Cleveland Cavaliers – the definition of bad management
The title may seem a little bit weird if we think of the past 4 years, in which we saw Cleveland Cavaliers go in every Final. But, now, that LeBron James has left Cleveland for the Los Angeles Lakers, his old team has gone from one of the best in the league to the worst.
So, the question we have to ask is: “How much of the Cavaliers’ success was James’ merit and how much of it was due to the management?”. LeBron James was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 and soon he led them to the playoffs. After he decided to move his talents to South Beach, Dan Gilbert’s organization fell again in the second half of the standings. Then, when James returned to his hometown, Cleveland Cavaliers began to have success again and they manage to get 4 consecutive Finals appearances.
Obviously, all this hard work has put a lot of pressure on the quadruple MVP making his decision to leave Cleveland a lot easier. This resulted in Cleveland Cavaliers having the worst record in the NBA, winning only one game in 11 matches. By comparison, the NBA champion, Golden State Warriors, has 10 wins and only 2 losses. The problems of Cavaliers don’t stop here: Kevin Love is hurt and needs to stay outside of the game for at least one month, Tyronn Lue, the head coach of the team, was fired almost two weeks ago, JR Smith and Kyle Korver want to leave the organization and the youngsters don’t seem to get along well.
Of course, the management isn’t responsible for a basketball player’s shooting slump or for the turnovers that the members of the team make on the court, but they can choose the coach and the athletes wisely. It isn’t the case with Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavaliers, who still has to pay a lot of money to Tyronn Lue, David Blatt, the previous coach, and Mike Brown, the coach that was before Blatt. Also, in the last summer, after a trade request by Kyrie Irving, Kobi Altman, the general manager, decided to let him go adding Isaiah Thomas, who was hurt at that time. Maybe they wanted to go through a reconstruction process, anticipating that LeBron James will leave the team. But if this was their goal, why would they keep veterans such as Kyle Korver, JR Smith or even a hurt Kevin Love? All these moves have had a huge impact on the Cleveland Cavaliers organization and have made a mediocre team from one of the best in the league. The good part is that the season is early and they still have time to turn this thing around.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
