NBA Mock Draft 2018 News: Will the Cavs Choose Either Trae Young or Marvin Bagley With Nets Pick?
The NCAA championship is coming up later this month, and it's a good time as any to mark down future NBA prospects to see if they live up to expectations when March Madness rolls around. The Cleveland Cavaliers, for one, will be closely watching a few options to see which one they should chase after with their Nets first-round pick.
The Cavs is currently holding on to a first-round pick courtesy of the Brooklyn Nets, and it has since become a precious commodity for the team's front office now that LeBron James is being rumored to be heading out of the team and to the Western Conference in free agency.
This has put the Cavs in an interesting spot, to say the least, as The Big Lead noted. Saddled with some unproductive contracts, like the way Tristan Thompson's current deal is taking up cap space without producing the numbers, Cleveland is reportedly pinning their hopes on a good draft to tide them over if LeBron actually decides to leave.
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Most speculators are going with Marvin Bagley from Duke as the safe choice, if only for practical reasons. The Duke forward will be competing for a spot with Larry Nance and Thompson, but he will also be useful as a trade piece with Kevin Love, much more so than the other first-round prospects the Cavs may have access to.
To draw the crowds even with LeBron gone, though, there's nothing like Trae Young and his deadly range akin to the Warriors' Stephen Curry. The guard from Oklahoma has a massive ceiling, the kind that puts NBA titles within reach, as CBS Sports' Reid Forgrave pointed out.
Young may be in some sort of shooting slump right now with his percentage beyond the arc down to 25 percent over the last eight games, but that's just part of the story. He still leads the collegiate leagues in percent usage, assist rate and overall 3-point percentage, and his numbers are very similar to college Steph Curry, too.
