NBA Draft 2011: Why the Cavaliers Should Take Enes Kanter with the No.1 Pick

If you watched the Nike Hoops Summit in April of 2010, you knew who the best amateur basketball player in the world was.  The Portland crowd witnessed one of the best statistic performances in that events history.  A better performance than fellow foreign big man Dirk Nowitzki, a better performance than the players who were supposed to be his teammates in Terrance Jones and Brandon Knight, a better performance than a lot of NBA all stars currently playing, and a better performance than the No. 1 pick of the 2011 NBA Draft Kyrie Irving.

 If you watched this All-Star game you knew Kanter was the best player not only in the 2011 recruiting class but was going to be the best player in the draft class. Kanter was so good that suddenly we knew that John Calipari did not need to worry about replacing first team All-American and top five draft pick DeMarcus Cousins. Kanter was so good that the people of Kentucky knew that if he was eligible that a national championship might be in order if Kentucky could just get Kanter eligible.

But Kentucky could never get Kanter eligible.  Kentucky could not get Kanter eligible because of the yellow journalism from Pete Thamel at the New York Times, Kentucky could not get Kanter eligible because the NCAA does not seem to maintain consistency from case to case,  Kentucky could not get Kanter eligible because the NCAA did not seem to improve its game with foreign players, and Kentucky could not get Kanter eligible because of the NCAA seemingly never-ending witch hunt of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari.

Logically it is usually a risk to take a player with the No. 1 pick who never played a college game.  But it becomes a little less risky when you see that the player who is projected as the number one pick only played nine college games.  Kyrie Irving only played nine games because of a foot injury and Kanter did not play any games because of irrational NCAA ruling. 

Why should Cleveland take a point guard who is already injury prone? Why should Cleveland take a point guard who might just end up being the next Mo Williams?  Why should Cleveland not take a chance on a kid who looked like he was a brutal combination of Dirk and Al Jefferson at the Nike Hoops Summit?  Why punish a player for sitting out when he had no control over why he was sitting out? 

Kanter is not injury prone like Kyrie Irving, Kanter did not kill his teams chemistry like Irving (despite sitting out unjustifiably), and Kanter looked like a ten time all star at the Nike Hoops Summit.  Why would you pick an injury prone chemistry killing Mo Williams like point guard over a guy who could be a ten time all-star?  The only logical reason is that you are Cleveland, and you have just accepted your post-decision fate as professional basketball purgatory.

 Another point here is that analyst are constantly saying "If Kanter would have played this season at Kentucky he would clearly have been the best player in the draft!" Even though Kanter did not play a game for Kentucky this season he spent the season practicing with the team everyday, learning lots of English, learning lots of details of the game, and coming into workouts in even better shape. 

It would make sense for teams to pass on Kanter if he came into workouts in terrible shape and having lost some of the basketball skills that had made him such a great player before. But instead Kanter came into these workouts into even better shape, with even more skills than he had at the Nike Hoops Summit, and with lots of basketball knowledge.  So Kanter has gotten even better since the Nike Hoops Summit even though he did not play a game and he was already "the best player in America."  Why would the Cavaliers not draft a player who was already the best player in America and has gotten better as of late?

Another argument for taking Kanter with the first pick in the 2011 draft is the development of Josh Harrelson. Before Kanter arrived on campus Josh Harrelson was the worst player on the 2009-2010 Kentucky team when Kanter arrived on campus "Jorts" suddenly became not only one of the best players on Kentucky's team but one of the best big men in the nation.  A lot of Harrelson's development can be attributed to the way Kanter pushed him daily in practice. If Kanter can single-handedly turn a 12th man into a key player on a Final Four team and a second round NBA prospect, imagine how much he can help the players on the Cavaliers.  Kanter has already proven that he can make players around him without even playing a game and this means that he could improve the Cavaliers drastically by playing an 82-game season.

 Kanter may have been ineligible for his first season of Kentucky, but he still managed to improve his overall game. Kanter may have been ineligible for his first season at Kentucky, but he still managed to make an impact on the Wildcats by making one of its worst players a shining stars.  Kanter may have been ineligible for his first season at Kentucky, but he was still the best amateur player in the world as early as April of 2010.  Kanter may have not played a game last season, but he still has more game than anyone in this draft including Kyrie Irving.  All of these reasons are the reason why Enes Kanter should be the first pick in the NBA Draft.  Even if he is not the first pick, we can smile at the fact that the young man is finally "free." 

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