2008 NBA Draft Hindsight: Courtney Lee over J.J. Hickson
Written By: TD | Category: Cleveland Cavaliers | Comments: 22
A tip from a reader came in with the news that Orlando Magic rookie Guard Courtney Lee will return to the starting lineup for Game 1, replacing J.J. Redick, who took Lee’s spot after the sinus fracture he received in the first round series with Philadelphia. Per the tip: Coach Stan Van Gundy feels Lee matches up better with Cavaliers guard Delonte West, “who puts the ball on the floor more and attacks with the dribble.” Redick capably defended Ray Allen in the second round, but Lee is still a superior defensive player.
This got the WFNY team thinking (well, Scott actually). As we do from time to time, conversations break out over email that we think you may find interesting. This time, the question was asked – should the Cavs have drafted Lee, a shooting guard and four-year player at Western Kentucky over J.J. Hickson, the up-side laden, forward who played just one year at N.C. State. Both players were under consideration for the Cavaliers at #19. Lee ended up going 22nd to Orlando.
Rock: Seems about right. Plus, Lee is a lot bigger than Delonte, too. The Magic have so much height over the Cavaliers. I still hate this matchup for us.
TD: Me too. Lebron has to stick Hedo, but then if Andy has to take the quicker Lewis, Z has to defend Howard? Not great. Bottom line is if they aren’t hitting their threes, we smoke them. If they are, look out.
Scott: Just out of curiosity, given where we are as a team, does anyone wish we had went with Lee over Hickson?
Rock: I 100% do. I wanted Lee before the draft, and I still wish we had picked him today. Nothing against Hickson….he’s lived up to my expectations for him. But Courtney Lee is a starter-quality SG for a Conference Finals team as a rookie. He’s been so solid all season long, and boy would he be an AWESOME asset to have coming off the bench.
Scott: Agreed. I’m still holding out hope that he can add about 20 lbs of muscle and turn into a mini Dwight Howard.
TD: Lee would be getting Sasha’s minutes (limited) and we all have to agree that at the time we needed to draft a young big man. Turns out we got him in Darnell Jackson in round two. But his upside is limited. Hickson could be real good in three years though.
Rock: I think Lee would be getting Boobie’s minutes, actually. Lee can defend (which Coach Brown loves), and he’s got a much better outside shot than Boobie with more ability to get to the hoop than Boobie.
But I do agree with you that it all depends on opportunity to get playing time to prove what you can do. Had Pietrus never been hurt, we may not have found out how good Lee really is this year.
When we drafted Hickson, I was the one who wrote the piece telling everyone to relax, that Hickson was a smart choice. I’ll stand behind Hickson’s potential. But Courtney Lee was just one of those guys I kinda fell in love with in the pre-draft process and I really wanted to see him on the Cavs.
TD: remember though, coming into this season, we all loved Boobie and he was the killer with the outside shot. This year he has regressed. The need for a big was much more needed than the need for another guard. And I liked Lee over Hickson too.
Rock: Defense defense defense. If he can’t figure out the rotations (and lets be honest, even Drew Gooden knew Coach Brown’s rotations…it shouldn’t be that hard), he’s going to be glued to the bench for a long time. I absolutely love what Hickson can do on offense and his athletic ability with that long frame means he SHOULD be a great defender. The light bulb just isn’t coming on with him. Hopefully he’s just a slow learner, and we’re seeing how young and how raw he is. I hope for nothing but the best for Hickson.
TD: He definitely showed some signs this year that he can become a very good ballplayer. Offensively, he has a decent game and can jump out of the gym. Good shot-blocking ability too. But I heard Brian Windhorst say on Les Levine last week when asked about J.J., that he literally doesn’t get it and is a mistake waiting to happen. Long and the short of it, he isn’t ready yet.
Rock: We liked Boobie’s outside shot, but he’s never had any other dimension to his game. Lee came into the league with better tools for getting his own shot, handling the basketball, and making mid-range shots. The Cavs still need someone off the bench who can get his own shot. That’s why Coach Brown had to go back to keeping Delonte and Mo in the game together when LeBron rests. A guy like Lee would have allowed the Cavs to rest Delonte with LeBron, and Lee’s abilities could have freed up Mo to be the man.
This is why hindsight is 20/20, though. We had heard all about how Gibson was working on bringing that added dimension to his game. None of us could foresee how bad he would actually be this year.
Denny: Boobie is a better name than Courtney, fwiw.
Author: TD
TD is a born and bred Clevelander who agrees with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt when he says ""Ranch Dressing makes everything better except for cereal and ice cream."TD has written 253 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Excellent contribution Denny
Not that I am a big fan of Boobie but he has been running around with Turf Toe all year basically.
Not sure how good Hickson can become but he still isn’t even two years removed from high school.
In depth analysis.
Let’s have one summer of Hickson living in CLE over the summer working out with LBJ, doing some pilates like LBJ to strengthen the back….. This looks like a good pick once you realize that Z and Ben Wallace could die of old age at any minute.
Quality big men are so freaking hard to find, it’s insane. (see ex. A – Wright, Lorenzen).
courtney lee is one of the biggest x factors in this series. id him and pietrus together and say if they are hittin their shots watch out… plus rafer alston is a cavs killer but i hope that over the course of the series that doesnt hold true.
i never understood how nba teams “draft on potential.” like who is their right mind is gonna draft bj mullens!? same goes for jj hickson.
anyone care to shed some light on this?
Great break down on all accounts.
I was like you Rock, I really liked Lee going into the draft and felt like he would be a great edition to the team. Personally, I felt the Cavs had to address the issues in the Post position because Z and Ben aren’t getting any younger, Joe Smith wasn’t on the team at the time, and Andy is a unrestricted free agent this summer.
