Cleveland Cavaliers: 10 best players all-time taken at No. 3 in NBA Draft

Best all-time players taken No. 3 overall: 8. Chauncey Billups

Chauncey Billups was not a superstar out of the gates. After starring at Colorado Billups had a difficult transition to playing point guard in the NBA, and stuck on bad teams early in his career he struggled to find his place. Playing alongside Kevin Garnett in Minnesota he began to find his groove a few years into his career, and when he signed with the Detroit Pistons in 2002 his career took flight.

Billups became the conductor of a team that made five straight Conference Finals in Detroit, including the 2004 NBA title. He then joined the Denver Nuggets and paired with the aforementioned Carmelo Anthony to go to the Conference Finals in his first season before his career began to glide to a close. In all he made five All-Star teams, three All-NBA teams and was a two-time All-Defense winner. His play in the 2004 NBA Finals earned him the Finals MVP award.

Best all-time players taken No. 3 overall: 7. Bob Cousy

The Boston Celtics of the 1950s and ’60s are difficult to evaluate. The teams each year were dominant, especially when it mattered the most, and they won 11 of 13 titles spanning center Bill Russell’s career. For everyone else on the team, evaluation is a matter of weighing overwhelming team success with suppressed individual success due to being on a perennial super team. Are their player overrated or underrated?

However you slice it, Bob Cousy had an amazing career. After the team that took him third overall folded, he made his way to the Celtics where his career took flight. Cousy made a whopping 13 All-Star teams and 12 All-NBA teams, for a long stretch the league’s best point guard. He would lead the league in assists eight times, and he won league MVP in 1956-57 because the league hadn’t yet figured out Russell deserved every single one.