Cleveland Cavaliers: 15 greatest draft steals in franchise history

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1974- Close up of Campy Russell, basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers in uniform. Undated color slide. /

Seven seasons w/Cavaliers (1974-80, 1984-85)
NBA All-Star (1978-79)
410 career games w/Cavaliers
16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.0 steals per game w/Cavaliers

Campy Russell first made a name for himself at the University of Michigan in college. He would be a consensus Second-Team All-American in 1974 before entering the NBA Draft. Russell would be pick No. 8 overall by the Cavaliers, the team he would be best known playing for over his decade-long NBA career.

Russell played sparingly as a rookie in 1974-75, but quickly cracked the starting lineup by his second year in the league. He averaged 15.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists in his breakout campaign in 1975-76. Russell would average double figures in scoring for the next seven seasons.

After nearly getting 20 points per game in 1977-78, Russell would surpass that scoring threshold the following year in what was his best statistical season of his NBA career. Russell averaged 21.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. These would all end up being career highs for him, as he made his lone trip to the NBA All-Star Game that winter.

Russell played one more season in Cleveland in 1979-80 before being dealt to the New York Knicks in a three-team deal with the then-Kansas City Kings. He averaged double figures in scoring the next two seasons before a knee injury derailed his career in 1982. Russell was out of the game for the next two years, returning briefly to the Cavaliers in 1984-85, but as a shell of himself.

Overall, Russell averaged 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 steals per game with the Cavaliers. He played in 410 games for Cleveland over parts of seven seasons. His scoring ability at small forward made him a fan favorite, as Russell now serves as an on-air talent for Cavaliers’ pre-game and post-game coverage on FOX Sports Ohio.

Even though Russell was taken in the top-10 of the 1974 NBA Draft, he provided the Cavaliers with great value over his first six seasons in the league. Being named to an All-Star team and helping get the Cavaliers to the NBA playoffs three times in his initial run in Cleveland have him cracking the top-five on this all-time list.