3 talented players the Cavs should have drafted but didn’t

The 2022 NBA Draft is over, and now is the time for second-guessing. Everyone’s rankings of players are a bit different, so there will always be moves a team makes that another team would have done differently. A player is one team’s treasure and another team’s reach. The Cleveland Cavaliers are no different.

Yet the Cavs clearly had a plan for this year’s draft, which was to play things incredibly safe. They drafted a four-year player in Ochai Agbaji at No. 14 when multiple high-upside players were on the board, then took two draft-and-stash guys in the second round with a very tiny chance of ever becoming something, Khalifa Diop and Luke Travers. Finally, they added Even Mobley’s brother, Isaiah, with a pick they added earlier in the day.

The Cleveland Cavaliers played it too safe in the 2022 NBA Draft. Here are three high-upside players the Cavs should have drafted Thursday night.

Perhaps all of those picks work out, or at least prove to be worthy choices in those slots. One can’t help but see all of the very talented players who could turn into difference-makers who the Cavs let pass by in order to stick to their plan. This could honestly be a 10-player list, but we will keep it to just three.

These three players were ranked significantly higher on my personal big board and represented a chance to get a special player in both the first and second rounds. Let’s look at why each would have been a better selection for a Cavs team that didn’t seem to want to “go big” on Thursday night.