In retrospect, Lee would be a solid contributor with the slupping Boobie, but I think the J.J. pick will work out. He has tremendous athleticism and an amazing upside. He lacks discipline and focus, which can be fixed with coaching, time and influence from vets (i.e. Lebron, Z, Ben, etc.)
I like the JJ Hickson pick, and no matter the possible steals we can get in this year’s draft, we are going to have to focus on big men yet again. We can whine and quip about Gibson’s inability to improve upon his game, but Hickson was the right pick and is still a 20-year-old with oodles of potential. I agree entirely bridgrecrosser, give Hickson more time alongside this team we have now and he should have a solid career. Look back at how down we all were on Z when he was a youngster in the NBA, and his career turned out just fine.
I’ve said this many times, but offensively talented big men make their livings in the NBA very easily. Take a look at players like Chris Wilcox of the Knicks, Spencer Hawes of the Kings, Glen Davis of the Celtics or Jason Maxiell of the Pistons. All of these guys were big-time college kids from Maryland, Washington, LSU and Cincinnati, and turned out to be decent NBA pros because of their ability to score in the paint. They were not projected to be great NBA players out of school, but turned out to be decent and that is all we are asking out of JJ Hickson for the future.
It isn’t a matter of defending Howard, it’s just a matter of keeping him off the boards. I’ve got to think Z can put a body on him when the shot goes up. If Howard had any sort post-up game I’d be more nervous, but if is throwing up sky hooks we are in good shape. Out of 7 games, Orlando looked like they could beat the Cavs once. I’ll take those odds.
I’ve watched a lot of Cavs basketball this year and I just don’t see it with J.J. Hickson. His performances are weak and he normally looks confused. The Cavs have an excellent bench but the games when he was in seemed to be the ones when the bench would give up a big lead and the big boys would have to come back in to finish off the 4th.
The talk is then about how J.J. is ‘athletic’, and has ‘potential’. At 6′9″ and 242 he is not a true big. He doesn’t play his size either. He plays soft and he looks lackadaisical on the court.
Bridgecrosser is right. Getting a good big is difficult. And as others have mentioned he is young and could learn a lot this off-season from Lebron and the vets. But again, at only 6′9″, I don’t think I would have chosen him as the answer for our future big man.
@ Mark – assume almost everybody in the NBA is 1.5 inches shorter than their height. Some teams value the wingspan as just as important or slightly more than height. For instance, Garnett has arms of somebody that’s 7′2″, Tayshon for somebody 6″11 or 7′”. So it could be one of those deals.
I’d object, heck I’d STRENUOUSLY OBJECT to grading any youngster on their garbage time minutes. Teams tell their guards to try anybody from getting killed out there, and vets try to get garage points for their next one-year free agent deal.
Based on what I see, I’d have to presume we’re going for some Euro-see-you in two years-big at #32 this year.
Would Courtney Lee be making a bigger impact right now with this lineup thank Boobie, Sasha or JJ? Probably not.
Theseost-draft what-ifs may be fun but make me crazy Remember: we took Boozer and Andy in the SECOND round. How many GM’s wish they had taken either?
Should read “These post-draft what-ifs…”
I would agree that J.J. looked confused at times. During his time on the court, he reminded me a lot of an excited dog that was let out of his cage. He’s just excited and surprised to be out there and he has so much energy to burn he doesn’t even know what to do with it.
If the Cavs are able to harness and use it productively he can be a solid player, but if he continues to lack discipline and basketball IQ, he’ll continue to ride the bench and turn into any other big man that has the tools, but lacks the focus.
Great analysis, and yet disagree on the conclusion.
Look how this team fared with what it has – perfectly fine, especially at guard. Sure, Lee would be nice, but when it comes down to it, how many playoff minutes are we expecting from our reserve guards? Or forwards?
The Hickson pick was clearly designed to help down the road – 3-4 years from draft day. I think this year we were all able to see where Hickson’s strengths and weaknesses are. This offseason will be a big one for him, and he now has another year to progress before Z retires. If he gets it, great. If not, there’s no way the Cavs don’t go after Bosh. In the meantime, it certainly makes more sense to be investing with big men with potential that you have a few years to teach.
Ezzie hit it on the head. The Cavs are a great team… we could afford to get Hickson and bring him along slowly. Let him learn and hope he gets it. If not, we can always try again next draft.
Big men in the NBA take at least 2-3 years to develop. Hickson is in a good situation for himself to sit back and just learn a little. We saw more from Jackson because he was a 4 year guy at Kansas and helped them win a Ring. Hickson is barely out of high school and has to learn a COMPLICATED defensive system. Andrew Bynum took quite a few years to develop also, he didn’t come right out and destroy the league. It took him 3 years before he did that.
Give Hickson some time and see how his body and game develops, Lee may never really be any better than he is now anyway.
as good as lee may be or become, we needed to add youth in the frontcourt. probably still do, given the age of our backcourt.
@Bridgecrosser, I didn’t think about wingspan. Long guys can certainly affect the court.
@Ezzie/S-Dub, good points. It’s not like this is the Brown’s and JJ is needed as an impact player NOW (or yesterday, hehe).
This was a fun conversation but hopefully the one we have after 4,5 or 6 games about the NBA Finals will be even better.
Go CAVS!
Please don’t assume Hickson is done growing either. I grew a couple of inches in college.
“The Cavs still need someone off the bench who can get his own shot.”
Like Shannon Brown?
You’re assuming that we knew we were getting Joe Smith back. If Joe doesn’t get bought out of his contract and high-tail it back to Cleveland, we’re not even having this conversation.
hey J J is the Truth plus he is my cousin he needs to be a main priority on offense because really he is unstoppable they just wont give him the ball