Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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Well, that wasn’t very satisfying, was it?

Cavalier fans started Draft Day ’12 dreaming of Bradley Beal or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (who looked almost sick at his selection by Charlotte with the second overall pick.) They ended it in a splash of cold water, as Chris Grant parlayed his four draft picks into Syracuse guard Dion Waiters and North Carolina center Tyler Zeller. It wasn’t quite the haul people were anticipating.

I’m going to level with you: my college basketball knowledge is deficient. When I was a kid I stayed up late for the Big West games on ESPN’s Big Monday; now I’m start-watching-in-March guy. Maybe I should be getting upset about this draft but right now I really can’t, because I don’t know enough to get upset.

What I do know is that the Waiters pick fits Chris Grant’s pattern: athletic upside over on-court accomplishment. Grant was part of the regime in Atlanta that (with Deron Williams and Chris Paul on the board and the Hawks in desperate need of a point guard) drafted Marvin Williams, a guy who didn’t start in one year at North Carolina. Seven years later Grant is at it again, grabbing a guy in Dion Waiters that didn’t start in two years at Syracuse. Last year he surprised many by taking the raw-as-sushi Tristan Thompson with the fourth overall pick.

The pattern hasn’t worked out particularly well. Marvin Williams has had a decidedly mediocre career, while Thompson’s rookie season was underwhelming to say the least. The problem with raw talent is that it has a tendency to stay raw. Tyler Zeller isn’t raw- he played four years and was one of the more skilled big men in the country- but it looks as if the Cavaliers gave up an awful lot (three picks) for a guy who in terms of physical play makes Zydrunas Ilgauskas look like Maurice Lucas.

Chris Grant has had three top-five picks in the last two years and has parlayed them into Kyrie Irving (great), Tristan Thompson (not so great) and Dion Waiters (we’ll see.) If you’re excited about this return, bully for you. I can’t say I am, for all my ignorance. As for Zeller he may be a very competent NBA player (seven-footers with polished offensive games are always nice to have) but the price for his services was pretty dear.  

On to a couple of brief capsules on the two newest Cleveland Cavaliers:

Dion Waiters    

-          At 6’4” he’s somewhat short for off-guard, but at 221 pounds he isn’t undersized. He looks plenty big enough to play the position; Sports Illustrated described him as having “the body of a heavyweight champ.”

-          He doesn’t turn 21 until December. He’s three months older than Kyrie Irving, giving the Cavaliers a baby backcourt that can possibly grow together.

-          As a freshman he reportedly clashed with Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, although he apparently cleaned up his act as a sophomore.

-          As Bill Raftery would say, he can put it on the deck, get to the tin and explode. He has the ability to break down defenses. Then again, so does Alonzo Gee from time to time.

-          He’s excellent in transition, an important asset for a Cavaliers team nearly bereft of quality shooters.

-          I’ve heard comparisons (so far) to Dwayne Wade, Mitch Richmond, Rodney Stuckey and esteemed former Cavalier Smush Parker (which only keeps about 98 percent of NBA two-guards in the conversation.)  

-          He’s pedestrian as a shooter: 36 percent from three-point country and 73 percent from the line as a sophomore. Then again, he was 16-of-17 from the stripe in the NCAA Tournament. His game will consist in large part of getting to the free-throw line so he’ll need to keep that up.   

-          The “didn’t even start in college” card is already being played with vigor (I just played it myself) but Waiters finished second on the Syracuse team in both scoring average and shot attempts and finished as the Big East Sixth Man of the Year, so it wasn’t as if he was doing an M.L. Carr out there.

-          Apparently he isn’t related to former Ohio State Buckeye and legendary NBA towel-waver Granville Waiters.

-          Hoped for upside: Corey Maggette without the general Corey Maggette-ness.

Tyler Zeller

-          It’s another chapter in the long and eventful history of Cavalier-Maverick trades. Ted Stepien helped build Dallas’s exciting 1980’s teams, sending to Texas draft picks that became Rolando Blackmon, Sam Perkins and Roy Tarpley. The Cavs struck back in 1986, snookering the Mavs out of Dallas draftee Mark Price. 26 years later, the rubber match: Tyler Zeller for draft picks parlayed by Dallas into Oregon State guard Jared Cunningham, Florida State center Bernard James and Marquette forward Jae Crowder.

-          At 7’0” and 250 pounds he’s plenty big enough to play in the pivot, although he was listed as a forward at UNC.

-          With 20 points and 22 rebounds in UNC’s Sweet 16 victory over Ohio, Zeller became the first player since Tim Duncan in 1997 to post 20-and-20 in an NCAA Tournament.

-          He’s already better than Semih Erden.

-          Zeller does spend most of his time with his back to the basket but for a seven-footer he has a deft shooting touch, although he attempted only two three-pointers (missing both) as a collegiate. Zeller was a 77.5 percent free-throw shooter in his career at UNC. His scoring ability will be a welcome addition to an offensively-challenged Cleveland frontcourt.  

-          He was Indiana Mr. Basketball in 2008, an honor also won by his brothers Luke and Cody.

-          The last white Carolina big man to make any kind of impact in the NBA was Mitch Kupchak during the Disco Era. I don’t remember Eric Montross or Kevin Salvadori tearing up the league. Not saying that’s relevant.

-          He isn’t exactly what you’d call a banger down low.

-          Despite having a blade-like nose and the last name “Zeller,” he apparently isn’t Jewish. Then again, not even the Jewish Jordan was actually Jewish.

-          Scary vision: Tyler Zeller matched up with Dewey Howard down on the blocks.

-          Hoped-for upside: a poor man’s Jack Sikma.  

I don’t see much sense in faulting Chris Grant for not trading down because a.) We don’t know if he really had the opportunity to do so and b.) This was kind of a three-man Draft anyway. Things got muddy after Davis, MKG and Beal.

(I wish they’d gotten MKG based solely on his reaction to being taken by Charlotte. There’s a guy that wants to win badly and I think he would have been happy to reunite with his former teammate Kyrie Irving and build something here in Cleveland. We aren’t exactly the NBA’s Valhalla, but we sure as shit ain’t the Bobcats either.)

Short-term this Draft will be judged not only by what Dion Waiters does, but what Thomas Robinson and Harrison Barnes do. Robinson went fifth to the Sacramento Island of Misfit Toys; Barnes went eighth to Golden State.

It is a bit odd that you can supposedly have a guy on your wish list from the beginning yet not even contact him a single time. Waiters didn’t work out for any team. It had been thought that he’d go to the Suns (not exactly the NBA’s Draft Masters themselves) at the back end of the Lottery.

We’re going to be right back near the top of the Lottery next June, because this team is going to be bad. I see 25 wins out of the group as currently constructed, and that’s being generous. With Antawn Jamison likely gone the Cavaliers may well be worse in 2012-13 than they were in 2011-12. Victory is the only thing that will cure the Draft-day jitters, and victory is not in the offing right now. Not to be pessimistic, but it looks as if it’ll be a long winter in Cleveland.