Cleveland Cavaliers

Most mock drafts have the Cavs, prior to Tuesday's draft lottery, picking Georgetown small forward Porter if their first pick stays at No. 3. Cavs also have the 19th pick in the first round.

As the measurements of this year's top draft prospects emerged from the NBA combine, I started wondering how each prospect compared to the current members of the Cleveland Cavaliers. In order to find those answers, I searched through the wealth of historical data provided by DraftExpress.com. I was unable to locate measurements for Anderson Vareajo, C.J. Miles, Mo Speights or Daniel Gibson. I did find the predraft measurements for Tyler Zeller, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Wayne Ellington, Kyrie Irving, Shaun Livingston, Alonzo Gee and Omri Casspi. I compared those eight Cavaliers to the top-rated big man, shooting guard, point guard and small forward on most people's boards by selecting Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore, Trey Burke and Otto Porter, respectively. I then made the following chart in excel to answer my initial question. Data gathered above via DraftExpress.com For more of a power forward comp, I tried using Anthony Bennett. He measured 6'7" with shoes, weighed 239 points and has a 7'1" wingspan but he wasn't measured in the other three areas. As far as Bennett is concerned, though, he weighs 12 pounds more than Thompson did at the combine and is almost two inches shorter. Zeller, meanwhile, weighed 41 pounds more than Noel in case you were wondering. Ben McLemore is about an inch taller than Waiters and in a little better combine shape from a body fat perspective. Trey Burke is not as tall as Irving and doesn't weigh as much as Kyrie did either, which suprised me for some reason. Otto Porter's 7'1.5" wingspan was pretty surprising too in the sense that he's not only longer than Alonzo Gee, he also has a longer wingspan than both Thompson and Zeller. Or is it wider? Either way, Porter has some freaky measurements for a small forward.

"Sherwin-Williams really wanted us to help celebrate the city and its hometown with something that really encapsulates all of the vibrancy and energy we have downtown," said Lisa Zandy, senior account supervisor for the Sherwin-Williams account at The Adcom Group.

Cavaliers GM Chris Grant doesn't need the whole 2013 draft class to be strong -- just the players he selects.

The Memphis Grizzlies, for years one of the most depressing franchises in professional sports, are now one series victory away from the NBA Finals. They play in a tiny market. They don't have a conventional superstar, though try and tell me Marc Gasol isn't one. They have made controversial moves. They have moves that have gotten them absolutely killed by the media. They have made moves that should have been crippling to their franchise. But again, they stand four wins away from winning a brutal conference. How did this happen, and what does it mean? They have simply been lucky There is something to this. This theory is basically that they really aren't that good of a team, and have been blessed by teams that may have been superior had they been at full strength. The Los Angeles Clippers struggled with Blake Griffin hobbled; when he was healthier early in the series the Clippers jumped to a 2-0 series lead. Once past the Clippers they rolled through an Oklahoma City Thunder team missing one of the top 10 players in the world, and even without him each contest was quite close. Perhaps Russell Westbrook was the difference. I don't know how much stake to put in this; I think Memphis would have had a pretty good chance to beat the Thunder even with Westbrook with how good their defense is. Even if they would have been beaten handily, though, they are a small market team in the Western Conference who would have been right there with teams featuring Chris Paul and Kevin Durant. They have built something impressive down in Memphis, and its worth analyzing. They have taken risks This is an understatement. They have made some hard choices, some of which have worked out splendidly, and some which should have been disastrous. First, the impossible to defend: General Manager Chris Wallace drafted Hasheem Thabeet and traded Kevin Love for OJ Mayo. They received no value for Kevin Love, a key member of the United States Olympic team, and Thabeet washed out of Memphis pretty quickly. They gave Tony Allen a three year contract in the Summer of 2010. I see this as the perfect way for a small market team to utilize free agency. Find a guy who has a specific NBA skill that you can acquire as either a fringe starter or key bench piece that won't hamper flexibility moving forward. Allen was already an all-world defender before he came to Memphis, and he has more than earned the $10 million Wallace gave him. The Cavaliers, moving forward, can follow this example. In a way, the CJ Miles trade is similar to the Allen signing, on a smaller scale. With Miles, the Cavaliers got bench scoring for cheap. This summer, the Cavs can look for guys who will buy into Mike Brown's system. Despite having Greivis Vasquez and Kyle Lowry, Memphis instead chose to invest in their high draft pick Mike Conley. Conley came out after just one season at Ohio State, and he couldn't shoot and wasn't physically ready for life in the NBA. Memphis could have sold low on Conley and shipped him off, instead opting to build with Lowry. Instead, they extended Conley, known as a smart player with his head on straight at a price mocked around the NBA and let Lowry go. Lowry continues to make as much news for his talent and solid play as for the headaches he gives his head coaches as he bounces from team to team. At some point, the Cavs may have to make a tough choice in extending either Tristan Thompson or Dion Waiters to a deal that is a little richer than observers around the league might find prudent. Betting on our young players might be the right play; it was for Memphis with Conley. Zach Randolph, written off by much of the basketball world while he appeared to waste his career away with the Clippers, was brought in. The cost to Memphis: Quentin Richardson. Since arriving in Memphis, Zach has rejuvenated his career, cutting out the three pointers, bullying power forwards in the paint, and even committing himself on the defensive end of the floor. The first

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni thinks Phil Handy will be a great addition to the Cleveland Cavaliers coaching staff

Check out Dion Waiters in this really impressive video of him working out this summer.

