Welcome to Cleveland Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller.

Boy, we never thought we’d be writing those two names today. But it was that kind of night for the Cavs who had a unique night at the NBA Draft. And everyone knows how much we love unique here in Cleveland.

After New Orleans selected Kentucky’s Anthony Davis with the first overall pick, Charlotte threw a surprise into everyone by actually making a good choice in selecting Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (who looked less than thrilled to be going from the highs of Kentucky to the stink hole that is the Charlotte Bobcats). Washington followed up with an equally good pick in Florida’s Bradley Beal.

With the two players the Cavs (and plenty of their fans) were hoping for off the board, the team quickly moved on to Waiters, the Big East’s Sixth Man of the Year at Syracuse and a player that seemingly no one outside of the Cavs saw as a lottery pick. The team also did conduct any workouts or interviews with Waiters prior to selecting him (Waiters left the combine after the first day on the advice of his agent).

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Shock & Denial:

This can't be happening.  Chris Grant really didn't reach two years in a row.  Not possible.  Surely, the Cavs can come away with more than Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters with two consecutive fourth overall picks.  There has to be some kind of mistake.  Perhaps there is a trade that we are unaware of.  Yeah, I bet that's it.  We're trading Waiters to the Warriors.  OK, it looks like that isn't happening.  Maybe they will trade Barnes for Anderson Varejao.  Screw that, I never liked Harrison Barnes, anyway.  I hear he has some character issues and his work ethic is overstated.

Pain & Guilt

The shock is wearing off.  Now I am just getting sad.  This is what I get for manning the Cavs tank last season.  It doesn't matter how high you pick if your GM makes a habit of picking guys at four who were experts had pegged to go late in the lottery recently.  This is it, next year, no matter how bad the Cavs are, I am done hoping for high draft picks.  It doesn't matter anyway.  

I'm sorry I failed you, Cavs fans. You deserve better.

Anger & Bargaining,

OK, I really didn't want Barnes with the fourth pick.  But he could be pretty decent with the seventh pick.  Maybe we can set up both wing positions in one draft.  That would be something.  Varejao is probably much better of a player than Barnes, but he's getting up there in age and won't be playing at this level forever.  I don't really love Dion Waiters and Harrison Barnes, but they could make a formidable wing duo with Kyrie Irving running the show.  Speaking of, Waiters can be pretty good.  He isn't an ideal player to take with the fourth pick, but maybe, just maybe he can be a great shooting guard for many years to come.  The Cavs front office clearly did their due diligence and they wouldn't pick a guy that high without being positive that it was a good decision to make.  This is a top-notch organization and they aren't going to make decisions on the fly like this.  I bet Waiters will turn out good.  Not great, but better than we are giving him credit for.

Depression, Reflection & Lonlieness.

I just can't shake the feeling that the Cavs really screwed up tonight.  They lost a lot of games to earn the fourth overall pick in the draft.  They lost almost 7 out of every 10 games in order to earn the right to pick the 4th best player in the draft and they took a guy who was rated to go anywhere from 11-25.  This can't be real.  I honestly do not know how much longer I can support this team with this front office at the helm.  Maybe Chris Grant is pulling a George Costanza and is trying to get fired so he can take a job with the Indiana Pacers.  Nothing would shock me at this point.  The Cavs just used two 4th overall picks in the span of one calendar year and reached an incredible amount both times. 

The jury is still out on Tristan Thompson.  I can see being this arrogant and taking Waiters if Thompson was a guy that had the whole league saying "we thought Cleveland made a mistake, but they really knew what they were doing."  But that's not what is happening.

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Unlike last year, when the Cleveland Cavaliers held the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft and targeted point guard Kyrie Irving from the moment they won the draft lottery, no one really knows what the Cavs will do in tonight’s draft.

We’re (pretty) sure that Cavs general manager Chris Grant knows what he wants to do but what he will do with the Cavs selection at No. 4 may hinge on one question:

How bad do the Cavs really want Florida shooting guard Bradley Beal? (If they want him at all.)

According to NBA.com, Beal has a “combination of attributes, most notably his ability to score, his intelligence and his strong work ethic. As good as he was as a freshman in college, he’ll get that much better because he’s not afraid to put the time in to improve. He’s a big-time scorer, who, although his 3-point stroke was a bit inconsistent in college, is a great shooter. He’s also a strong finisher. And as an added bonus, he’s a great rebounder.”

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10 months after the Cavs dealt Mo Williams to the Clippers in exchange for Baron Davis and their unprotected pick, it became the most lopsided trade in league history.  Because of the lockout—or rather, the mandated amnesty clause that ensued the lockout—the Cavs essentially traded Mo Williams for Kyrie Irving and $15 million worth of cap room.  It’s that $15 million in cap that differentiates it from the likes of all the other trade heists we’ve seen.  Ironically, this lopsided swap saved three separate and equally decrepit franchises from their own extinction.       

The Clippers, a franchise that could actually relate with the likes of the 1999-2011 Cleveland Browns, went out and acquired Chris Paul.  Five months later, he became the franchise savior as they finished the season with a 40-26 record—the franchises best single season ever (winning percentage-wise).  This would have never happened had David Stern not buckled to the pressure of the owners, vetoing the three-team trade that would have made Chris Paul a Laker.  And if that hadn’t of happened, the Cavs would have never traded Ramon Sessions to the Lakers for the 24th pick this year.  And throughout it all, New Orleans—the team that would have benefitted greatly from trading Paul to the Lakers—wouldn’t have been terrible enough to win the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft.

No one will ever blame the Hornets, Clips or Cavs of ruining the integrity of the game, that's for sure.

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