3 Cleveland Cavaliers we wish would’ve gotten a second act with the team
By Chad Porto
Jamal Crawford
Now, you may be wondering how Jamal Crawford could qualify for this list, as he never played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and you’d be correct in that observation. Crawford never wore a Cavaliers jersey, but for a brief moment in 2000, he was a Cavalier. The Cavaliers drafted the Michigan University guard 8th overall, and the high-end scorer would go on to rack up three Sixth Man of the Year Awards across his time in the league, but that wasn’t good enough for the Cavs, nope.
The Cavs really coveted another center, hoping to stymie the loss of the oft-injured Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Ilgauskas was in the process of missing nearly two seasons’ worth of basketball due to a foot injury, and the Cavs were hoping that Texas Longhorn Chris Mihm could be the answer. He averaged around seven points and five rebounds in 20 minutes the two seasons he was on the team and Ilgauskas was out or limited but he never turned into the player they needed him to be.
The Bulls made the trade, despite getting the better player, in part due to their desire to get some cash back. Money was the big swing object attached to the player swap to make it something the Bulls would want. And it was some of the worst money the Cavs would ever spend.