2019 NBA Mock Draft: Will the Knicks’ big gamble pay off?
4. player. 156. . G. Indiana. Romeo Langford
I’ll admit I am trying this out for size as a way of mixing it up. Sure, the Cavaliers already drafted Collin Sexton at No. 7 last year and the roster is very much in flux in Cleveland. As cap master Jeff Siegel said on Twitter, the Cavaliers as of Wednesday night had five traded player exceptions at their disposal, none of which were worth more than $2.8 million. Yet as the cost of doing business and being willing to shuffle the deck so dramatically, Cleveland accumulated two second-rounders and two first-rounders and locked in their ability to keep their own pick in the process.
While Koby Altman was panned for the inconsequential moves he made reshaping the roster at last year’s NBA trade deadline, he has done a fantastic job with little to work with rebuilding the Cavaliers. They will head into the 2019 draft with not only their own pick here in the top five but the Rockets’ unprotected pick, currently slated for No. 23 as well as a Bucks first-round pick likely in 2022.
That will allow Cleveland to be a little more creative with the players they target rather than avoiding a guard just because Sexton is in place at point. In that case, Langford, a big guard with sweet feel scoring the ball, would be a solid fit as a secondary playmaker alongside Sexton going forward. Langford is 5-of-12 from distance in his last two games even as Indiana struggles through a rough patch in its conference schedule, losing seven straight before a surprising victory over Michigan State on Saturday.
The two-way upside of Langford and Sexton would provide Cleveland two capable ball-handlers and size on defense, two musts in the NBA today.