Ranking the Cleveland Cavaliers’ lottery picks since 2011
When it comes to the NBA Draft Lottery, you’d be hard-pressed to find a team that has been more lucky than the Cleveland Cavaliers have been over the past decade or so. Since 2011, the Cavaliers have drafted in the top-14 of the draft nine times. That’s not even including probably their most important draft pick ever, which was LeBron James, in 2003. Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Collin Sexton, and Anthony Bennett, among others, were all high-lottery picks for the Cavaliers in the last decade. With that being said, I’m sure the Cavaliers aren’t proud of having picked nine times in the top-14.
Drafting in the lottery year after year means that the organization isn’t doing all the things needed to win on a consistent basis. With that in mind, though, how successful have the Cavs been when drafting in the lottery?
Since 2011, Cleveland has had three different number one overall picks. However, lucking into the number one pick didn’t happen every year for the Cavs. They’ve had two number four overall picks, two number five overall picks, and landed the eighth pick and fifth pick once since 2011. Considering the Cavs missed the playoffs again this past year, it’s pretty clear the front office hasn’t hit on all their high lottery picks.
From Anthony Bennett in 2013, to Evan Mobley this past summer, it’s time to rank the Cavaliers lottery picks since 2011. In my opinion, the greatest lottery pick the Cavs ever made was the selection of LeBron James in 2003. But, I don’t think that’s really up for debate, so he will be left out of these rankings, which again are from 2011-on. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the best and the worst Cavalier lottery picks.*
(*Picks 1-14)
#9. Anthony Bennett, Forward/Center, UNLV
(First Overall Pick In 2013)
If you’re a Cavalier fan you should remember this guy, even if it is just to forget about him again later. Cleveland stunned the NBA world when they announced that Bennett would be the first overall pick in 2013. As it turns out, the forward himself was surprised as well, as the Cavaliers had not notified him or his agent he would be the number one pick. As a freshman at UNLV, Bennett looked the part of a bruiser on the inside, with the flexibility to stretch to the three and hit shots. That year he averaged 16.1 points per game, while also grabbing upwards of eight rebounds per game.
In hindsight this pick was not only bad, it didn’t make much sense. Even though the 2013 draft was a weak one, excluding a couple of players, the Cavs decision to draft the big man came down to one thing: They had already drafted Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters in the years before so they needed to find a big-bodied player to pair with the two. Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com expressed it best in a piece he wrote in 2020:
"“The following year, Victor Oladipo had some fans in the organization,” Fedor wrote. “But after snagging Irving and Waiters, the Cavs determined it made more sense to focus on a different position, choosing Anthony Bennett with the top pick while Oladipo went second overall. Whoops again.”"
During his one and only year with the Cavaliers he averaged 4.2 points per game, and grabbed three rebounds per game. He would go on to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors, and Brooklyn Nets before taking his talents overseas. This pick was horrible, but the good thing is that LeBron came back the next summer, so the front offices’ mistake just got brushed to the side.