How Good would the 80s/90s Cavs Been no injuries + Harper

[Baseline Runner]

In the late eightes we had one of the most talented teams in basketball with an all star caliber player at every position except SF. Then we got hit by the double whammy of trading Ron Harper for a busted draft pick and recurring injures to Price and Daughtery. How good could we have been if everything went right, we kept Harper and injures were not a problem?

The fact was we never saw Price and Daughtery's true peak as they kept getting hit by injures before they reached their peaks. Price's game was flawless, he was fast and quick, his jumper was one of the best ever in the history of basketball, and his decision-making impeccable. Daughtery was a little soft on defense but was a consummate 20/10 big man whose baby hook was virtually unguardable. Nance was getting old but he was still very good.

After we traded Harper we had terrible starters at the swing positions, guys like Craig Ehlo and Mike Sanders who were really hampered us in every game we played. We lacked a good slasher, backcourt defender and athletic scorer that Ron Harper was.

If all of the pieces had stayed together I think we could have been a perennial 55-60 win team. But we'd probably be like the Mavs and Suns of the last 5 years, great in the regular season but not good enough defense to win the title. Thoughts?

[TheOUTLAW]

I think we would have won at least one championship. Those teams were very good.

[RevMan26]

I also think we could have won a championship. If we would have had someone better guarding Michael Jordan, instead of Ehlo, maybe he wouldn't have made The Shot.

[TheOUTLAW]

Ehlo actually had good defense on Jordan. That was just a darned tough shot that he made. The Cavs never sent help to double Jordan, they really believed it was better to let Jordan gets his instead of letting him facilitate.

[Baseline Runner]

Yeah Ehlo was playing some great defense on Jordan that shot, nothing he could of done about it.

We needed Harper instead of Ehlo more for the offensive end than the defensive. If Jordan had to guard Harper he'd of had to expend a lot of energy and wouldn't of been able to play help defense and rebound as much. Harper wouldn't have neutralized Jordan but he'd made things much closer at the SG position. Harper was also a very good defensive player throughout his career.

[Roger Murdock]

Ehlo was a good player. He was similar to west in that he could shoot and defend really well. He was sick in the game where Jordan hit the shot. He had 20+ points that game and like 12+ in the last quarter, including the go ahead layup with seconds left.

[mup]

You guys are mixing apples and oranges. Harper was still on the Cavs, and was on the floor, when Jordan hit the Shot. Trade was after.

[JDamon18Fan]

Cavs would have lost to the Bulls anyway. Highly doubt that the Cavs would have won a title. Nice to dream though.