Get Your Motor Running…

When the Cavaliers wound up with the fifth pick in the NBA Draft, I think most of us couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. While most fans (at least the type of fans who take the time to read blogs like this) knew that the new lottery odds made the possibility of the Cavaliers dropping in the draft order more likely than ever before, I don’t think many of us thought that they would actually wind up with the fifth pick.

Still, while there seems to be clear drop offs after the first and third picks in this draft, history tells us that it’s more likely than not that one or two future All-Stars will be drafted with the fifth pick or later. The hard part is identifying who those future All-Stars are. If it was easy, then players like Draymond Green, Nikola Jokic, Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver, Goran Dragic, and Manu Ginobili wouldn’t have been second-round picks.

When looking at players who have met or exceeded draft expectations, one commonality seems to stand out above all others, a tremendous motor, both in practice as well as in games . Jump shots can be fixed, shot selection can be altered, and defense can improve, but no amount of coaching can make a player care about basketball if they don’t already. All of the players listed above are known to be obsessed with their craft, with high on-court motors, allowing them to outperform what many thought they were capable of.

This type of work ethic seems to be the characteristic that Koby Altman and Dan Gilbert have place above all others when looking for players to add to the roster. It certainly applies to Collin Sexton. Whether you are a fan of Sexton or not, there’s no debating his work ethic and aggression. His desire to succeed also allowed him to alter and improve his shot selection as the season went on, even if it wasn’t what he was most comfortable doing. He stayed aggressive and was willing to alter his game in ways that helped his team more on the court. Those are things that winning NBA players do.

It’s possible that the Gilbert and Altman have adopted this philosophy based on the past two first round picks the team has made. Anthony Bennett is obviously one of the biggest busts in NBA history. While he had solid physical gifts, Bennett simply lacked the work ethic and passion for basketball needed to succeed in the NBA. No, the Cavs wouldn’t have drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo instead of Bennett, but it has since come out that Gilbert wanted to select Victor Oladipo, while Chris Grant favored Ben McLemore, and David Griffin and the rest of the front office preferred Bennett. While it took Oladipo five seasons and three teams to become a star, he has always been a solid player with a terrific motor.

One could make the case that the Cavaliers made a similar mistake with Andrew Wiggins. While Wiggins is reputed to have a good work ethic in terms of time he puts into his game, it’s fair to say that he often doesn’t play with a high motor during games particularly on the defensive end, where he was once thought to be a potential stopper. Considering he is owed over $121 million over the next four seasons, despite having a negative VORP over every season of his career so far, not having to pay Wiggins is yet another benefit of trading him and Bennett for Kevin Love.

When looking at this draft, three players seem to be in the conversation to be selected by the Cavaliers with the fifth pick in the draft; Jarrett Culver, Cam Reddish, and De’Andre Hunter. Both Culver and Hunter are said to be hard workers and the kind of players who would help set a culture of hard work for a team. Both also play hard on both ends, despite Hunter’s limits as a shot creator and Culver’s occasional defensive lapses. Either player seems to have the combination of talent and motor to be at least a solid rotation player for a long time. The same can be said for Brandon Clarke, the  Gonzaga forward (and Nate Smith favorite), but it seems like Clarke will likely go a bit later in the lottery.

Meanwhile, Reddish is seen by many as the most talented of the players in the Cavs’ range due to his size, smooth style of play, and the fact that he was highly rated coming out of high school, but is that the truth? Yes he shooting stroke looks smooth, but he shot just 33% from deep this season. His dunks in an empty gym look great, but he shot a putrid 39% on two-point attempts this season. While Reddish had a few impressive performances, they were mixed in with too many games in which he simply faded into the background. It was somewhat similar to the way fellow former Duke player and former Cavalier Rodney Hood has both teased and frustrated fans over his career. Like Hood, Reddish is probably a good guy who does work on his craft, but he lacks the natural on-court motor that lets him assert himself in a game. This isn’t so much laziness as it is being a passive person.

Sometimes, when a player is generally mediocre and passive, teams look at his highlights and use them to project the type of player they think he can be. Despite the best efforts of both the player and the team, that almost never turns out to be true. No player is as good as their best moments or as bad as their worst ones. They are somewhere in between, hence the reason we look at scoring averages, shooting percentages, and other statistics that tell us what a player’s daily output might look like. Sometimes it seems that teams look at an underwhelming player with good highlights and like them better than a better play with less impressive highlights. It’s almost as if they think the lesser player has more room for growth. Chances are, the real truth is that lesser player simply isn’t as good and won’t ever be. It’s also unlikely that they will suddenly develop more than a player of similar age and experience level who has already worked hard enough to be better than them. That said, even if it is true and the underwhelming player has more room for growth, will it really be enough for them to overtake the other prospect who has been a better player and is already a few steps ahead of them? It seems unlikely.

Of course, a high motor is certainly no guarantee for success. Before the 2012 NBA Draft, I desperately wanted the Cavaliers to find a way to draft Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Kidd-Gilchrist’s defense, athletic play, and nonstop motor were enticing to me. His free throw shooting seemed to indicate he could develop an outside shot. The fact that he was a small forward and high school teammates with Kyrie Irving just added to the intrigue.

Kidd-Gilchrist wound up being taken with the second pick in the draft by the Charlotte Hornets (then the Charlotte Bobcats), one pick after his Kentucky teammate, Anthony Davis. While he hasn’t been a bust by any means, Kidd-Gilchrist hasn’t really developed much since college. He’s still a solid defender who rebounds and finishes well, particularly in transition, but that’s about it. He still can’t shoot, which has become a bigger issue as the importance of spacing and outside shooting is of greater importance in the NBA now than ever before, and still can’t really create off the dribble. Sometimes a motor just isn’t enough to turn a solid player into a great one. Maybe it’s what made them good enough to even be a solid player in the first place.

Still, it’s been said that the Cavaliers focus on “controllables” such as work ethic and character as they add players to rebuild both their team and culture. Hopefully, that truly is the case. While these things may or may not help them find whatever hidden superstars there are in this draft, it should help them find some talented young players who have the ability to be long-term pieces of this team and who can help set a culture of work and accountability that we would all like the Cavaliers to have.