The Cleveland Cavaliers had the penultimate pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, taking raw international wing Saliou Niang with the 58th pick on Thursday night. One pick later, the draft was over, and it was time for NBA teams to race against one another to scoop up all of the valuable prospects who went undrafted. The Cavaliers, however, did nothing of the sort.
Other NBA teams understood the assignment. The Dallas Mavericks signed Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard, brother of Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard. The Miami Heat signed Michigan center Vlad Golden. The Los Angeles Lakers signed a plethora of players, including Villanova big Eric Dixon and North Carolina guard RJ Davis.
There is a reason these players went undrafted, certainly, but history has shown that there are gems to be mined from the ranks of the undrafted free agents. Austin Reaves went undrafted and is in line for a $30 million a year contract. Lu Dort went undrafted and just started on a title team. On Cleveland's own roster Dean Wade, Craig Porter Jr. and Max Strus all went undrafted in their respective drafts. Ignoring those who are not drafted is a fool's errand.
Instead, while other teams went to work, the Cavaliers largely did nothing. They reportedly were considering their own two-way contracts and were not prepared to cut one of those players right away. That in and of itself was baffling; the franchise has had months to decide if they want to keep the likes of Emoni Bates, Luke Travers and Nae'Kwon Tomlin around (my vote would be no-yes-no).
More than that, however, the Cavaliers could have at the very least extended invitation to training camp on Exhibit 9 and Exhibit 10 deals. They did that with just one player: former Auburn Tigers forward Chaney Johnson.
Chaney Johnson is a baffling choice
The glaring problem with that move was that Johnson does not appear to be an NBA player. There are undrafted free agents who were close to being drafted, and then there was someone like Chaney Johnson. While he has good size at 6'7", he doesn't appear to have a lot of NBA skills, and he was not ranked on anything.
The Athletic's Sam Vecenie ranked 100 players and Chaney Johnson was not on the list. ESPN had 100 of their own, no Chaney Johnson. Hoop Intellect went even further with 120 players, and still no Chaney Johnson.
If the Cleveland Cavaliers wanted a part of that dominant Auburn Tigers team, they could have scooped up big man Dylan Cardwell. If they wanted to address a true need at backup center, they could have picked up Vlad Golden from Michigan or Victor Lahkin from Clemson.
If they were locked into adding a forward, and you can never have too many wings and forwards, then Chaney Johnson was a truly baffling choice. Brice Williams from Nebraska would have been an intriguing addition with some real NBA skills. RJ Luis was an All-Big East player this season at St. John's. There were a few other options, although the forward barrel was certainly picked clean in the second round.
Instead, two full days after the end of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Cavaliers have added just one player, and he is about as far from being an NBA player as it gets for an undrafted free agent. Whether they are still in love with their two-way players, unprepared for the moment or have some other move up their sleeves, it was an uninspiring start to the post-draft offseason.