The worst NBA Draft picks for every team

18. Cleveland Cavaliers: Anthony Bennett

It feels wrong — really wrong, in fact — to only have the Cavs 18th on this list.

For one, their former owner repeatedly did something so asinine with his team’s draft picks that they had to make a special rule to prevent him from doing it: the Stepien Rule, which prevents franchises from trading away its own first-round selections in consecutive years.

That’s really the reason they’re so low here: they traded away so many first rounders over the years that they never got as much of a chance to louse up the picks as other teams.

On top of that, the pick that has to be deemed their worst, Anthony Bennett, was completely and totally out of left field. Heading into draft night, Bennett was being mocked in the mid-lottery by most and in the teens by some. Going first overall was a laughable shocker almost instantly.

And yet, there are 17 teams above them. Why? Simple: it didn’t hurt them that much in the long run. The best, most reasonable option, Victor Oladipo, turned out to be an All-NBA level player, but not before taking four years to figure things out. More importantly, things still worked out fine for the Cavs, and his being terrible may have aided them in landing the first overall pick the following year. They used that pick and the rights to Andrew Wiggins to trade for Kevin Love, who helped them win a ring.

Still, despite the low ranking here, they are in the Mount Rushmore of godawful NBA franchises when it comes to the draft, with maybe the worst first overall pick ever on their ledger.