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I got a bad feeling the Cavs are going to either get the top pick or 2nd pick in the draft. Stern will cave to Dan Gilbert again.

Ok..sorta kidding, lol

But looking back at the Cavs drafts before and after LeBron. They totally missed on some guys who if they developed could have been the "other star" to make LeBron stay.

2001 - Dasanga Diop

A complete bust. Even if he was garbage until they drafted LeBron, if he at least developed into a 9 board/ 3 blk a game defensive presence it would have been huge. If his development went the Ibalka route, that would have proved huge for the Cavs.

2002 - Dajuan Wagner

Not a Cavs fan, but I really felt bad for this guy. Sure he struggled shooting his rookie year (37%). But he did show signs. I thought he would be a great running mate for LeBron. Wagner had a great deal of scoring talent and was thought to be a perfect fit next to LeBron. At the time people thought LeBron could be a PG and Wagner could be a SG in the Iverson mold. (Obviously he wouldnt have been that good) But the injuries and Paul Silas wasnt a fan of him. Eventually got out of the league. Him and Jonathan Bender are two guys I'll always wonder what they could have been w/o injuries.

2nd round pick - Carlos Boozer. Thought to be a great fit, but eventually bailed on Cleveland after just one year with LeBron.

2003 LeBron - Nothing to be said

2004 - Luke Jackson I never got the hype on this guy. At the time I was hoping for the Cavs to go the HS route again to pair a guy with LeBron. I was thinking either Al Jefferson, Josh Smith or Sebastian Telfair (Dont be sad, cause two out of three aint bad ). I then slowly thought they should consider JR Smith as well. Would have been interesting to see how either of these guys career goes if they started it off with LeBron.

05 - No 1st rounder?

06 - Shannon Brown/Boobie Gibson

FA signings and Trades - Darius Miles was traded for the year before for Andre Miller. I thought it was a good trade at the time. . Miles struggled, but then the next year they got LeBron I figured they'd be a great fit together. Miles could run the break, still living a bit off the "potential" he showed as a Clipper. LeBron, Wagner, Miles......based off how I viewed these guys out of HS, I expected them to be OKC before OKC . Obviously Miles was still a knucklehead and they got rid of him.

Larry Hughes - What a letdown. I was Hughes fan when he was in Washington. I thought he'd be that 20/5/5 guy to go next to LeBron. However, he was such a letdown and disappointment. Could have had Michael Redd, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen?, but Larry just cashed out. smh.


So based on the before and after. Who out of these guys did you like the most as a prospect or player at one time? At least as far as entering the draft in terms of prospects. As far as Miles and Hughes, did you have high expectations once they started playing with LeBron?

The guy I had 100% faith in.....was Wagner. I so thought he would be a very good player. Who would you choose or did all these guys look like scrubs to you?

Alright I can explain the Cavs early 00s drafting issues in a couple ways.

1) The Gund Brothers were horribly cheap owners
2) Jim Paxson let John Lucas bully him into picks (Diop, Wagner)
3) Jim Paxson had an obsession with white wings who played sorta like he did (Jackson, Pav, Jiri)

The fact is Boozer "breaking" his promise with the Gunds is probably the best thing that has happened to the Cavs other than getting Lebron. Boozer lying to the blind brother (Gordon) pretty much put the wheels in motion for Gilbert buying the team. George Gund just didn't want to put up with the NBA anymore.

Don't pay attention much to the pre '05 Cavs drafting as it was a different much cheaper era (And even in '05 we had to rely on soon to be fired scouts data. That said, Granger was the pick supposedly had the Cavs not unprotected the pick for Jiri....ugh -_-)

Here are the Gilbert era drafts

2005 No first rounder (Wesley Person trade, unprotected due to Jiri Welsch deal)
44. M. Andriuskevicius 7-2 240 PF Lith. (bought pick)

2006 25. Shannon Brown 6-3 200 SG Mich St (Mike Brown screwed him on playing time)
42. Daniel Gibson 6-2 190 PG Texas (Great pick even if Boobie is made of glass)
55. Ejike Ugboaja 6-9 225 PF Nigeria (Athlete shot in the dark)

