CLEVELAND, Ohio — NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants his draft to look like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s, but Silver picked the wrong year to try. Beginning Wednesday night — yes, Wednesday — Silver’s NBA draft will emulate Goodell’s NFL with separate TV broadcasts for each draft round in an attempt to lure more eyeballs. The first round begins Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Round 2 begins Thursday at 4 p.m.
One problem: According to the experts, this draft stinks. The best prospect depends on your preferred draft board, and few (if any) potential first-round picks project as stars. The result of Silver’s vision will be more pick time and fewer prospect names recognized, which is why it feels so funny to write the following:
The Cavs’ 20th overall pick on Wednesday could be play a crucial role in shaping their roster the rest of this decade.
No joke: This year’s NBA draft may lack future stars — and other than hopeful draftee Bronny James, star power — but Cleveland is still under pressure to mine a diamond in the first round. President of basketball operations Koby Altman has assembled a playoff core, but his roster still needs improvement on the margins. And given the Cavs’ lack of disposable income and draft capital going forward, Altman’s best chance to bolster might be Wednesday night.
Looking ahead to future drafts? Look again: Cleveland owns just three first-round picks between now and 2029 thanks to the Donovan Mitchell trade, and 2024′s is only one it controls. The Utah Jazz own Cleveland’s firsts in 2025 and 2027 and owns pick swap rights in 2026 and 2028, meaning Utah can trade draft slots with the Cavs if Cleveland has a better pick. If the Cavs’ keep progressing toward a championship, those swaps won’t matter. But if the Cavs’ keep progressing toward a championship, they might not pick higher than 20th again for a while.
Of course, Cleveland could always sign an impact free agent. But it better find a bargain given that spotrac.com projects the Cavs with $-51 million in cap space this offseason, and that’s before we consider extensions for Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, which could bleed into the 2028-29 season (in Mitchell’s case) and the 2029-30 season (in Mobley’s case), respectively. By next offseason, Cleveland could be flirting with the luxury tax’s second apron, and the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement aggressively punishes teams for spending in that bracket over time.
So what’s a team with major aspirations and limited flexibility to do? The Cavs lack money to spend on free agents. They lack motivation, as Altman said last month, to re-shuffle their roster with a big trade (time will tell how committed Cleveland is to that position). And they lack the draft capital — plus, if their plans pan out, the draft position — to look ahead at future drafts.
But come Wednesday, they hold a first-round pick. They hold one of their few chances this decade to add a young, affordable rotation player without sacrificing an asset in return. And for those reasons, the Cavs’ 20th overall selection — whomever they may choose — should hold Cleveland’s attention, even if Silver’s football imitation does not.
No joke: This draft might simultaneously be the most underwhelming in years and Cleveland’s most important one of the next five.
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