Top Five Defining Draft Moments in Cleveland Cavaliers History

No. 5 
1971: Austin Carr, the original tragedy 

In their expansion season of 1970, the Cavs lost 27 of their first 28 games, finished a league-worst 15-67, and thereby got the No. 1 pick. This was before the draft lottery.

Carr, the Naismith Player of the Year, was a no-brainer of a pick. One of the greatest scoring guards in college basketball history, he still holds the record for most points scored in an NCAA tournament game (61). He averaged 50 points in seven NCAA playoff games for Notre Dame.

Carr figured to be a great pro, but a series of injuries, including a broken foot that cost him the first month of his rookie year, took their toll. He spent nine seasons with the Cavs. He averaged about 15 points, three rebounds, and three assists a game for his career—good, but nothing to vault the franchise into contention.

No. 4
1985: Blowing the pick when it was right under their noses

The Cavs had the No. 9 overall pick in the 1985 draft and wanted first-team All-American forward-center Keith Lee of Memphis.

The Chicago Bulls had the 11th pick and wanted relatively unknown Virginia Union power forward Charles Oakley.

On Draft Day the teams arranged it so the Cavs would take Oakley, the Bulls would take Lee, and then they’d swap the players. The Cavs’ got journeyman guard Ennis Whatley for essentially trading down two places. Whatley never did anything for them.

It’s bad enough that Lee turned out to be a dud, averaging 6.1 points and 4.7 rebounds in his three-year NBA career. It’s worse that Oakley became a double-double machine and a defensive intimidator in the NBA for nearly two decades. But worst of all, Oakley was a Clevelander, born and raised.

The Bulls made the wiser choice, but even they could have done much better. Two picks after their selection, the Utah Jazz drafted Karl Malone.

No. 3
1980: Idiot in charge

“With the No. 1 pick in the 1982 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select North Carolina forward James Worthy.”

That’s how the announcement should have gone. But instead of the Cavaliers—who had the league’s worst record, only 15 wins, in 1981-82—getting Worthy, it was the Los Angeles Lakers, who were coming off a championship season.

How did this happen?

Through the genius of Ted Stepien, an advertising magnate who bought the Cavs in 1980 and quickly went about making the franchise into the laughingstock of the sports world.

The trade that all-but-landed Worthy on the Lakers (L.A. still had to win a coin flip with the then-San Diego Clippers) originated in 1980.

In January of that year the Cavs traded their 1982 first-round pick and guard Butch Lee to the Lakers for forward Don Ford and the Lakers’ first-round pick in the 1982 draft.

It wasn’t like the Cavs were an up-and-coming team and could imagine that their first-rounder two years in the future would be a low pick. They had gone 37-45 in 1979-80 and would finish with only 28 wins in 1980-81. And it wasn’t like the Lakers’ 1980 pick was such hot stuff. It was No. 22 overall, the second-last pick in the first round.

Instead of getting future Hall of Famer Worthy in 1982, the Cavs drafted guard Chad Kinch of North Carolina-Charlotte with the Lakers’ pick in 1980. In his one-year NBA career, Kinch averaged less than three points a game.

But, wait, Stepien wasn’t done.

In the fall of 1980, the new owner traded the team’s 1983 and 1986 first-round picks and forward Bill Robinzine to Dallas for mediocre forwards Richard Washington and Jerome Whitehead.

Dallas used its stolen picks to draft guard Derek Harper, who went on to play 16 years and finish with the 17th-most assists and 11th-most steals in NBA history, and forward-center Roy Tarpley, who was a star until he ran into drug problems.

The NBA now has a rule against teams trading away first-round picks in consecutive years. It’s known as the Ted Stepien Rule.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?