Apr 19, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers center
Tristan Thompson(13) and guard
Kyrie Irving(2) and forward
LeBron James(23) sit during a timeout in the second quarter against the Boston Celtics in game one of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
To commemorate twenty seasons of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball at Quicken Loans arena, King James Gospel is looking at the best in various categories during that span. Today we look at the top five draft picks for the Cleveland Cavaliers during The Gund/Q Arena era. Last year finished up the Cavs 20th season in their hallowed arena.
In the past 4 years, the Cleveland Cavaliers have achieved something that no team would ever be proud of – and no team has ever achieved – receiving the 1st overall pick in three out of four NBA drafts starting in 2011.
They used a L.A. Clippers traded first rounder to choose Kyrie Irving in 2011, chose Anthony Bennett 1st overall in 2013 and tied 2nd lowest odds of winning the lottery in 2014 where they chose (and then later traded) Andrew Wiggins 1st overall.
We will examine the Cavaliers 1st round draft choices since they opened the doors at the Gund Arena/Quicken Loans Arena twenty years ago.
20.) 1995 Rd:1. Pick:17 – Bob Sura, Florida State University
19.) 1996 Rd:1. Pick:12 – Vitaly Potapenko, Wright State University
19.) 1996 Rd:1. Pick:20 – Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Kaunas, Lithuania
18.) 1997 Rd:1. Pick:13 – Derek Anderson, University of Kentucky
18.) 1997 Rd:1. Pick:16 – Brevin Knight, Stanford University
17.) 1998 Rd:1. Pick:None
16.) 1999 Rd:1. Pick:8 – Andre Miller, University of Utah
16.) 1999 Rd:1. Pick:11 – Trajan Langdon, Duke University
15.) 2000 Rd:1. Pick:8 – Jamal Crawford, University of Michigan
14.) 2001 Rd:1. Pick:8 – DeSagna Diop, Dakar, Senegal
14.) 2001 Rd:1. Pick:20 – Brendan Haywood, University of North Carolina
13.) 2002 Rd:1. Pick:6 – Dajuan Wagner, University of Memphis
12.) 2003 Rd:1. Pick:1 – LeBron James, Saint Vincent Saint Mary HS
11.) 2004 Rd:1. Pick:10 – Luke Jackson, University of Oregon
10.) 2005 Rd:1. Pick:None
09.) 2006 Rd:1. Pick:25 – Shannon Brown, Michigan State University
08.) 2007 Rd:1. Pick:None
07.) 2008 Rd:1. Pick:19 – J.J. Hickson, North Carolina State University
06.) 2009 Rd:1. Pick:30 – Christian Eyenga, Democratic Republic of Congo
05.) 2010 Rd:1. Pick:None
04.) 2011 Rd:1. Pick:1 – Kyrie Irving, Duke University
04.) 2011 Rd:1. Pick:4 – Tristan Thompson, University of Texas at Austin
03.) 2012 Rd:1. Pick:4 – Dion Waiters, Syracuse University
03.) 2012 Rd:1. Pick:24 – Jared Cunningham, Oregon State University
02.) 2013 Rd:1. Pick:1 – Anthony Bennett, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
02.) 2013 Rd:1. Pick:19 – Sergey Karasev, St. Petersburg, Russia
01.) 2014 Rd:1. Pick:1 – Andrew Wiggins, University of Kansas
The Five best 1st round draft picks by the Cleveland Cavaliers:
Next: A 4-man at #5