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First of all, my condolences to all the season ticket holders out there. I don’t take your financial sacrifices lightly. The veritable jobbing that you are taking this season at the Q is everybody and nobody’s fault. The NBA and Dan Gilbert know what they are doing when they make season ticket holders buy their tickets so far in advance. As consumers, you know the risks too. The NBA, Dan Gilbert and you the consumer all have some culpability here. Just the same, as a fan, my sympathies lie first and foremost with you season ticket holders. That being said, the point of this is to say that what is happening now is for the best.
We have all seen some drastic descents in sports history, but this LeBron-induced descent is something extraordinary. It isn’t all LeBron’s fault either. This Cavs team could, and should be better than they are. LeBron didn’t cause all these injuries. He certainly didn’t knock Anderson Varejao out for the rest of the season. In the end though, this is probably one of the most fortunate, unintentional tank-jobs in the history of the NBA.
Other teams have tanked, most notably here at home, the Cavaliers team that ended up being the lottery winner that brought LeBron James to the Cavaliers in the first place. That team (the subject of Scott’s “Where are they now?” article) won seventeen games on the backs of Ricky Davis, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Carlos Boozer, Jumaine Jones, Dajuan Wagner, and Darius Miles. That was rock bottom for the Cavaliers, but it was years in the making.
The Cavaliers teams won 47 games in the 1997-98 season before losing in the first round of the Eastern Conference first round for the fourth time in five years under Mike Fratello. The Cavaliers were bad in five straight seasons before finally reaching that rock bottom in 2002-03. Cavs fans had to endure the strike-shortened 22-28 season, followed by seasons with win totals of 32, 30, 29, and finally 17.
That was a grueling and painful descent. Compared to that, what is happening this year could be considered just ripping the band-aid off quickly.
So the fact that the Cavaliers are unfortunate enough to be this bad this year under extraordinary circumstances could turn out to be the most fortunate timing in the history of the organization depending on how they come out of it. Make no mistake, it all comes down to what the Cavaliers’ front office does right now to determine how the Cavaliers come out of this. If Dan Gilbert, Chris Grant and the Cavaliers want this to be a quick turnaround then they need to be vigilant in trying to use the rest of this season to get as many first and high second round draft picks as possible.
If the Cavs do most everything right, they can make the history books look at the Cavaliers almost like the San Antonio Spurs the year David Robinson missed all but six games. That season in 1996-97, the Spurs won 20 games after three seasons winning 55, 62, and 59. Of course, we all know how that story ended. The Spurs got Tim Duncan in the draft and spawned one of the most impressive team runs in NBA history including four NBA Championships.
The situation is different for the Cavaliers because they don’t have a David Robinson returning from the injury list, but you get my point. If the Cavaliers take advantage of all the moving parts, they could emerge as one of the deeper, stronger teams in the NBA after just one season rather than just languishing their way there over the course of half a decade.
The way it has worked out, nobody can accuse them of purposefully tanking. Again, none of this helps you season ticket holders right now, but maybe this is at least a silver lining.
