Forward Christian Eyenga is going from the Congo to Cleveland.
The NBA affiliates of the Erie BayHawks – Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers – made some selections tonight’s NBA Draft, which means one thing.
They may wind up suiting up for the BayHawks this season.
With the 30th overall pick, the Cavaliers chose Christian Eyenga out of the Congo. He’s 6-foot-6, 210 pounds, can play either guard or forward, but check out his stats.
Interesting.
The Sixers used the 17th overall pick to take UCLA point guard Jrue Holiday.
With the D-League adding two teams in the eastern part of country in Portland, Maine and Springfield, Mass., Philadelphia become an affiliate of one of those two teams. Since the Sixers were so far away from Erie (6 hours), they didn’t develop the kind of the relationship with the BayHawks the Cavaliers did.
So talking about Philadelphia’s first-round pick playing in Erie may be irrelevant. If Philly and Erie remain connected, the chances of Holiday playing for the BayHawks are decent, but not great.
Holiday's physical nature will work in Philly.
The Sixers have a veteran point guard in Andre Miller and a solid back up in Louis Williams. Holiday won’t start for Philadelphia, which means there’s a chance Erie will see him.
As for the Cavaliers, Eyenga is someone who gives Cleveland height and athleticism at the two-guard position, but may be versatile to play a tall 3-man.
Considering he’s going to a championship team, he won’t play much for Cleveland, so in turn, he may play a lot for Erie.
Darnell Jackson played two games for the BayHawks in his rookie year for the Cavaliers. So expect Eyenga to play in Erie, but not as much as he should.
At the end of the day, neither guy would like to play in the D-League. Ideally, if either one of these guys spend some time in Erie,they’ll treat it the way Jackson did. He not only handled it with class, he played hard and put on a show for the Erie fans.
From what I’ve read and heard Eyenga looks pretty athletic, but it’s hard to judge foreign players because they play a different style overseas.
As for Holiday, he’s an explosive talent who could have benefitted from playing another year in college, but he’s a talented player.
