Think Bugs Bunny, from beyond ear to ear.
That's how good the Cavs felt about introducing their two draft picks Friday, how good they felt about bringing Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller in to join Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, last year’s top picks.
In part this is standard operating procedure. If a team doesn’t like its draft picks, it probably ought to be in the potato chip business.
But the Cavs were genuinely beaming about taking a guy higher than many expected and about giving up three picks for another guy.
Coach Byron Scott said Irving and Waiters “can be a dynamic duo.” He said the only negative for Zeller, the 7-foot center, was that he was a senior.
“We just feel like we got two of the better players in the draft,” Scott said.
If they didn’t, there’s trouble in burning river city.
When a team has the first, fourth, fourth and 17th picks in consecutive drafts, it’s not a luxury to come out with good players. It’s a necessity. Team fortunes depend on the selections, as does the job security of those making the picks.
The worst position in the NBA is the dreaded middle. That’s where a team gets stuck making the playoffs in the sixth or seventh spot. The team isn’t good enough to advance in the playoffs, but it wasn’t bad enough to get top picks to improve. Salary cap space is capped out, which makes things double-tough.
Washington used to have that spot reserved. Philadelphia now seems like it’s living there, which might be why the 76ers seem willing to trade Andre Iguodala.
The Cavs simply can’t wind up there as they rebuild from the sinkhole created by the darling of Oprah.
Which is why Waiters and Zeller had better be good.
The team hit on Irving a year ago, but the jury still deliberates on Thompson. He needs to come through, just like Waiters and Zeller.
In Waiters, the Cavs feel like they have a guy who will take some of the scoring burden off Irving while pairing with him effectively. Fans balked at his choice because he was a sixth man at Syracuse, but Scott made a good point: Whether or not he started means far less than the fact that he finished games — which he did, and with the ball in his hands.
“There was no game he was involved in where the moment was too big,” Scott said.
Waiters said all the right things, while making it plain and clear he was nearly overwhelmed to be taken fourth. He also had a good response when it was mentioned to him that some of the pre-draft chatter said he lacked a jumpshot.
“If they say I don’t have a jumpshot it’s up to me to go out there and get 1,000 jumpshots up every day,” he said.
Syracuse guards don’t really have a great history in the NBA, especially shooting guards, but the Cavs lovefest was unaffected.
In Zeller, the Cavs have a big man with some impeccable credentials. He shot 81 percent from the free throw line, averaged 16.3 points and 9.6 rebounds. He played four years and was Academic All-America of the year and Player of the Year in the ACC.
All at North Carolina, one of the nation’s top programs.
Carolina has a tradition started by Dean Smith of setting aside a specific amount of practice specifically for big men where fundamentals — like not bringing the ball lower than your head after a rebound — were stressed.
Zeller said Roy Williams continued the tradition, teaching “simple post moves, trail jumpshots, little things.” Those little things make a difference, though, and can help.
Zeller will need to add strength to his upper body in the NBA, but the starting point seems solid.
Will it work? Nobody knows, not even the Cavs. But GM Chris Grant and his staff put endless work into the picks, and they believe it will work. And when a guy with Scott’s pedigree likes the choices it carries weight.
It can work, and if it does it would be exciting to watch a team grow together.
The Cavs best hope it does.
Job security has come down to far less important issues.
