9 Cleveland Cavaliers that never played a single minute

Here is a name that most Cleveland Cavaliers fans were not expecting, but Jamal Crawford did technically spend a moment of his career as a part of the organization. The Seattle basketball legend was actually drafted by the Cavs with the eighth pick of the 2000 NBA Draft.

That was in the midst of a dark chapter of the franchise’s history, when the Cavs were cycling through players trying to find a group that could help them win more than a handful of games (it would be another half-decade before they accomplished that behind LeBron James). That mediocrity landed them the eighth pick in the 2000 draft.

The Cavs had their eye on another prospect, Chris Mihm, and didn’t want to miss out on the chance to draft him. They traded cash to the Chicago Bulls to swap first-round picks after the draft, getting back Mihm and sending Crawford to the Windy City.

Mihm would play 3.5 unremarkable seasons with the Cavaliers before bouncing around on the Celtics and Lakers to finish his career. Crawford, on the other hand, played in 1,327 games, scored 19,419 points and won the Sixth Man of the Year award three times. It was not the Cavs’ shining moment.