2017 Draft Day Live Thread

During the dark ages between The Decision and The Letter, the NBA Draft was an annual basketballiday for Cavs fans. The brutal regular season that had commenced a few months prior and hope for a better future met at a crossroad on a warm June night. Hell, I used to plan Mancations around the event itself. The last of which was a trip in 2014 to Phoenix to catch the Tribe series against the Diamondbacks, drink a bottle of Patron in a pool, and watch the Cavs draft Andrew Wiggins at #1.

The Cavs enter the draft for a second straight year without a selection, but Dan Gilbert surprised us and opened up his generous wallet to the tune of $2.4 million to obtain the 54th selection from the Atlanta Hawks to select Oakland guard Kay Felder. Felder barely cracked the rotation with the Cavs, playing just 386 minutes with the big league club. His talent was showcased in Canton for the Charge though, as he averaged 29.9 points, and 6 dimes per game in 11 contests.

While the Cavs don’t have a selection tonight, enjoy the show. Reflect on the picture above at how young Kyrie and Tristan were and how far they’ve come together. Kyrie could barely grow facial hair back then, and today he’s rocking a beard that would make a lumberjack jealous. They’ve been the constant with us for a six year journey that no other city or fanbase can compare. If a newspaper from the future from a crumby CBS television show told us on June 23rd, 2011 that almost five years to the day from that draft that Kyrie and Tristan would be NBA champions in Cleveland, and a parade would follow with 1.3 million of their friends, we would have been elated. Don’t let anyone take that from you, especially clickbait articles by idiots, for idiots about the Cavs imminent self-destruction. Twenty-eight teams in the league, hope that tonight can somehow put themselves in the position the Cavs are currently in.

As far the teams with draft picks are concerned, tonight is a deep draft class with plenty of intrigue. If you’re looking for some last minute draft prep before the show, draftexpress.com is still the best, and most in-depth in the business. The Celtics already traded away the first pick (if only the Cavs would have done the same in 2013) to go a few spots down the draft board and add to their war chest of future assets. There are also plenty of trade rumors surrounding All-Stars such as Paul George, Jimmy Butler, LaMarcus Aldridge and our own Kevin Love. I’d take just about every rumor with a grain of salt, because salt is awesome and it’s used to give flavor to food that is trash without it.

It’s easy to have a revisionist history looking back on past drafts, but none of the players selected tonight are close to finished prospects. We don’t know who will be able to handle the grind of an 82 game season. We don’t know who will stay healthy. We don’t know which high selection won’t live up to the hype. We don’t know which second rounder will become an All-Star. We don’t know how these kids will handle the NBA money and lifestyle. To all of the players selected tonight congratulations. The ball is in your court. Do something with it.