The Cleveland Cavaliers are set to add another former first overall pick to their roster with the addition of veteran point guard Derrick Rose.
According to ESPN, this will mark the sixth different first overall selection that LeBron James has played with in his NBA career.
The entire list of players that are included on this list beyond Rose are Kyrie Irving, Shaquille O’Neal, Andrew Bogut, Joe Smith, and Greg Oden. From this bunch, Irving is the only one that James had the opportunity to play with in the prime of his career was Irving while the rest were past their best years.
O’Neal joined forces with the four-time league MVP in the 2009-10 season, but he was far from the dominant player he once was during the prime of his career. Oden was on his last few legs when he played alongside James in the 2013-14 season with the Miami Heat where he played just 23 games averaging just 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in just 9.2 minutes per game.
Following that year, Oden never played in the NBA again and is now retired at age of 29. Smith was a productive player early on in his career, but by the time he played with James in the 2008-09 season in Cleveland he was nothing more than a bench player that could be a reliable scoring option but was traded the next year to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Lastly, Bogut just played one measly minute with James after suffering a broken leg in his debut with the team last season after being picked up by the team. Even if he played, he showed to be a shadow of the player he once was averaging just 3.0 points on 46.9 percent shooting with 8.4 rebounds in 22.4 minutes per game. In fact, he became a liability for the Dallas Mavericks that led to his release from the team.
As for Rose, he joins the Cavaliers after a productive season where he averaged 18.0 points and 4.4 assists per game but did undergo his fourth major knee surgery in his first nine years of his career. That said, he will have an opportunity to show his worth this upcoming season.
