NBA Draft Rumors: Cleveland Cavaliers linked to Luol Deng, Paul Pierce, and more

The Cavaliers have some interesting decisions to make in the coming days about their picks. Will they stay at #1 and take a player? Will they try to trade the pick? Will they stay at 19 or move up (possibly to 13)? Either way, it's going to be an exciting week of non-basketball.

That being said, I'm going to try to keep you updated with all the possible news and notes surrounding the Cavaliers, or even peripherally/tangentially related rumors.

-Anthony Bennett has ballooned up to 261 pounds as he recovers from shoulder surgery. This isn't a massive deal as he can't work out right now, but having said that it's somewhat scary that a guy who could plausibly have weight problems in the future looks to have put on nearly 20 pounds in two months.The Cavs should probably just steer clear of him given that he's not a great fit positionally on this team.

-Luol Deng has been linked to the Cavaliers, via Marc Stein of ESPN. However, it looks like there is a lot more steam to a Deng-to-the-Wizards deal, involving the 3rd overall pick along with Emeka Okafor's expiring contract. If Ernie Grunfeld does that deal, he should be fired on the spot. I've gone on record saying I'd deal the 19th pick for Deng. Not much more than that though.

-Jason Lloyd went on Cleveland area radio today and said that he believes the Cavaliers are down to either Alex Len or Ben McLemore as their candidates for the number one pick. How much I believe that, I'm not sure. This could easily be an organizational smoke screen, or it could be Lloyd trying to get out in front of something. Either way, I think Lloyd has been a step behind in the draft process so far despite being Cleveland's most reliable reporter. Honestly, the only person who has idea what's going to happen at number one is Chris Grant right now. It's possible news leaks a couple of days early about who the team will select as it has the last couple of years. But right now I don't think that has happened yet.

-The Celtics and Cavaliers have apparently had preliminary discussions involving Paul Pierce, according to Jay King of masslive.com and Celtics Town. It'll be interesting to follow to see if these go anywhere. Seeing Pierce in a Cavaliers' jersey is almost unimaginable, so I stil haven't exactly wrapped my head around the possibility of him actually lining up at small forward in Cleveland next season.

-Apparently one of the Cavaliers' top targets in free agency this offseason is going to be Earl Clark, according to The Sporting News. Why? I have no idea. No, really. I have no idea what could possess Grant and company to pursue the services of Clark.

-The Cavaliers have long been known to have a desire to move back into the first round using their two early second round picks, and they may have found a partner in Denver. The Nuggets, who have the 27th overall pick on Wednesday, are looking to move out of the first round and into the second. This isn't a huge surprise to me, given that most of the prospects the Nuggets have brought in to work out have been second round guys. They may have found one that they like, but not enough to give a guaranteed contract to. Whether or not it's worth it for the Cavs to move up four spots depends on who they have their eye on.

-Finally, I recorded a podcast this weekend about the draft with the Colorado Sports Guys. You all should probably give it a listen, as it turned out really well and it is highly informative. Nate Timmons over at Denver Stiffs and Ross Martin run the show, and then Dave Starcer of At The Hive and I discuss possibly scenarios for the entire draft. There is a lot of Cavalier talk in there as well, so I think it could actually be useful to the Fear The Sword audience. Enjoy!