WaitingForNextYear

With the NBA Draft just two days away, WFNY will have a series of pieces on all things draft related in regards to your hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. First up is a look at the past.

Danny Ferry took over as the Cavaliers GM on June 27, 2005. On that day, the Cavaliers had a ton of cap room and no draft picks. So in reality, Ferry’s first draft came in 2006. The Cavs held the 25th pick (as well as two second rounders) and at that juncture, Ferry was looking for the best available player who probably didn’t have the huge upside, but could possibly be NBA ready as a rookie.

The day before the draft, at another website, I wrote the following about two of the guys the Cavs were said to be looking at at #25:

PG Daniel Gibson – 6-1, 190 lbs, 20 years old, Texas

Brian Windhorst from the Akron Beacon-Journal reported last week that they Cavaliers are enamored with Gibson. He cancelled workouts with other teams after seeing GM Danny Ferry and Coach Mike Brown. Other sources say that he has been telling anyone who will listen in Austin that he will be a Cavalier. Now I don’t claim to know more than Ferry, but trust me on this one. If the Cavaliers pick Gibson at #25, it will be a huge mistake. I watched Gibson at least 20 times the last two years. As a freshman, I thought he was an absolute stud, can’t miss guy; a better version of T.J. Ford. As a sophomore, he looked more Gerald Ford than T.J. Ford. He was taken off the ball mid-season by UT coach Rick Barnes because he couldn’t get his own shot and was turning the ball over too much. He is a good, not great shooter, and is too small to be a 2 man. The Cavaliers need a pure point guard who can shoot. Gibson is not this. His numbers declined in scoring, assists (only 3.1 per game), field goal percentage, and three point percentage after he received so much pre-season hype. He is Dajuan Wagner all over again, except he isn’t as good of a scorer. This guy won’t be in the league in 3 years. Mark it down.

SG Shannon Brown – 6-3, 190 lbs, 20 years old, Michigan State

Another guy I have seen a ton. I really like his game. He is a ball of energy; a great finisher, solid defender, and a terrific athlete. Improved every year in college and broke out this past season, averaging 17 points per game. His shooting really improved from year to year. The negative on him is his 6’3 frame as a two guard and the fact that he doesn’t have the handles to play point guard. However, he is fearless, tough, and played in plenty of big games at MSU. I wouldn’t be upset if this were the Cavaliers pick as he would be a good backup to Larry Hughes at the two and an upgrade over Sasha Pavlovic and the forgettable Luke Jackson. This is assuming Flip Murray walks in free agency.

My prediction on that day:

I believe (Jordan) Farmar will be gone and the Gibson rumors will be unfortunately true. They will draft Daniel Gibson and watch him be John Morton 2006 for four years.

I also badly wanted PG Marcus Williams from UConn in this draft (a monster bust with New Jersey and Golden State who is now out of the NBA) so what do I know anyway?

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OK, so I was partially right. Brown was the pick at #25 and he never was able to make any sort of splash as a Cavalier. He looked completely overwhelmed in the Wine and Gold, which surprised me considering he was a four-year player under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, who like Cavs coach Mike Brown, preaches defense first. Shannon’s best moment as a Cavalier, was being a part of the monster three-team trade at the deadline in 2008 which brought Delonte West, Joe Smith, Ben Wallace, and Wally Szczerbiak to Cleveland.

Interestingly, Brown has found a home and a championship ring with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is a perfect fit for Phil Jackson’s triangle offense and finally showed some of the attributes of being a solid team-first player late in the season after being dealt from Charlotte.

Gibson, someone the Cavs almost took at #25, was still there for Ferry in the second round at #42. So Ferry was able to have his cake and eat it too. The man they call “Boobie” has made me eat my words while also kind of proving me right all at once. During his rookie season, Gibson came out of nowhere to be an able-bodied spot up shooter for Lebron James on the wing. Despite averaging just 4.6 points a game during the regular season, he busted onto the national scene during the ‘07 Eastern Conference Finals. He had 21 in a game four win against the Pistons, but everyone remembers the 31 point (19 in the 4th) outburst in the series-clinching game six win that vaulted the Cavs into the NBA Finals.

At that point, it seemed like the Cavs had a perfect complimentary player on their hands for years to come. Unfortunately, it has been downhill from that point for Boobie. His defensive liabilities, thanks to his size, have never gone away, and he has never developed into a true point guard. His shot – the reason he is on the floor – has been very inconsistent. He has battled through various injuries, including one to his big toe that hampered him most of the ‘09 season, where he took turns in and out of Mike Brown’s rotation.

The second of Ferry’s two second rounders was a flyer, Ejike Ugboaja of Nigeria. He was a 6′9 power forward whom was never heard from again after that night.

Judge that draft how you will, but at this point, Gibson is still around, Brown, like so many others before him, has started to come around elsewhere, and Ugboaja was a throw away.

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Like his first year as GM, Danny Ferry had no picks in 2007 to speak of, so we move to last year’s class. The Cavaliers held the 19th pick and were thought to be looking at true point guards, athletic shooting guards and young big men. Rumors swirled around the Cavs love for Kansas’ Brandon Rush, but he was out of their reach. Other names floated were Florida’s Marreese Speights, and Western Kentucky’s Courtney Lee.

One name that intrigued Ferry was a 6′9 Freshman from N.C. State, J.J. Hickson. At 19, with Lee there for the taking, he snagged Hickson. At the time, I liked his upside (and still do) and his athletic ability. His forte was his offensive rebounding  and shot blocking, but he needed work on the offensive side of the ball.

Without second round picks, Ferry did see some depth with this draft and made two moves to grab two big men from Kansas – Darnell Jackson at #52 and Sasha Kaun at #56. Readers of mine know I am a KU grad and a die-hard supporter of the program. Jackson is one of my all-time favorite Jayhawks and at the time, I thought he could contribute right away. I wrote in a profile of him in the preseason the following:

He plays a smart game; an excellent rebounder with a Drew Gooden-type 15 foot jump shot. I can’t say this enough, but the one thing you can get every time out from Jackson is maximum effort. I’ve written this many times in the past, but I truly believe it – nobody wants it more than Darnell Jackson, and his teammates all love him.

While Kaun is a project who is now playing in his native Russia, Hickson and Jackson both showed signs that they can contribute in the future. Hickson’s ceiling is much higher than Jackson’s (in trade rumors, J.J.’s name is always mentioned as a guy other teams want), but Jackson was the more NBA ready player, illustrated in the fact that while Ben Wallace was hurt, Brown put Jackson in the rotation. I still scratch my head as to why coach Brown didn’t try Jackson in the Orlando series. Hickson’s shot blocking and ability to run the floor looked great early in the season, but his defensive issues killed any shot he had of cracking the rotation permanently. Meanwhile, Hickson was a guy that would have helped in the Orlando series as well. He had the quickness and the length to stay with Rashard Lewis on the perimeter.

What will Ferry do with the #30 pick this year?  More on that over the next few days.