2007 No first rounder (Jiri Welsch trade)

2008 19. JJ Hickson 6-8 235 PF NC State (Hickson was on the Mike Brown **** till Ferry stepped in. Ferry wasn't going to let S. Brown happen again)
52. Darnell Jackson 6-8 240 PF Kansas (wide body 5th big. Pick was bought)
56. Sasha Kaun 6-10 247 C Kansas (Took a shot on a highly rated prospect as a soph who burned out. Prolly staying in Europe as a mediocre Euro center. Pick bought)

2009. 30. Christian Eyenga 6-6 210 SG/SF Congo (Ferry must of been traumatized by Pietrus. Took a shot on the super athlete who couldn't play basketball. Didn't have the work ethic to match his athletic ability.)
46. Danny Green 6-6 208 SF North Carolina (I have no idea what happened with this one. He never got minutes with the Cavs going for #1 seed. Cut for Manny Harris following year after a horrible training camp. Spurs figured him out)
57. Emir Preldzic 6-8 220 SG/SF Slovenia (Euro store. Traded in the Jamison deal)

2010 No first round pick (Jamison deal) Didn't move any assets to see if they could get picks due to Lebron holding them hostage...first of Lebron's dick moves that off season)

Ferry and Brown were fired after 2010. Brown constantly held back rookies playing his safe "defensive" players over them. JJ Hickson would of most likely been buried just as Shannon was had Ferry not directly forced Brown to play him. But based on talent the Cavs certainly didn't do that poorly in the Ferry era based on talent alone especially with how late they picked. Just a shame that Shannon and Danny Green had to go elsewhere to find success.

Chris Grant to me seems a bit looser than Ferry, taking more chances but then again Grant didn't have Lebron's shadow looming over him at all times

lebron turned out to be a huge bust. what a waste of the lottery pick

I wouldn't call Gibson a bust. He was a mid-2nd round pick. The fact that he's still in the league at all makes him a non-bust, given his draft spot.

That Jiri Welsch trade was one of the all-time worst trades of a draft pick I've seen. The Luke Jackson pick considering who was on the board was also incredible.

If the Cavs hadn't failed every shot they had while Lebron was still bad enough for them to get mid-lottery picks, they could have built around him like OKC did for Durant.

OH and then they lost Boozer because they "trusted" he'd sign for them for less money, and gave up their RFA rights. All-time biggest **** ups.

Puke Jackson takes the cake. Notable players taken afterwards:

-Al Jefferson
-Josh Smith
-JR Smith
-Jameer Nelson
-Delonte West
-Kevin Martin
-Anderson Varejao

I realize that some of that is revisionist's history, and also that they wanted to surround LeBron with shooters, but Jackson was awful.

Luke Jackson busting isn't all on the Cavs. Jackson suffered a bad back injury in summer league when someone undercut him in mid jump. He just was never the same player after that

Silas supposedly wanted Nelson despite it being a reach...but Jim Paxson just couldn't get enough of those white wings

stay in your own forum Heat fruitcakes

EscapoTHB wrote:That Jiri Welsch trade was one of the all-time worst trades of a draft pick I've seen. The Luke Jackson pick considering who was on the board was also incredible.

If the Cavs hadn't failed every shot they had while Lebron was still bad enough for them to get mid-lottery picks, they could have built around him like OKC did for Durant.

OH and then they lost Boozer because they "trusted" he'd sign for them for less money, and gave up their RFA rights. All-time biggest **** ups.

This.^^
Dont forget, they gave up Boozer's bird rights in order to pay him more immediately, rather than him being paid I think around 800 thou or so for his remaining season, then they still would have had first refusal rights. The deal was illegal according to NBA rules so the team couldnt come out and say thats what they were doing or they would have been punished. Incredibly stupid move by the team and equally incredible douchebag move by Pelinka and Boozer. But they cashed in big time by doing it, so more power to them.
There are so many draft, trade and FA screw ups over the last decade or so its almost Clipper-esque.

Cavsfan9000 wrote:stay in your own forum Heat fruitcakes

i think a better topic would be "how many free agents wouldnt come to cleveland since lebron wouldnt say he was staying and recruit"

heat fans are unreal, u guys complain people havent gotten over lebron here....but guys make these threads, cleveland fans dont..

The Hughes team had the most success.

The real problem was going after old guys on their last legs (Ben Wallace, Shaq, Jamison) instead of finding young guys (like how the Thunder did it).

Cavsfan9000 wrote:stay in your own forum Heat fruitcakes

OP has a fascination with the Cavs