Cal Sports Report

Jaylon Tyson Taken With 20th Overall Pick of NBA Draft by Cavs

Cal standout Tyson selected in first round, earlier than anyone expected. He wasn't invited to attend the NBA draft

Jake Curtis

Cal Golden Bears guard Jaylon Tyson
Cal Golden Bears guard Jaylon Tyson / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Cal's Jaylon Tyson was taken earlier in the NBA draft than anyone expected, being selected with the 20th pick of the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.

Tyson, who played one season with the Golden Bears after spending time at Texas and Texas A&M, was projected to go no higher than No. 23 overall, with a lot of experts predicting that he would be selected early in the second round.

An indication of his surprising draft selection is the fact that he was not one of the 25 players invited to be present at the NBA Draft in Brooklyn New York. Tyson watched the draft privately in his hometown of Plano, Texas, surrounded by friends and family.

“With our roster, we have a lot of depth where we can  bring him along slowly. But with Tyson, he just checks so many boxes," Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey told reporters afterward. "You can kind of play him with any other four guys out there on the floor with him. Adding, obviously, versatility and wing size will help because he’s 6-6, 6-7. Just trying to get the best player available and we felt he was that guy at 20.”

The 6-foot-6 Tyson averaged 19.6 points for Cal in 2023-24, nearly doubling his scoring average at Texas Tech the previous season. He also averaged 6.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists while handling most of the ballhandling and playmaking duties for the Golden Bears. He shot 36% from three-point range, but his best skills are his ability to create his own shot and penetrate and finish at the rim.

Tyson is the first Cal player to be drafted since 2017, when the Magic took center Ivan Rabb in the second round and the Celtics took guard Jabari Bird also in the second round.

Tyson is the first Cal player to be taken in the first round since Jaylen Brown was selected with the third overall pick of the 2016 draft by the Celtics. Tyson becomes the 11th former Cal player to be drafted in the first round.

Last year, the 20th overall pick in the NBA draft was Cam Whitmore, who signed a four-year rookie contract for $15,595,310. It broke down to $3,218,160 in his first season, $3,379,080 in the second, $3,539,760 in the third, and $5,458,310 in the fourth.

The selection of Tyson in the first round should help Mark Madsen's recruiting because it shows he can develop players to become a first-round NBA draft choice.

With the Cavaliers he joins a team with a new head coach -- Kenny Atkinson, who was a Warriors assistant coach this past season.

Apparently people in Cleveland were not surprised by the Cavs' pick. Tuesday's Cleveland Plain-Dealer had a pre-draft story that began with these paragraphs:

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman made it clear at his end-of-season press conference that it was not in the plan to break up the team’s Core Four. If that holds true during the offseason, the Cavs need to improve around the margins, and a player like California’s Jaylon Tyson would be an ideal fit with the No. 20 overall selection in Wednesday’s draft.

Tyson is a 6-foot-6, 218-pound wing coming off a breakout junior season that displayed all of the skills the Cavs are looking to add at the small forward position.

The Cavaliers have title aspirations. They finished fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 48-34 record, then beat Orlando in the first round of the playoffs before losing to eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics in five games in the second round.

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California Golden Bears guard Jaylon Tyson (20) dribbles the ball against the Stanford Cardinal in the Pac-12 tournament
Cal Golden Bears guard Jaylon Tyson / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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