The Boxscore Geeks Show: Cleveland's Draft Love

Our show is also available in audio only form (Some call it a podcast!)

Listen to the podcast and then answer our weekly poll. Or you know, don't listen and answer.

Thanks to Trapped in Golden State for the photoshopped Love image.

Kevin Love

Kevin Love wants out of Minnesota. As his team is questioning his "leadership", that's not very surprising.

We think Love would do well on a properly-run team. After all, he's been on some historically bad teams. But as Patrick has pointed out before, the Wolves have all the leverage in the negotiations. Which is why we shouldn't be surprised by Kevin Love's actions.

The Cavaliers and the Draft

The Cavaliers have been lucky. Well, lucky at getting top picks:

For @aricaroline, @cavs odds of getting at least as much draft value in last 4 years. We're back to about 1 in 8000: pic.twitter.com/VPdUxY0Ke2
— The man with the #'s (@ArturoGalletti) May 21, 2014

To put this in perspective, there have only been 23 drafts in the current format, so don't expect to see this again. Unless you think there may be a "Hand of Silver" in play.

This definitely seems to be a hit against the "draft helps parity" argument.

Spurs have had the 28th pick in the first round 5 times since 2003. The Cavaliers have had the #1 pick 4 times in same span. #NBADraft
— Andrés Alvarez (@NerdNumbers) May 21, 2014

A number one pick is worth a ton of money. In fact, the value of draft picks in general is just absurd. Arturo's written about this in depth. The same story was recently done by 538.

If you want to see Arturo and me completely baffled, watch last year's livecast of the NBA draft. Arturo nails the point that NBA teams fall for the sunk cost fallacy too much.

Arturo's shifted his views a little. You should not waste number one picks or max contracts on point guards (barring Chris Paul, of course!). To sum up the problem with the Cavs: "If you've had three number one draft picks and don't have a franchise big, what the heck are you doing?"

Of course, part of drafting well is being in good drafts. That excuse doesn't help the Cavs much though.

Some were mad we've been calling John Wall overvalued. Arturo calls Kyrie Irving overvalued on the podcast. Get your pitchforks!

The Spurs picked up DeJuan Blair, who fell because he had no knee ligaments. It took Arturo and me a while to remember, even though Blair was Arturo's top value for that draft! Also, we wonder if the Spurs have an advantage with late picks. Unlike the "winners" of the draft lottery, few care if you buck conventional wisdom with late picks.

Fun bit of trivia: this will be the only time in NBA history that three number one picks on their rookie contracts are playing on a team together. Previous experiments with two number one picks have not panned out.

Indiana vs. Miami

What happened in Game 1? Arturo sums it up quickly: "Miami missed a lot of threes." Although the bad news for Miami is that this is the weakest Heat team since LeBron came to town.

Is Paul George healthy? Concussions matter, and he did not play well in game two.

Oklahoma City vs. San Antonio

We talk a lot about the Thunder, including an odd reference to a terrible Disney Show. Also, Arturo's Arsenal squad has finally started winning. Something Kroenke teams don't like to do.

We sound like a broken record. The Spurs look to win, Kawhi Leonard is a star, and the Spurs will fleece the draft.

Shoutouts

Arturo gives some shout outs to some amazing fans: @shawnintheflesh, glorioushubris, @reallyseamus, and @racmontalvo526. Also, you're following @HickoryHigh and @wagesofwins, right?

My shoutouts go to @mattyglesias for his shoutout to Arturo on his great recent piece on how the draft is exploitative. Also, thanks to @oon2ooo for the heaty debate on John Wall being a max salary guy.

We'll see you next week!