Thoughts

[jdz101]

Say ainge is in Cleveland's position, has the perfect draft every time (which no GM does) and he picks Harrison Barnes instead of waiters, (Lillard isnt realistic with Kyrie there already) and Vucevic instead of Thompson. I still think Cleveland are a pretty average outfit. As for Bennett and this year's draft, noone really jumps out at me as a top-line NBA player.

Ainge trades down for Houston's three first round picks at 12, 16, and 18.  He packages the 12 with the 24 to move up and take either Andre Drummond or Austin Rivers.  With 16 and 18 he takes Terrence Jones and Jared Sullinger.

So with that model Cleveland's starting 5 is:

Kyrie
Miles
Terrence Jones
Varejao
Drummond

with sullinger, Bynum, Jack and Gee off the bench.

Instead of 5-12 right now that might make them 8-9, and they're probably in a similar hole to where they are now.

Having Kyrie and Drummond to build around moving forward is a position that the majority of teams in the league would envy.

yep. I laughed when i read that post also.

What I was saying before it was taken out of context was that even if the Cavs drafted perfectly and got the right guys they still wouldnt be a contender right now. Multiple consecutive Top 5 picks do not automatically make you a contending team after the fact.

[BballTim]

And the higher the pick, the more choices Ainge'll have... not to mention that whole ping pong ball thing.

I've noticed a lot of people who are against tanking also support ainge as a GM 100% and tell of his ability to pick players so well in the late rounds so we will be fine.

Then why not give this guy a better pick? If he's so good (which I do believe he is) why not give him the best odds at a top 3 pick and let him pick our next super star and jump start our way back into contention.

  I don't think anyone's saying they wouldn't want to have a high draft pick. I'd just as soon have the first pick in the draft every year. The problem's that the team isn't the disaster that so many people predicted it would be before the season started.

[ScoobyDoo]

I pretty much agree with the Op here. I think playoff position/experience is fool's gold this year.

My ideal scenario:

1. We play Bass, Humphries, Wallace and Lee enough to showcase and hopefully move them.
Caveat: I actually wouldn't mind keeping Bass around as a Vet presence long term.

2. Trade them for picks and young assets.

3. Don't rush Rondo back - sometime around October of 2014 would be good.

Pretty much gut the veteran presence - throw the kids into the fire for the rest of the season - let them get the you know what kicked out of them for the remainder of the season.

Let them learn, grow, get toughened up fast track style
 - evaluate
 
4. High lottery pick for one year - Embiid would be nice

5. Take best available with Atlanta's pick - off guard?

6. Game on in 2014

6. Great cap space moving into the 2015 free agency summer.

if we have a little luck, Embiid or other chip we pick pans out and we get a nice free agent signing, we could be seriously competing for titles for a long time.

Total down time - 2 seasons, 1.5 actually.