speed or athleticism typically needed to survive in the league at his size.

6. Terrell Stoglin, G, So., Maryland
Comment: If the NBA draft has taught us anything over the years, it's that teams believe there's no place in the league for an undersized shooting guard. The 6-foot-1 Stoglin averaged 21.6 points per game and reportedly outplayed several first-round prospects during workouts the past month, but he went undrafted because he lacks the vision and passing skills to play point guard and the size and wingspan to play off the ball.

7. Tu Holloway, G, Sr., Xavier
Comment: It's Holloway's size that likely prevented him from getting a second-round look. He followed up a brilliant junior campaign by averaging 17.5 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore, but the NBA rarely has a place for a 5-11 combo guard who's more of a scorer than a facilitator, especially one who's outside shot remains inconsistent at best.

8. Drew Gordon, F, Sr., New Mexico
Comment: Why would the NBA not have a place for an explosive 6-foot-9 rebounding machine who averaged a double-double both his junior and senior seasons at New Mexico? That's surely what Gordon is wondering today. Questions about his character from his UCLA days may have played a role, as may his lack of a perimeter jumper or back-to-the-basket game.

I'm looking forward to another Z at center. Or will Zeller by Z2?

Cleveland Cavaliers impressed by Dion Waiters' ability to overcome adversity -- and his basketball talent
Published: Saturday, June 30, 2012, 7:52 PM Updated: Saturday, June 30, 2012, 8:26 PM
By Jodie Valade, The Plain Dealer
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View full sizeGene J. Puskar, Associated Press
Dion Waiters struggled to accept his role initially at Syracuse, but he came to embrace being the team's sixth man in his sophomore season.
Previous Plain Dealer coverage
Cavs pull draft-day surprise, pick Waiters
Pluto: Pick of Waiters is high-risk, high-reward
New Cavs Waiters, Zeller meet the press: Video
Draft-night comments from Grant, Scott: Video
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Because Dion Waiters took the mysterious route into the NBA Draft, because he chose to wall himself off from any teams that wanted to see his skills in person or ask him questions about his past, the Cavaliers had to rely on what they heard from others.
They listened to stories of all the times Waiters has declared himself the best player around, as he did during this year's NCAA Tournament. Or how he's brashly spoken of his talents, as he did when he told Cleveland reporters moments after he was drafted that he "[doesn't] have any weaknesses."
They heard all about the rocky past at Syracuse, how Waiters so disliked coming off the bench his freshman season that he sulked, didn't play a lick of defense for a squad famous for its zone, let himself fall out of shape, and nearly transferred.
They knew he bounced around four different high schools, that he's been called a mama's boy and told he has severe trust issues. That he endured the deaths of three cousins and his best friend within the span of 18 months and no one is sure if he's overcome that.
They knew about it all. But they couldn't ask him about any of it.
And still, they chose to draft Waiters with the fourth pick -- far ahead of where anyone projected the 6-4 shooting guard to be selected.
There's a reason why.
"The way we look at it, he's one of the very few young players who has gone through adversity and been held accountable with an understanding that he knows what to do," Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant said.
So, allow Waiters to introduce himself to the Cavaliers, finally, and this is what you're likely to hear: He's the perfect backcourt buddy for Kyrie Irving. A slashing shooting guard who can score better than any other available player in the draft. He's mature. A fiercely loyal teammate -- once he learns to trust. And he's intent not upon proving to anyone that he deserved to be selected so high in the draft, but merely upon showing the awesome ability that will make Cleveland fans ooh and ahh when they finally see it in person, too.
Grant and Cavaliers coach Byron Scott will get to know Waiters firsthand, now, but they've been drooling over the guard's abilities for a while. Grant said he made a handful of trips to Syracuse, personally, during the season to watch Waiters play. Scott couldn't stop watching film of Waiters, who wowed him time and again.
It's an ability that began when Waiters was a kid bouncing basketballs on the playgrounds of South Philadelphia. His mother, Monique Brown, was 17 when Waiters, her second son, was born. His father was in jail. Hours after Waiters was born, Brown's grandmother, the guiding force in her life, died. That meant Brown was left to raise not only her two young boys alone, but also her three sisters. She never felt overwhelmed, she said.
"It wasn't pressure, it was more like motivation," Brown said.

