Cleveland traded veteran guard Randy Smith to New York on May 20, 1981 for a 1981 first-round pick. Smith played all 82 games for the Knicks in 1981-82, starting 40 and averaging 10.0 points and 3.1 assists before leaving as a veteran free agent the following fall. Cleveland did not use the No. 17 pick on Kevin Loder. Nineteen days after acquiring it, the Cavaliers sent that exact first-rounder to Kansas City as compensation for signing Scott Wedman. Wedman played 89 Cleveland games, then was traded straight up to Boston for Darren Tillis and a 1983 first-round pick. Cleveland's clean downstream chain gives it the stronger realized return.
Basketball-Reference records Cleveland trading Randy Smith to New York on May 20, 1981 for a 1981 first-round pick. The selection landed at No. 17 and was later used by Kansas City on Kevin Loder. That draft name can be misleading if the transaction is evaluated only from the final pick outcome. Cleveland never drafted Loder.
Smith played all 82 games for the Knicks in 1981-82 and started 40. He averaged 10.0 points, 3.1 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 24.8 minutes. That was a useful veteran season, especially because New York received immediate rotation value instead of waiting on a draft choice. Smith did not play another game for the Knicks. San Diego signed him as a veteran free agent on October 28, 1982. Basketball-Reference notes that New York received compensation, but the public transaction entry does not identify a concrete asset, so this review does not invent or score an unknown return.
On June 8, 1981, only nineteen days after the Smith trade, Cleveland sent the incoming first-round pick to Kansas City as compensation for signing Scott Wedman as a veteran free agent. That creates a direct downstream branch from the Smith trade. The Cavaliers did not merely hold abstract draft value; they used the exact asset to acquire a proven starting forward. Wedman played 54 games for Cleveland in 1981-82, starting 39 and averaging 10.9 points with 5.6 rebounds. He then played 35 games in 1982-83, starting all 35 and averaging 18.1 points and 5.9 rebounds before Cleveland moved him in January. That gives the Cavaliers 89 regular-season games from Wedman.
On January 14, 1983, Cleveland traded Wedman to Boston for Darren Tillis and a 1983 first-round pick. Because Wedman was the only Cleveland asset in that transaction, the incoming Tillis-plus-first package is a legitimate clean downstream return from the original Smith pick branch. Tillis later went to Golden State straight up for a 1986 second-round pick that became Johnny Newman. Cleveland's 1983 first-rounder was later included with James Edwards in a larger Phoenix trade, so this review does not assign that whole deeper package to the Smith branch.
New York received a complete 82-game season from Smith and got useful veteran guard play immediately. That is a respectable return. Cleveland transformed the first-rounder into 89 Wedman games, including a strong 18.1-point partial season, then converted Wedman directly into Tillis plus another first-round pick. The Knicks' unidentified free-agent compensation cannot be scored. Cleveland's documented chain is both longer and stronger.
Cavaliers Win, A-/B. Cleveland receives an A- for converting the first-rounder into Wedman, 89 games of production and a later clean two-asset trade return. New York receives a B for Smith's full 82-game season.