Cleveland Cavaliers: Ranking the last 10 first-round picks

4. Dion Waiters

Most of the team’s recent first-round picks have not stuck around Cleveland very long. Shooting guard Dion Waiters has slightly more longevity than the rest, surviving almost three full seasons with the Cavs.

Waiters was selected fourth overall in the 2012 Draft, despite not being a starter at Syracuse with some defensive questions. It wasn’t long before he validated that decision by showing his shooting proclivity, scoring a massive 33 points in a rookie year loss to the Sacramento Kings. He averaged 14.7 points per game as a rookie and made the All-Rookie First Team, though he also missed 21 games with injuries.

By his second season, it became somewhat clear what Waiters’ strengths and limitations were as an NBA player. He took a ton of shots on his way 15.9 points per game coming off the bench for a third of the team’s games but also struggled to contribute in other areas of the game, including defensively.

After 33 games in 2014-15, Waiters was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team deal that brought Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to the Cavaliers. From there, Waiters eventually moved on to the Miami Heat, where things ended poorly, and he’s currently set to make his Lakers debut in the Orlando bubble.