Due to massive computer issues on my part, a podcast with Robert and Colin has been delayed.  Fortunately, there’s lots to discuss on the draft front. To start, both Mary Schmitt Boyer from the Plain Dealer and Bob Finnan from the Morning Journal note how the Cavaliers are doing their best to find an underrated, special player during this week’s combine. Jason Lloyd over at the Akron Beacon Journal covers how, surprisingly, the Cavaliers will not meet with Otto Porter at the combine.  Thankfully, he notes, Porter has made it clear he’d like to play for the Cavaliers. On Bleacher Report, Greg Swartz details how Mike Brown will improve the current Cavs squad’s D.  Suffice to say it will be a challenge. Finally, Rant Sports’ Cody Williams touches on Shaun Livingston’s season with the Cavaliers, and speculates about his future. –Update– DraftExpress just published the NBA Draft combine measurements.  Notables include Rudy Gobert with the third biggest wingspan, (7’8.5″), and the second tallest standing reach (9’7″) in combine history.  Also, Otto Porter ranks among the lightest players for his size in combine history at 6’7.5″ and 198 pounds.  The entire sortable historical database is posted here.

After the weekend wraps up, the Wine and Gold contingent will head to the Big Apple to find out where they’ll be making the first of their two first round picks in the 2013 NBA Draft. Here are some diggable digits to get you ready for next Tuesday night.

With many Cavaliers' fans already having their eyes on the draft, I've been scouting college basketball pretty intensely over the past couple of months. That being said, we are going to try to provide you with as many scouting reports as we can until the draft on June 27th. Today, we present Jamaal Franklin of San Diego State. Franklin's an interesting prospect because of his versatility, motor, and toughness. After winning the Mountain West Conference's Player of the Year award in 2012, Franklin replicated his numbers again this season, averaging 17 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, along with 3.3 assists. He played kind of a combo-forward/small forward role at San Diego State, but will most likely be asked to play shooting guard in the NBA because of his size and athleticism. Measurements, Athleticism and Intangibles: Franklin stands about 6'5" with a 6'11" wingspan. He's also added about 40 pounds to his frame since high school, now weighing 205 pounds, meaning he has pretty much a prototypically NBA-ready body for a shooting guard. He's a really good athlete, with great leaping ability and solid quickness. His basketball IQ is off the charts, but in my opinion his best attribute is his motor. Franklin is tough and never quits working on the basketball court. Offensive Skillset: That toughness and motor are on full display on the offensive end, where he relentlessly attacks the defense with his great first step and length, which allows him to blow past a lot of collegiate defenders. He's got a pretty good midrange game, but mostly ends up driving into the lane. Once in the lane or the rim, he shows a really good ability to find high percentage looks. Franklin converts 61% of his attempts at the rim, but his best quality is his ability to draw contact. Franklin ended up at the line 8.1 times per 40 minutes, where he shot 78%. This might be his most NBA-ready skill right now, as he's something of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none at the offensive end of the floor. In that vein, he's already a pretty good playmaker, who finds great passing lanes and excels finding cutters to the rim. He averaged about four assists per 40 minutes. However, due to his all-encompassing role within the San Diego State offense, he also turned the ball over at an alarming rate of four times per game. These turnovers tended to come from trying to do a little too much within the offense, or trying to make the perfect pass. I think there's a chance that problem goes away in the NBA when his role won't be so large, but it's worth mentioning. Turnovers aren't his biggest roadblock though to becoming an NBA-caliber shooting guard. Franklin is a bad shooter from distance who still takes 37% of his shots from beyond the arc, according to hoop-math.com. He only made 27% of his 4.6 three point attempts per game this season. He doesn't seem to elevate off the ground well when he shoots, and his release point kind of wavers from way over his head to right in front of it. He'll really need to start becoming a better spot-up shooter - which Chad Ford says he's working on - in order to become a better role player in the NBA. Defense: Franklin also has potential to be a fantastic wing defender due to his high work level and athleticism. At San Diego State, he was asked to guard at least three different positions (SG, SF, and PF), giving him not only the versatility, but also the toughness to defend guys who are bigger than he is. Sometimes he's a little overanxious and gets beat off the dribble, but that seems like more of a youth thing that he'll learn to minimize as he gets older. He also forces a lot of turnovers, finishing second in the Mountain West in blocks plus steals with 2.4 per game. His most eye-popping statistic though is that he's a fantastic rebounder for a potential guard, averaging 11.2 rebounds per 40 minutes. He actually led the Mountain West in defensive rebounding with 7.8 per game. He'll be an excellent rebounder