Six players the Cleveland Cavaliers missed out on in the NBA Draft

Player #3 the Cleveland Cavaliers missed out on drafting: Damian Lillard

The next player on the list is Damian Lillard. This miss in the 2012 NBA Draft is susceptible for a little bit of leeway for the Cavs front office and scouting department. They already had a score-first point guard in Irving and adding another in Lillard would have seemed absurd. Instead, the Cavs would choose a score-first shooting guard in Dion Waiters with the fourth overall pick.

Lillard would only go two picks after to the Portland Trail Blazers. Just as it was the case with Oladipo, with Lillard being paired with Irving it could have potentially made for an amazing and young backcourt that would have put the Cavaliers on the map as one of the most up-and-coming teams in the league. Thinking of a possible big four of Irving, Lillard, LeBron, and eventually Kevin Love, if he could still be landed, it is likely that they would be able to keep up with the Golden State Warriors even with Kevin Durant.

Lillard has established himself as one of the best point guards in the league and consistently carries the Trail Blazers to the playoffs year after year in an extremely competitive Western Conference. In relation to Waiters, he was waived by the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this season after being traded to them by the Miami Heat, who Waiters was up-and-down with following time with OKC, and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a bench player in March, and will get another stint with James.

Granted, according to a recent report from The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon, Bill Oram and Jason Lloyd (subscription required), the Cavs did draft Waiters in large part due to them believing he could be a great fit off the bench if LeBron were to come back. James did come back, but Waiters did not mesh as his teammate then.

Nonetheless, in his career, Lillard has already totaled 14,586 points, 2,539 rebounds, and 3,932 assists on averages of 24.0 points, 6.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds. Waiters has totals of 5,422 points, 1,095 rebounds, and 1,146 assists on averages of 13.2 points, 2.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds.

It would have been intriguing to see if Dame would develop into the player he is today with the Cleveland Cavaliers and playing with a ball-dominant player in Kyrie Irving. Lillard would have likely been forced to play the shooting guard position which would have likely pushed him to his limits in trying to guard taller and stronger players.