View full sizeGene J. Puskar, Associated Press
Toughness runs in the Waiters' family.
Waiters saw the way his mother handled the obligations -- with authority and with confidence -- and that is where his own swagger first began to develop. You grow up in a single-parent household, you grow up in Philadelphia, and you have to be brash.
"It's a tough city," Waiters said. "It made me into the type of player I am."
Waiters found his home on the city courts, found his talent with scoring early. He committed to attend Syracuse before his freshman season in high school, though he's still not sure how it happened. Waiters said his AAU coach called asking if he'd like to attend Syracuse. Waiters, thinking it was a joke and playing along, said, "Sure."
"About 10 minutes later I was getting all these phone calls from reporters telling me, 'Congratulations!' " Waiters said.
Asked why he never considered changing his oral commitment, Waiters acted as if someone just questioned if he loves his mother.
"I'm a loyal guy," he said, simply.
Before he got to Syracuse, though, he had to make it through high school -- four different ones. His freshman year he started at Bartram, then transferred to South Philadelphia midyear in an effort to find the right environment. Then, he found South Kent in Connecticut, a prep school with a dynamite basketball team coached by Raphael Chillious. In Chillious he found the father figure he'd been searching for, and a basketball team where he could flourish. He was teammates with Sacramento guard Isaiah Thomas and a handful of other Division-I college players, but still considered himself the best player on the court. His brusque manner turned some people away.
"He was very reclusive, didn't talk very much," said Chillious, now an assistant coach at the University of Washington. "A lot had to do with his trust issues. But he had a million-dollar smile. What he would do is if a teacher or someone confronted him, he'd more or less shut down and become more reclusive. What I taught him to do is say, 'Hey, man, it's all right to show your emotions, but you need to show them in a way that's conducive to the environment you're in. You can't bottle all that stuff up.' "
That was around the same time that three cousins and his best friend were killed. A bullet found Waiters' best friend in Philadelphia.
"His best friend was supposed to be right alongside him, playing ball with him," Brown said. "All these tragedies, back to back to back . . . who wouldn't have a tough time? But he still was able to go out on the court and do what he does best -- play ball."
When Chillious left South Kent for a job at Nike, Waiters finished his high school career at Life Center Academy in New Jersey.
So, when he finally made it to Syracuse, Waiters figured he was immune to life's difficulties, accustomed to living away from his mother. College would be easy.
He didn't expect to come off the bench his freshman season with the Orange. His refuge, the basketball court, failed him for the first time.
Waiters averaged only 6.6 points in 16.3 minutes per game his freshman season. He called his mom to vent about his anger at the situation, to confess that he might try to find another school that would play him. She came to visit him numerous times simply to calm him down.
"Basically he was getting mentally broken down to get built back," Brown said. "I told him this is not high school ball. This is a higher coach than what you've been dealing with. This man knows way more than you do. I kept encouraging him, told him he'd be fine."
His mom, in fact, was the one who persuaded Waiters to stay at Syracuse.
"She didn't raise a quitter," he said.
Waiters recommitted to the program in the off-season, hitting the gym three or four times a day. His muscles grew to the point that he was down to 4 percent body fat, though official NBA Draft combine measurements listed him at 8.5 percent in May. He accepted his bench role so fully that he was named Big East Sixth Man of the Year while he averaged 12.6 points on 48-percent shooting in 24.1 minutes.
"Dion would have started for every team in the country," Chillious said. "But that was the role that coach [Jim] Boeheim wanted him to play. At times, it looked like he was frustrated, but at the end of the day, he embraced that role. I think he relished the fact that he was the best sixth man in the country."
Said Brown, "The freshman season was bumpy, but the sophomore season was outrageous."
So dominant was Waiters for the Orange, despite his bench role, that Ohio State focused on him more than any other player when the two teams met in the NCAA Tournament.
"Going into the game, he was the one I was watching on film," Buckeyes assistant coach Jeff Boals said. "Some of the stuff he did, you were very worried about. He had the ability to put points up in bunches."
Waiters has been called the best scorer available in the draft. Even by people other than Waiters.
"It was very obvious when he came into the game, he was the guy," the Cavaliers' Grant said. "He controlled the game, he won the game. He had the ball in his hands and made plays for himself and others."
Learning how to accept a bench role was the best thing that happened to him, Waiters said.
"I went to Syracuse as a boy and left as a man," he said.
He's also leaving as a player that many scouts have projected will be a better in the NBA than in college, his ability to break down defenses individually more suited to the pro game than the college game so reliant upon systems.
"Some guy will sag off, and he will shoot in your face and laugh at you afterward," Connecticut center Andre Drummond told The Philadelphia Inquirer of his former Big East cohort. "He's an animal."
Waiters, of course, could have told you that, himself. Modesty is not one of his strongest traits, though Waiters also said he can't wait to begin playing with reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Irving.
"I can't stop thinking about all the fun we'll have," Waiters said, grinning.
This time, the Cavaliers will see everything Waiters does, up-close and in-person.

Syracuse is shown locally here so I saw Waiters a lot. You have to see him play in person to get it.

This guy is different from most college players - his game is a pro game. Like Michael Jordan at North Carolina, this kid was someone with pro-type skills and moves (offensively) playing in a college situation. Thus his stats are misleading.

Obviously, I am not saying he is a Jordan, maybe not even a starter right away, but I think he can be an outrageous scorer in the pro game.

TFIR wrote:Syracuse is shown locally here so I saw Waiters a lot. You have to see him play in person to get it.

This guy is different from most college players - his game is a pro game. Like Michael Jordan at North Carolina, this kid was someone with pro-type skills and moves (offensively) playing in a college situation. Thus his stats are misleading.

Obviously, I am not saying he is a Jordan, maybe not even a starter right away, but I think he can be an outrageous scorer in the pro game.

He'll start right away. We have no other SG worth spit.

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_ski ... 6&f=599571

Byron Scott on the draft.

Brett (Cleveland)

Rank your ROY Candidates 1-5
Chad Ford (1:24 PM)

1. Davis. 2. Waiters 3. Beal 4. Thomas Robinson 5. MKG