NBA Draft 2011: Predicting the Cleveland Cavaliers' Starting Lineup in 2011
The Cleveland Cavaliers emerged as the clear winners of Tuesday's NBA draft lottery, with the team ending up with the first and fourth picks in the 2011 draft thanks to the good luck of team owner Dan Gilbert's 14-year-old son Nick, who served as the Cavs' representative on the podium.
Now the real work begins for general manager Chris Grant and the rest of Cleveland's front office, who finally have license to begin the long-overdue overhaul of the team's roster following the defection of LeBron James to the Miami Heat. Unfortunately, they must do so by way of two early selections from the weakest pool of entrants since 2006.
After all, it's not like fans are going to keep stuffing Quicken Loans Arena if the team finds itself mired in another 26-game losing streak as it was this past season.
As important as this draft undoubtedly will be in the long term for Cleveland, it will also have a significant impact in the short term. Namely, head coach Byron Scott and the rest of the Cavs organization will expect their newcomers to start from day one, or at the very least contribute significantly from the get-go.
Whomever the Cavs select will also affect how the team goes about reshaping the rest of its roster, which will also come to bear quite heavily on who Cleveland trots out in its wine-and-gold jerseys once the issue of a new collective bargaining agreement has been settled.
So what will the Cavaliers' starting lineup look like when the NBA resumes its business at some point either before or during the 2011-12 season?
Forward: Antawn Jamison
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Assuming Antawn Jamison is still a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers when the 2011-12 season starts, he will definitely be in the starting lineup.
The aging forward, going into his 13th NBA season at 35 years old, is still a productive player and a solid citizen both in the locker room and the community.
The offensively challenged Cavs are starved for scoring, and if there's anything Jamison can do at his age, it's put the ball in the basket.
Jamison could just as easily end up with another team, as his experience and expiring contract will make him an intriguing option for a veteran team looking for one last piece to get over the championship hump.
Whether that change happens before the season, during the season or at all remains to be seen, so for now, he's a starter in Cleveland.
Forward: J.J. Hickson
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Balancing out Antawn Jamison's aged experience with some youthful exuberance is J.J. Hickson.
The 6'9" forward from North Carolina State took a strong step forward in his third NBA season, solidifying himself as a start-worthy contributor with 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
Hickson is one of the few players on the existing Cavs roster around whom the team could ostensibly build, making his presence in the starting lineup a must going forward.
Unless, of course, the front office decides to package him with some other players in a trade for some useful pieces as part of the rebuilding process.
Center: Enes Kanter
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The first big change to Byron Scott's starting squad will likely come at the center position, where the undersized and overpaid Anderson Varejao will return to the reserves in favor of whomever the Cavaliers take with the fourth overall pick.
In this case, Enes Kanter.
The 6'10" Turk is the best center in this draft, even though he hasn't played a competitive game of basketball in front of a live audience since he scored 34 points at the Nike Hoop Summit in April of 2010.
You can thank the NCAA for his yearlong hiatus, as he sat on the bench at Kentucky for the whole season after being ruled permanently ineligible when it was discovered that Kanter received more than $33,000 in "impermissible benefits" while playing for the Turkish club Fenerbahce back in 2009.
The fact that the kid is still considered a top-five pick speaks both to how good scouts think he can be as well as how short on talent this year's draft truly is.
Nonetheless, if everything works out with Kanter, the Cavs will have themselves a physical young center with a budding offensive repertoire who would allow Scott to relegate Varejao to his former role as an energy guy off the bench.
Guard: Baron Davis
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There's a school of thought that says the Cavaliers should start Anthony Parker at the off-guard position over Baron Davis, as playing Davis alongside whomever the front office takes with the first overall pick (hint hint) would weaken the team's perimeter defense considerably.
That theory is certainly valid, though not enough to keep Davis, the Cavs' $14 million man, out of the starting lineup.
Lord knows Cavs GM Chris Grant will do all he can to move Davis to another team, though it took nothing short of a Herculean effort (i.e. the pick that turned into the first overall selection) for the Clippers to get B-Diddy and the remaining two years and nearly $29 million of his contract off their books and onto Cleveland's.
Furthermore, Davis can actually be a pretty darn good player at times, with the ability to score at will as well as distribute the ball to his teammates when he puts his mind (and his body) to it.
Guard: Kyrie Irving
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If you haven't figured it out by now, the Cavaliers will taking Kyrie Irving with the first pick in the 2011 NBA draft, barring a bad physical or a recurrence of the foot injury that sidelined him for most of his freshman season at Duke.
Though Irving played in only 11 games as a collegian, he still stands out as the best point guard prospect in this year's draft class.
In a league that is becoming more and more point-centric by the year, adding Irving as its star of the future makes perfect sense for a Cavs team looking to build back to respectability after the LeBron James fiasco of this past summer, even with Baron Davis already on the roster.
In fact, Byron Scott could potentially employ Davis as Irving's mentor to show him the ropes of the NBA while teaching him what to do and what not to do, especially when it comes to eating and growing beards.
Starting Irving and Davis together would certainly hinder the Cavs defensively, but it would give their offense a leg up over the competition with two players in the backcourt capable of handling the ball and getting the rest of the team involved.
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