7 players the Cleveland Cavaliers gave up on too soon
1. The Cleveland Cavaliers gave up on Kevin Johnson too soon
Our final selection on this list will be somewhat controversial, so hang in there. In the 1987 NBA Draft the Cleveland Cavaliers selected California point guard Kevin Johnson seventh overall, one year after taking Georgia Tech point guard Mark Price 25th overall. When Price had a breakout year in 1987-88, Johnson’s rookie season, the Cavs decided not to waste any time breaking the pair up.
Just 52 games into his rookie year, the Cavaliers crafted a blockbuster trade with the Phoenix Suns. They sent Johnson, two role players and three future picks (including a first that became Dan Majerle) to the Suns for Larry Nance and what amounted to flotsam.
Nance became one of Cleveland’s beloved players, and he was a core piece of the success the Cavs saw for the next decade. He made a pair of All-Star Games with the Cavaliers and was an incredible athlete, racking up both blocks and dunks. Mark Price, of course, went to four All-Star games and made four All-NBA teams.
The Cavs should not have chosen Kevin Johnson over Mark Price, but they also shouldn’t have panicked and moved on from Johnson so quickly. He absolutely exploded in Phoenix, averaging 20.4 points and 12.2 assists in his second season and making three All-Star Games and five All-NBA teams during his career. He started on an NBA Finals team and was a top-5 point guard in the league for a long stretch.
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Cleveland could absolutely have started both Price and Johnson, in the process forming perhaps the most offensively potent backcourt in the NBA. Instead, Cleveland decided they needed to pick one or the other and ended up selling low on Johnson, even if Nance was a really good player in his own right. The ceiling for those Cavs teams was never high enough to truly contend for the East crown; perhaps with Price and Johnson it would have been.