#5 – 2002 NBA Draft
With the sixth pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select Dajuan Wagner.
He played one year of college basketball at Memphis, where he broke the school record for points in a single season with 762. He scored a season-high 32 points in his second game, which he did again during the NIT semifinal. He put in work in the title game, scoring 16 points and at the end of the season he earned several NIT and conference honors, including the MVP award of the 2002 NIT.
Even with the 14th ranked offense and the likes of Andre Miller, Wesley Person, Lamond Murray and Ricky Davis in the backcourt, after only winning 29 games one could see why the team would like an offensive guard that scored 21.2 points per game in college.
Wagner only lasted 4 seasons in the NBA, only shooting 36.6 percent from the field and averaging 9.4 points per game.
Who was still on the board is what makes this burn so much for the Cavaliers, though if Dajuan had panned out or they ended up with one of these other guys, they may have missed out on LeBron James in the 2003 NBA Draft so I guess it was a necessary evil.
Available – Amar’e Stoudemire (#9), Caron Butler (#10) and Tayshaun Prince (#23)
Miller was 25, averaging 16.5 points, 10.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game, leaving point guard solved. Davis was a young, promising wing. Murray got injured and Person was already 30, so getting a wing wasn’t a bad move. Wagner was just the wrong one.
Cleveland could have went with Butler, a two-time All-Star and NBA Champion.
They also could have gone with an athletic, defensive forward to put at small forward or next to Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the front court. Prince, who made the NBA All-Defensive Second Team four times was a really good defensive player. I’m sure the Pistons are happy the Cavs missed on him as it helped their fortunes.
The biggest miss by Cleveland here was not taking Stoudemire, the 2003 Rookie of the Year and 6x All-Star. Thankfully, as a Suns fan, they didn’t take him and Phoenix landed him. However, could you imagine, if the Cavs had picked him? He needed a little time to develop and there’s a chance that the Cavaliers still could have been able to get LeBron in the following draft.
LeBron and Amar’e with Miller at point guard and Ilgauskas in the middle would have been a lot better than what Cleveland was able to give LeBron his first go around. Stoudemire may have won a ring. James may have never left Ohio.