Will the Cleveland Cavaliers off-season movement help in 2013?

Anthony Bennett of UNLV poses for a photo with NBA Commissioner David Stern after Bennett was drafted #1 overall in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2013 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 27, 2013 in in the Brooklyn Bourough of New York City. (Getty Images)

How bright is the future in Cleveland?

Moving towards the 2013-14 NBA Season, the young Cavaliers team has made a few moves this off-season that could prove to be a huge improvement on the last three years, or leave them stranded in the bottom of the East.

With the acquisition of new head coach Mike Brown, the Cavaliers bring a much needed defensive-minded coach with good player development skills. Brown was the coach of the Cavs in the ‘LeBron Era’ and most notably won coach of the year in 2009.

Cavaliers’ ex-head Byron Scott was no doubt a good coach, but it seems that even with Kyrie Irving and some great young talent, he could not put any wins on the board.

When a young team that needs time to grow has been struck with injuries (Anderson Varejao and Irving), any coach would struggle. Regardless, Coach Brown will do a good job with the young talent in Cleveland.

Draft night 2013 brought some serious surprises when it came to the top ten picks. Cleveland no doubt had an amazing night picking up one of, if not, the most skilled and NBA-ready player in the Draft in Anthony Bennett.

Bennett was a great pick, but he doesn’t exactly fill the need at small forward or centre positions. He will be playing as a power forward and fighting for a starting spot against Tristan Thompson.

Regardless, Cleveland has said that they will go for the best player in the draft, and the player that best suits the Cavs. Through watching videos on Bennett, and analysing who he really is, it’s clear he is a hard worker and someone who will fit well into the Cleveland culture perfectly.

At number 19, the Cavs picked up Sergey Karasev, a small forward with a great stroke and good passing ability. This was a great pick up for the Cavaliers as they expected they would need to trade up in the draft to get him. He will challenge Alonzo Gee for the starting shooting forward position for sure.

Lastly the Cavs picked up Carrick Felix in the second round, who is predominantly a shooting guard with a great defensive motor. Brown will be extremely happy with this pick, and he can be a great bench defensive player in the future, with a skill set similar to Gee.

Cleveland has made a couple early splashes in free agency picking up Earl Clark from the Los Angeles Lakers and Jarrett Jack from Golden State. Earl had a breakout season last year when Pau Gasol was injured and certainly turned some heads. At 6’10? he is probably going to play small forward in Cleveland.

Jack, a free agent point guard from the Warriors, will fit as a backup to Irving perfectly. He can certainly start when he is injured and also fill in for Dion Waiters at the shooting guard position. He stands at 6’3? giving the Cavaliers some much needed back court presence.

The Cavs are certainly becoming a deep team at the power forward and guard spots, but there are some needs that need to be filled if they expect to move out of the lottery and into a playoff position.

First they will need to sign a free agent or look to trade for a pure centre; somebody who doesn’t need to be great offensively, but to have some seriously good defence.

If Greg Oden or Andrew Bynum are healthy they would fit into this Cavs team perfectly. The only question is whether Cleveland is willing to take that risk.

It seems at this point in time that they might be looking to grab the best possible shooting forward in 2014 and just save up on some funds this 2013 season.

The Cavaliers won’t be making the playoffs this year unless they fill the needs above, but they will go close with the development of the young core of Irving, Waiters, Thompson, Bennett and Tyler Zeller.