Cup of Cavs: Grading Koby Altman’s first-round picks

Cavs news and links for Friday, July 26

We’ve made it to Friday and are a day away from a basketball-filled weekend. Here’s your Cleveland Cavaliers news and links for the day.

The first sip

Koby Altman has overseen eight first-round picks since taking over as general manager in the summer of 2017. Evan Mobley and Darius Garland are two great selections, but there are some misses on his record as well. It’s too early to tell which camp Jaylon Tyson will fall into.

Let’s take a closer look and grade each one.

Collin Sexton - Pick 8, 2018, Grade: C+

Sexton was an integral piece of the Donovan Mitchell trade and has been a steady score-first guard throughout his career as he averaging 18.9 points through six seasons. That’s a solid pick considering Mo Bamba and Wendell Carter Jr. were taken immediately before him and Kevin Knox after. However, you don’t need to go too far down the list to see that better options were available.

Mikal Bridges and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were taken two and three picks after Sexton. Gilgeous-Alexander wanted to go to the Los Angeles Clippers so there’s a reason why they didn’t choose him. But Bridges would’ve also filled a need that the Cavs haven’t been able to since LeBron James left.

Sexton was a solid pick, but it’s interesting to think about how selecting Bridges or Gilgeous-Alexander completely changes the trajectory of the franchise.

Darius Garland - Pick 5, 2019, Grade: A+

This was a home run. The picks immediately afterward were Jarrett Culver, Coby White, Jaxson Hayes, Rui Hachimura, and Cam Reddish. Garland was the best player on the board and the Cavs grabbed him.

Dylan Windler - Pick 26, 2019, Grade: D+

The Cavs’ initial instincts were right on this one. As much as the theoretical version of Windler would’ve helped, Keldon Johnson would’ve actually done so.

Kevin Porter Jr - Pick 30, 2019, Grade: F

We don’t need to go too much into this. The gamble made sense at the time for a team needing a spark. That gamble didn’t hit. Nicolas Claxton being taken a pick later would’ve been a much better way to go.

Isaac Okoro - Pick 5, 2020, Grade: C+

The list of players taken much later than Okoro is impressive. Tyrese Haliburton (12), Tyrese Maxey (21), and Desmond Bane (30) would’ve obviously been better selections. But, this was a weird draft because of Covid. The Cavs weren’t the only ones that passed up on these players. The difficulties with scouting and the pre-draft process likely contributed to an abnormal amount of good players falling in the draft.

The picks immediately after Okoro aren’t too impressive. Onyeka Okongwu, Killian Hayes, and Obi Toppin would’ve been varying degrees of worse picks. It’s difficult to be too critical of Altman given who else was selected around Okoro.

Evan Mobley: Pick 3, 2021, A+

The Cavs were reportedly told not to draft Mobley and they correctly did so anyway. That didn’t stop them like it might have in 2018 with Gilgeous-Alexander. This was a clear win even though Scottie Barnes keeps getting accolades he likely shouldn’t

Ochai Agbaji: Pick 14, 2022, Grade: D+

Agbaji hasn’t become the three-and-D player the Cavs likely thought he would be. He’s a career 32.6% three-point shooter that hasn’t done much in the league. Maybe a change of scenery with the Toronto Raptors helps.

Random Cavalier of the Day - Collin Sexton

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Speaking of Altman’s draft picks, Sexton is the Cavalier of the day. His 4,356 points put him 23rd in franchise history behind Ron Harper at 4,498. Sexton ranks fifth in points per game (20) with the Cavs behind only Mitchell, James, World B. Free, and Kyrie Irving.

Instead of reheating the Sexton Wars, I’d like to take this moment to go back to his 42-point performance against the Brooklyn Nets in January 2021. Sexton’s 15 points in double overtime allowed a starting lineup of Sexton, Okoro, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr., and Andre Drummond to take down a Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant led team.

In a season with not a lot to cheer about, this was a moment I’ll never forget.

Here’s what I wrote shortly after this game.

The drastic leaps [Sexton has] made throughout his young career, and more specifically this season, make it hard to put a ceiling on who Sexton can be. Making one all-star game felt like a complete longshot during his rookie season, but that now feels inevitable. The third-year guard is going into Monday’s game averaging 25.5 points per game with a 57.1 effective field goal percentage. To put that in perspective, Sexton is currently averaging more points and has a better effective field goal percentage than Anthony Davis, LeBron James, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and Devin Booker.

The twenty-two-year-old has already surpassed whatever realistic expectations anybody could’ve had for him. The question is, how much more can Sexton improve? There are still holes in his game as exposed by Sunday’s loss in Boston. But, if we’ve learned anything about Collin, it’s that we shouldn’t try to put a cap on how good he can become.

Cavs’ social media posts

Garland seems to be hitting the gym and is posting about it.

Mitchell also took time to show his support for Georges Niang.

Olympic men’s basketball on this weekend

• France vs. Brazil - Saturday, 11:15 AM
• Greece vs. Canada - Saturday, 3 PM
• Serbia vs. USA - Sunday, 11:15 AM

Cavs news and links

• Cavs Summer League confidence meter
• 24-7 Rock Entertainment Sports Network to air live Monsters, Charge, Crushers games
• Cavs knew Evan Mobley would be a max extension but wisely delayed repeat offender clock

Links of the day

• Anthony Edwards is preparing to take the baton
• How does 2024 Team USA match up against 1992, 2008 and 2012 variants
• A’ja Wilson used to hate basketball. Now, she’s Team USA’s best player
• NBA offseason grades for every team in the West