The Cleveland Cavaliers hold the No. 29 overall pick — acquired from San Antonio — after one of the more rollercoaster playoff runs in recent memory: swept in the conference finals, but after surviving a 3-1 deficit against Detroit and a 1-3 deficit against Toronto in the first two rounds. Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley projects them to select Santa Clara freshman Allen Graves, a 6-foot-8 forward whose extraordinary advanced metrics and former point-guard skill set suggest a high-floor contributor despite legitimate questions about athleticism and competition level.

Graves arrived at Santa Clara as a redshirt freshman and quietly became one of the most efficient producers in college basketball, with long-range shooting, elite passing reads, and connective off-ball play that drew heavy attention from NBA analytics departments. He currently ranks as the top-rated player still in the transfer portal, which creates real withdrawal risk — he might head back to college if the right situation doesn’t materialize. But if he stays in the draft and the Cavaliers land him at No. 29, Buckley argues the value is significant: a 6-foot-8 forward whose point-guard instincts survived a late growth spurt, available at the back end of the first round because most scouts can’t separate what he did from who he did it against.

Cleveland’s summer will be defined by free agency decisions. Dean Wade, Keon Ellis, and Larry Nance Jr. can all become free agents, and the Cavaliers need to add wing depth whether or not any of those three return. Graves fills that wing need immediately as a floor-spacer and ball-mover, and his former-PG feel makes him an ideal connector in a Darius Garland-Donovan Mitchell offense that has always rewarded players who understand the right pass over the hero play.

The direct opportunity cost at No. 29 is the Dallas Mavericks’ No. 30 pick via OKC: Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas, a deep-range shooter with creation juice off the bounce and irrational confidence as a scorer. Thomas is the more dynamic offensive weapon; Graves is the smarter, more complete player. Cleveland — a team with multiple All-Stars who need better support, not more shot creation — values the Graves profile over the Thomas profile.

CBS Sports’ Adam Finkelstein also projects Graves to Cleveland at No. 29 — a meaningful endorsement from a respected evaluator. CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno and Gary Parrish both project Baylor freshman Tounde Yessoufou to the Cavaliers, a player with freakish athleticism and defensive potential who is less proven as an offensive contributor. Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor projects Texas junior Dailyn Swain — a relentless downhill attacker — to Cleveland instead. Tankathon projects UConn senior Alex Karaban, a shooting-oriented forward. The spread across four different player types reflects how genuinely uncertain Cleveland’s late-round priority is.

What connects all four projections is the desire to add a wing with a specific skill — whether it’s shooting, athleticism, or finishing — to a Cavaliers roster that showed real limitations at the forward spots when pushed to the conference finals. Graves is the most complete option, which makes him the least exciting and the most reliable.

What Other Outlets Are Projecting

Outlet	Projected Player
Bleacher Report	Allen Graves, PF, Santa Clara
CBS Sports	Allen Graves, PF, Santa Clara (Finkelstein)
Tankathon	Alex Karaban, SF/PF, UConn
Yahoo Sports	Dailyn Swain, SF, Texas

Selecting Graves at No. 29 is the right call for Cleveland because a team that won 57 games, reached the conference finals, and has two All-Stars doesn’t need ceiling swings at the back end of the first round — it needs reliable contributors who make the right play, space the floor, and don’t create defensive liabilities. Graves does all three. His point-guard background gives him a floor-reading intelligence that very few late-first-round prospects at his size can replicate, and if his athleticism proves adequate against NBA competition, Cleveland may have found a 10-year rotation player at a position that currently has no such player waiting in the wings.