For the better part of the past decade, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been a staple at the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference. While the Cavs have experienced their most success during this recent time period, they’ve had plenty of impactful players throughout the franchise’s history.

Most fans will agree on who the best Cavalier ever is, but which other players round out the franchise’s top five?

Many would regard Zydrunas Ilgauskas as the second-best Cavalier during LeBron James’ first run in Cleveland. He was reliable, playing at least 62 games in the last 10 seasons of his career. This included the 2007 team that made it to the NBA Finals before getting swept by the San Antonio Spurs.

While Ilgauskas was just a two-time All-Star, he ranks number five primarily due to his longevity within the Cavs organization. He holds high rankings in numerous Cavs all-time statistical categories. He ranks first in offensive rebounds and blocks; second in points, total rebounds, defensive win shares, games and minutes played; and fourth in total win shares.

In 2015, Ilgauskas was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame, a worthy recognition for his accomplishments.

Mark Price was one of, if not the best, shooters in Cavaliers history. He led the league in free-throw percentage three times, two of which were with the Cavs.

He was a pioneer in the expansion of the three-point shot. In the 1989-90 season, he was the first to average at least five three-point attempts per game while drilling them at at least a 40% rate (9:17 in video below).

 

Not only was Price an elite shooter, he was a pick-and-roll master. In this regard, his impact on the game is felt to this day. Today, many ball handlers will split the defenders on the pick-and-roll. Price was the first to do it regularly in games.

Price was a four-time All-Star, and in all of those seasons, he finished top 10 in MVP voting. He also made the All-NBA First Team once and the All-NBA Third Team three times.

Price spent nine seasons with the Cavaliers and averaged at least 15 points per game in all but one. He even averaged a double-double one year.

During his tenure, he was the starting point guard for a team that went to the playoffs seven times in eight years. To put that into perspective, that never happened during either of LeBron’s tenures in Cleveland. He led the team in win shares for four of those seasons.

Unfortunately for Price, he played in the Michael Jordan era. And the team to eliminate him in five of the seven times he made the playoffs was, you guessed it, Jordan’s Bulls. Price may have won a championship at some point had it not been for Jordan, but we’ll never know. But Price wasn’t the only Cavaliers star in that era…

The Cavaliers selected Brad Daugherty with the No. 1 pick in the 1986 NBA Draft. He was the other big-time Cavs player in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

The five-time All-Star played all eight seasons of his career with the Cavs, averaging 19 points and 9.5 rebounds per game over that span. He averaged a double-double in his last four seasons and averaged a career playoff double-double.

Overall, he took on a larger scoring load for the Cavs than Mark Price. Unfortunately, he retired due to back problems at the young age of 28. But when he chose to do so, he was already the Cavaliers’ all-time leading scorer with 10,389 points.

While one might imagine that a big man from that era must’ve been limited in capabilities, Daugherty could shoot and pass. He’s eighth on the Cavaliers’ all-time assists leaderboard. Furthermore, in one less season with the Cavaliers than Price, he managed to fall short of Price’s win shares by only 0.2. While both were stars that took the Cavs to heights the franchise had never seen to that point, Daugherty gets the slight edge.

Known for perhaps one of the most iconic shots in NBA history, Kyrie Irving’s comparatively shorter tenure in Cleveland does not undermine the fact that he deserves to be placed at number two. In six seasons with the Cavaliers, Kyrie was a six-time All-Star and Rookie of the Year. By the time he departed, many felt that he was already the greatest ball-handler of all time. At the time, he was only 25 years old.

Kyrie’s performance in the 2016 NBA Finals alone solidifies his spot on this list. He averaged 27.1 points per game on 46.8% shooting and 40.5% from deep. This included a 41-point Game 5 performance where, with their backs against the wall and the series on the line, the Cavs kickstarted their momentum to tie and eventually win the series.

In Game 7, he broke the stalemate between the Warriors and Cavs with less than a minute to go. The teams were tied at 89, and neither had scored in a few minutes. LeBron James would make a legendary chase-down block on Andre Iguodala, and Kyrie would follow that with a step-back three from the right wing to give the Cavs a crucial lead.

Now, those two moments are appropriately named “The Block” and “The Shot.” Without Kyrie, the Cavaliers do not win that championship, their only one in team history.

Kyrie has averaged at least 21 points per game every season of his career. He has a solid case to be the greatest scoring point guard ever. He has no weakness offensively as a three-level scorer with a never-ending package of finishing moves around the rim. Kyrie is not just one of the best Cavaliers ever, he is one of the best basketball players ever.

#1 – LeBron James

Surprise, surprise! Arguably the best basketball player ever, LeBron was dubbed “The Chosen One” coming into the league. He was the most hyped up draft prospect ever, possibly until Victor Wembanyama showed up a few years back, yet he has somehow managed to surpass every expectation.

As a 22-year-old, LeBron, the sole All-Star on his team, took the Cavs all the way to the NBA Finals (Comparatively, at 22 years old, I’m sitting at my computer writing about him). He had already etched his name in basketball history, but he was far from done.

In his first run with the Cavaliers, he won Rookie of the Year and two MVPs. Upon his return in the 2014 offseason, he promised to bring a championship to Cleveland and delivered. In 2016, he completed the impossible. He led the Cavs to becoming the first ever team to come back from down 3-1 in the NBA Finals. And he did it against the greatest regular season team ever, the 73-9 Golden State Warriors.

On top of that, the Warriors were riding momentum of a 3-1 comeback of their own against the Oklahoma City Thunder. To make matters even more difficult, Warriors point guard Stephen Curry became the first unanimous NBA MVP ever that year.

Yet, defiant as ever, LeBron would take down the juggernaut from Oakland, becoming the only player ever to lead both NBA Finals teams in all five major statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. And don’t forget about “The Block” on Andre Iguodala, a pivotal moment that helped the Cavaliers win Game 7.

In his Cleveland years alone, LeBron was a 10-time All-Star. He leads so many of the Cavaliers’ all-time stat categories that this article doesn’t have enough space for all of them, and he leads many by astounding margins. Oh, and that’s despite him spending about half of his career on other teams.

Regardless, no matter where he goes, LeBron’s resume during his time in Ohio speaks for itself, and his name will forever be associated with the Cavaliers.