Danny Ferry: You Screwed This Draft Up

Far be it for me to be a Negative Nancy.

Last year, when the Cavs selected little-known power forward J.J. Hickson from N.C. State, the masses were up in arms. They didn’t know Hickson. Picking him at 19th overall was cause for an uproar. People automatically labeled him a bust. They wanted a wing player. Chris Douglas-Roberts, they said. Bill Walker, I said (or was saying before that draft).

But after the pick was made, I came on here and defended Ferry, Hickson, and that pick. I liked it. Here is exactly what I had to say about the Hickson pick immediately after it was made amidst the mass disappointment:

In 31 games with the Wolfpack, Hickson achieved double-figure scoring
25 times and reached 20 points on seven occasions. Hickson also notched
10 double-doubles.

All that…as a freshman.

Which is why you should be excited.

This pick was all about building on a core group of young players for
the future. Leave the “LeBron/Jay-Z” rumors to the clowns who have
nothing better to do with their lives. The Cavs can’t live in constant
fear of LeBron, and they have to make the best pick for today as well
as tomorrow. And based on the kind of player Hickson can become within
the next five years, they certainly did that on Thursday night.

Today, in the wake of the 2009 NBA Draft, I cannot say that I maintain the same attitude. Because I know that Ferry effed up. And effed up badly.

That’s because when Ferry selected Christian Eyenga, a 6′6″ swingman out of Congo, with the 30th pick of the draft, there were better players available. He didn’t – for a fact, actually — get a guy who could contribute right away. And even worse, he picked a guy that might have still been around when the Cavs picked again at #46.

These aren’t the Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies, or Sacramento Kings. These are the Cleveland Cavaliers. You know, the same team that made massive headlines yesterday after acquiring Shaquille O’Neal? The same team that has The King? The same team that has to win and win now in order to please said King?

Eyenga wasn’t even expecting to be drafted, let alone get drafted in the first round with a guaranteed contract. Hell, even he seemed shocked out of this world when his name was called. Even David Stern was a little surprised (as if to say, “What the F, Ferry? I pretty much forced Steve Kerr to hand over Shaq to you and you screw up less than 24 hours later?”).

Here’s what draftexpress.com’s live blog said when the Cavs made their selection:

10:25
Cleveland locks up the [1st] round with Christian Eyenga? This is an
insane pick. Eyenga put his name into this draft hoping not to get
picked period, and now he goes in the first round? Over DeJuan Blair
and Sam Young? Wow. It looks like Eyenga’s plan to avoid the first round salary scale definitely backfired.

Last year was a good time for a project/developmental pick. The Cavs were 45-37, and the Hickson pick had to be made. The Cavs badly needed a young frontcourt player. Hickson was the best one available. Some considered it a reach, but it probably wasn’t considering that Hickson wouldn’t have fallen much further.

This year, the Cavs got a player in Eyenga who will not contribute the way Hickson did last year. Here’s a guy that will probably be stashed away overseas for a year, maybe two. And even worse, the Cavs could have gotten a much better player to fit the very need that they probably want Eyenga to fill.

His name is Sam Young.

I thought that the Cavs would have had to trade up to get Young. Many mocks had him going as high as #20 to Utah. Some on draft morning even had him going 18th overall to Minnesota. But Young, for whatever reason, fell all the way to the Cavs’ pick at #30. And the stars were aligned for a match made in heaven, a Godsend for the Cavs.

Except Ferry failed to cooperate.

Young wound up going just six picks later to Memphis at 36th overall. But the Cavs whiffed on a tremendous opportunity to pick an NBA-ready rookie who would be ready to contribute right away. They did the same damn thing last year when they passed up on Courtney Lee, but again, picking a young big man was necessary and Hickson’s selection was easily justifiable.

A year later, don’t even bring up the word “justifiable” to describe Ferry’s draft-day skills. As someone who lives in Portland, I’ve seen a team use the draft as the single avenue to build its way back up and take a 21-win team in 2006 to a 54-win team in 2009. So I know it can be done.

The Cavs need a player to help the win now. Christian Eyenga won’t even be on the roster next year, let alone rotation.

And this just adds to the fact that the Cavs are failing miserably in adding young talent around LeBron James. ESPN.com’s Chad Ford recently wrote that when 2010 comes around, there will be no basketball reason for LeBron to stay in Cleveland. There will be no young wingman that he can form a legendary Jordan-Pippen 1-2 punch with. Mo Williams just isn’t that guy. Shaq is 37 and might even be gone after this year.

That’s not to say that Sam Young would have been the single reason to convince LeBron to stay in Cleveland, but at least the Cavs would have started to build a core of nice young role players to grow with LeBron and fit around him. Young is 24, the same age as LeBron, so he would be able to complement James for the rest of his career.

Add a guy like Young to other young guys like Mo, Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, and Hickson, and you’re finally starting to piece together some nice young parts that can help form the foundation for this team.

And anyone using this draft’s “weakness” as an excuse should just stop right now. Every single draft — every single draft — has guys who can be core rotation players right off the bat. Did you know that 17 of the 30 second-round picks from a year ago made an NBA team this past season? Many even received playing time. None of those two will apply to the Cavs’ first round pick from this year!

Speaking of second round picks, North Carolina’s Danny Green was a great pick at #46, a pick the Cavs were supposed to give away in the Shaq deal. But as great as the Green pick was, his selection would have been unnecessary had Ferry taken Young and then settled for hs Congoan mancrush at 46.

So get excited about Shaquille O’Neal if you must. It’s a move for 2009-10 and nothing more. But for an organization that has been obsessing itself over what happens after that, Thursday certainly wasn’t a step in the right direction.