Cleveland Cavaliers: With LeBron gone, it’s time to focus on the future
As the 2018-19 NBA season prepares to tip-off, the Cleveland Cavaliers are now focused on the future with LeBron James in Los Angeles
When LeBron James bailed on his hometown franchise for South Beach in pursuit of NBA championships, fans and owner Dan Gilbert didn’t handle it too well. We saw jerseys burnt, and of course Gilbert’s infamous letter that basically told off James, who went on to four straight Finals appearances and two titles with the Miami Heat.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have seemed to handle James leaving a lot better this time around. Fans are a lot more accepting of James’ departure, thanking him for his accomplishments over the past four season, and Gilbert penned a classy thank you letter, the fans and organization alike have handled this second go-around much better, and with LeBron in Los Angeles, it’s time for them to look towards the future.
The first step is already complete, as the Cavs refused to trade their pick in this year’s draft without James declaring long-term loyalty to the team. It was a smart move, since it was highly unlikely that the pick would amount to a player that would’ve been able to help the Cavs win even one game against Golden State in the Finals, let alone bring another title to Cleveland.
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It also put the Cavs ahead in their rebuilding process, as they would go on to draft Collin Sexton this summer, a young, dynamic scoring guard to be the team’s point guard of the future.
Having a solid piece like Sexton, you would think the focus for Cleveland would be to build and develop young talent to build for the future. There’s just one issue: Cleveland isn’t very good at that.
After James left in 2010, Cleveland had a dreadful season, winning just 19 games. The silver lining would come after that year, when they took Kyrie Irving with the top pick in the draft. However, the organization failed to successfully build around Irving, and didn’t get back up to 30-plus wins until the 2013-14 season, right before LeBron made his triumphant return to Cleveland.
Their inability to build around Irving eventually lead to his departure, as he didn’t want to play in James’ shadow any longer, and just a short year later, they’re both gone.
There’s also a lot of pressure on head coach Tyronn Lue, who despite his resume, hasn’t proven much as an NBA head coach. He was promoted to the position after David Blatt was fired, and the organization cited his promotion to how much the players trusted him, and the fact that he wouldn’t threaten James’ hold over the organization.
Now that James is gone, Lue will have to either adapt, and develop Sexton, Cedi Osman and future prospects that the organization picks up in the future. Even though he’s coached the Cavs in three NBA Finals, and brought home one championship, Lue’s may not have much room for error.
All of this said, Cleveland only lost one player from last year’s Eastern Conference championship team. Granted, that player is the best basketball player on the planet, but they only lost one guy. Why go straight into rebuild mode? Can’t this team squeak into the playoffs as an eight seed?
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Maybe, but with guys like JR Smith, Jordan Clarkson, Tristan Thompson and company, it would be more ideal to blow it up, and start from scratch, aside from Osman, Sexton and Kevin Love who signed a four-year $120 million extension. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been given an excellent opportunity to learn from previous mistakes, and can handle this rebuild much more gracefully than their last attempt.