Cleveland Cavaliers: 15 greatest draft steals in franchise history
By John Buhler
- Four seasons w/Cavaliers (1993-97)
- 319 career games w/Cavaliers
- 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists per game w/Cavaliers
Chris Mills was an outstanding player in the old Pac-10 for the Arizona Wildcats. He originally started his college career at the University of Kentucky, but was kicked off the team for receiving money and other improper benefits from a Wildcats booster. Mills may have had to change schools, but that didn’t stop him from being one of the greatest players in Arizona history.
Cleveland would use its No. 22 overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft to select the small forward. Mills ended up spending his first four years in the league with the Cavaliers, playing in 319 games for Cleveland. He averaged 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game with the Cavaliers.
Cleveland made the Eastern Conference Playoffs in Mills’ first three seasons in the league. He averaged 12.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in 10 playoff games for Cleveland. These averages were a slight uptick from his career averages while with the Cavaliers, so the consistency was definitely there for him.
In an era before the shot became wide-sweeping, Mills was well above-average in terms of his 3-point shooting. Mills shot above 30 percent from beyond the arc in all four seasons in Cleveland, averaging 37.5 percent during his time with the Cavaliers. This shooting percentage would be well above his averages in his final six NBA seasons with the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors.
After four years with the Cavaliers, Mills signed as a free agent with the Boston Celtics, but never played a game for them. He was dealt to the Knicks before the year started. Interestingly, this would not be the last time that Mills was dealt from a team he never played for. He would be shipped to the Dallas Mavericks and the Atlanta Hawks before he officially called it a career in 2004.
Overall, Mills was a superior athlete of his era, but never really fully tapped into that at the professional level. Injuries largely robbed him of reaching his highest of heights in the NBA. However, he was a double-digit scorer for the team that drafted him late in the first round of the 1993 NBA Draft out of Arizona. Though he played five years with Golden State, Cleveland is the team Mills is best known playing for as a professional.