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The Cavaliers organization is currently in an awful position. Strangled by the most famous 25-year-old in the world, the Cleveland Cavs already have had one of the worst post-seasons in franchise history. Highlighted by a tragically early playoff exit and the departure of the team’s general manager and head coach, basketball has not been fun a fun topic in the NBA’s Ohio home for the past few months.
In the meantime, there is no telling what could happen next for the Cavs team before the start of the 2010-2011 regular season. An entirely new starting lineup could potentially take the court on opening night compared to last year, and there is nobody else to point the blame for this entire predicament than LeBron James.
In order to truly see how this organization has changed for the worst in the past 12 months, it is best to imagine an alternate series of events. One where James picked up his team option for the soon-to-be upcoming season, enabling the franchise to breathe a little easier and re-load on the fly while never ever looking back.
The Option: As surely everyone knows, James originally signed a three-year deal with an early termination option during the 2006 offseason. The intention of this contract was to give James, and several others from the 2003 NBA Draft class, the flexibility to leave for free agency while signing a short-term deal with their original teams.
Way overlooked now, the option for James would be a simple one-year deal worth $17,149,243 for the upcoming season. If James had picked up this option last year, something that many players in many different situations do to avoid the free agency mayhem, it would actually enable him to make even more money off an eventual max deal in free agency.
Let’s then begin this adventure back to the present with the scenario where James declared in a surprise announcement during the summer of 2009 to pick up his option and delay his free agency by an extra season.
The Free Agents: With the added security from LeBron James, the Cavaliers enter the 2009 free agency period with a different sense of urgency. Instead of desperately desiring to make the first deal possible, general manager Danny Ferry can be more tactful and aggressive with his overall plan for the summer.
The Shaquille O’Neal trade occurred with the Phoenix Suns in late June last season, and for the benefit of this scenario, James declared to pick up his option in the middle of that month. This means that no Shaq trade yet and no Shaq trade occurring at all as the Cavaliers have a different mentality to try and compete for the next two seasons instead of just one. The franchise is no longer fixated on simply one-upping the Orlando Magic but rather trying to find anyway possible to simply improve the roster.
One man who jumps to the top of the team’s wishing list is super athletic guard/forward Trevor Ariza. Just looking back to some of the articles and features on Ariza last summer, it was clear he was only waiting for an extra sign of assurance from LeBron James. With James now a guaranteed Cav for two more years, Ariza decides to take the risk and signs the same 5-year MLE deal to go to Cleveland that in real life he eventually picked up with the Houston Rockets.
The Cavs add in Anthony Parker again in this scenario for extra depth on the wings, giving the team even more possibilities on the defensive end. With Delonte West, Parker, Ariza, James, Anderson Varejao and Ben Wallace all under contract, the Cavs are loaded and clearly one of the best defensive teams entering in the season.
The Trades: Struggling to control the Eastern Conference during the regular season schedule, Ferry and company begin to search for new methods of improving on the fly. It is not the same desperation as when the team made the trade for Antawn Jamison, but the front office believes one more move is necessary to improve the front-line in order to compete with the Los Angeles Lakers or the Magic in the playoffs.
The team assembles an extraordinary deal of expiring contracts in Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace along with young players J.J. Hickson and Danny Green and a pair of future first-round draft picks for Amare’ Stoudamire of the Phoenix Suns. Unable to unload of O’Neal in the offseason, the Suns were simply average in the Western Conference and the move enables them to continue their plans of an entire rebuild in the upcoming offseason.
The Cavs depth chart then features Stoudamire, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Darnell Jackson, James, Jawad Williams, Ariza, Parker, West, Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson and Coby Karl. The final three roster spots were filled with minimum-salary free agents and other training camp invites as the core rotation is built strong enough where the team has a new synergy with the nine main players.
The Realization: With an incredible potential-laden combination of Stoudamire-James-Ariza-West-Williams, the Cavaliers are the class of the NBA and a force to be reckoned with during the remainder of the season. Not only does the team fair better than they actually did in real life, but the imaginary Cleveland team advances to the Finals before losing in a heartbreaking six-game series against the Lakers.
Sure, the ending was not the greatest and there are many ways in which this scenario could have been different, but the message portrayed is still the same. The threat of LeBron James’ early termination option forced the Cavaliers organization to create a roster built entirely around competing for the championship in the 2010-2011 season. The front office was blinded by last year’s playoff loss to the Magic and never focused on the true goal of compiling a unit capable of competing for titles into the next decade.
It was not an extremely difficult situation to imagine either Ariza or Stoudamire in a Cavs uniform at some point in the past 12 months. Both were reportedly very close to being acquired by the organization and if it had actually happened, there is no doubt that James would want to re-sign here with a new long-term deal and compete with a core of young stars unlike any other team in the league.
James is still the greatest sports athlete to ever play for the Cavaliers organization and potentially ever in the city of Cleveland. Unfortunately, his contract and the way in which he handled his impending free agency damaged the fate of the franchise and put the team in the difficult predicament in resides within today.
(Photo above via Elsa/Getty Images)