The Cleveland Cavaliers’ hopes of hitting big with the No. 14 pick aren’t great.
The NFL Draft is really the only sports league that has a draft that can reasonably give you stars throughout the process. Granted, it’s no guarantee and you’re still not likely to hit that often but it’s far more likely in the NFL or even the MLB Draft than it is with the NBA Draft.
Most great players don’t come from outside the first 10 or so picks. There are always exceptions, sure. Guys develop past their ceiling and become huge stars, but mostly if you’re not getting one of the first few picks, you’re making do with what you have.
The Cavs have the 14th pick in the upcoming 2022 NBA Draft and it’s a pick the team has never actually had before. So this player will be by default the best player the Cavs have ever taken at No.14.
So we’re going all the way back to 1989 to look at past 14th overall picks to see what the Cavs should expect. 1989 is the first year the draft was just two rounds, so we figured this is the closest to the modern form of drafting we can find.
So first, let’s talk Cavaliers.
The best players the Cavs have taken around the #14th pick
The Cavaliers have not had the 14th pick in any draft but they’ve had the 13th pick once and the 15th pick three times. Those four men were John Lambert (No. 15, 1975), Chuckie Williams (No. 15, 1976), Mike Mitchell (No. 15, 1978), and Derek Anderson (No. 13, 1997).
The four men combined for just 11 seasons all together with the Cavs, and only one of them, Anderson really qualifies to be on the list.
They only made one All-Star team between them (Mitchell), and he and Anderson were the most productive of the two across their careers. Mitchell was a 20-points-per-game guy over three of his four seasons in Cleveland, while Anderson was a 10+ point scorer in his two seasons in Cleveland, before going on to Portland where he became a solid three-point shooter for his time.
Funny enough, Anderson was traded for Lamond Murray, an oft-forgotten Cavalier during their “dark ages”.
Solid Starters
The Cavs are more likely to get a bust than anything but there is hope that the guy they get at No. 14 is someone who can start. Three names over the last 25-ish years of the Draft stand out as possible guys you would hope to at least get.
In 2001 you had forward Troy Murphy, then in 2003 you had guard Luke Ridnour and then in 2014, you got T.J. Warren. Murphy played for nearly a decade at near All-Star caliber basketball. He was a three-point shooter in an era that was just starting to look that way more often. Had he started his career ten years later and fans would remember him as one of the greatest stretch-fours in history. He was a double-double machine and really could bang with the best of them.
Unfortunately, he played in the Shaquille O’Neal era of the NBA, where size and strength were favored over pure talent.
Ridnour started more games than he didn’t, and averaged around 11 points per game in the seasons he was given the reigns. He was a solid spark off the bench otherwise and like with Murphy, got a good 10 years of viable production from him.
T.J. Warren is another player with upside and has been doing really good work when healthy as of late, especially for the Indiana Pacers.
This might be the best the Cavs get with this pick but considering the Cavs have three franchise guys in Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Darius Garland, this may be all they need.
All-Stars
For clarity’s sake, there were a few other players who were All-Stars at the 14th pick, Clyde Drexler and Dan Majerle but as they were drafted before the 1989 cut-off, we’re not factoring them into the conversation.
So that leaves us with just three men who were drafted 14th overall who went to an All-Star Game and frankly if the Cavs were to get the next of either of these men, they’d be made in the shade.
Firstly, Tim Haraday Sr, took 14th overall in 1989. Sure, he’s had some issues but he was also one of the best players of his day that the NBA had and he was arguably the biggest reason the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat were as good as they were.
In 1996, Peja Stojakovic joined the NBA as the 14th overall pick and he was easily a Hall of Fame shooter for the Hornets and Kings. His three-point prowess was impeccable and he was arguably a top 10 player for a spell while in Sacramento. His ability to stretch the court paved the way for the Kings to be as effective as they were, and also helped establish a young Chris Paul as an elite point guard.
Lastly, we have 2017’s selection, Bam Adebayo. Abedayo is one of the better defensive bigs going currently and while the Cavs have a few good bigs already if they were to land a defensive powerhouse like the current Miami Heat player, then they’d be able to have a permanent rotation of elite big-men.
It’ll be interesting to how this new addition turns out.