Why did the Cavs waste young Lebron's career?

[JustBuzzin]

I always look at young Lebron's career and his teammates and I always think what the hell were the Cavs thinking.

You telling me the best running mate they could get him was Larry Hughes and Mo Williams.

It's crazy how they wasted a generational talent in his early years. Feels like they could have won a championship earlier if they actually got LeBron a legit running mate.

Why did the Cavs fail young LeBron?

[Blazing_royale]

Nothing wasted, he won a ring for Cleveland. The End.

[LaLover11]

I always look at young Lebron's career and his teammates and I always think what the hell were the Cavs thinking.

You telling me the best running mate they could get him was Larry Hughes and Mo Williams.

It's crazy how they wasted a generational talent in his early years. Feels like they could have won a championship earlier if they actually got LeBron a legit running mate.

Why did the Cavs fail young LeBron?

To save Edwards dad's career

[Roger Murdock]

They were grossly mismanaged in the 8 years before LeBron

Look at the Mavs issues surrounding Luka

Cavs were in a similar spot but has less assets and less established players from a starting point and overall had more success

[Handlez]

They brought in plenty of players to try and help him, but you can't force teams to just give you players. You can't force free agents to sign with you.

Take Danny Green for instance...he did absolutely zero with Cleveland, but the Spurs system turned him into a championship level role player.

[JujitsuFlip]

I mean... Guys were not lining up to go there.

If Boozer doesn't pull his snake in the grass stuff and if Ricky Davis didn't have a huge ego, those 2 woulda been good to go with Z and Bron. In hindsight, Darius Miles was never gonna be healthy enough to contribute.

But look at what Huges and Marshall did the season prior to joining LBJ. If the Cavs got that same level of production, it woulda made some kind of difference.

[SweaterBae]

Nothing wasted, he won a ring for Cleveland. The End.

Which doesn't address the OP whatsoever.

[AussieCeltic]

The issue was that he was so good so early they made some horrible trades to try improve the team.

Started trading for passed their prime vets like Shaq and Jamison.

They nearly had Amare but refused to add JJ Hickson to the deal haha

[DimesandKnicks]

Big z
Carlos Boozer
Lebron
Rick Davis
Dejuan Wagner
D. Miles off the bench

What could have been. Even had they been able to sign Ray Allen or Michael Redd in 06 instead of Larry Hughes. They just couldn’t land any free agents and didn’t pull the trigger on an Amare trade I think because they didn’t want to give up JJ Hickson

[SweaterBae]

Watch on YouTube

[JustBuzzin]

Yeah that Amare trade would have been nice. LeBron/Amare pick n roll or pick n pop 2 man game would have been insane.

[Statlanta]

They focused on Eastern Conference "stars"
Larry Hughes
Antawn Jamison
Mo Williams

while the competition got proven Western Conference Warriors
Boston-> Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett
Detroit-> Rasheed Wallace
Orlando-> Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Rafer Alston, Michael Pietrus

[NyKnicks1714]

It's annoying when people act like poor management is the only possible explanation for a bad roster. Sometimes the assets just aren't there to make something happen. Not saying they were well-run, but realistically what was there to be done to significantly improve the roster?

[JayMKE]

Didn’t have the assets to put a better team around Lebron, simple as that. I remember they were going after Michael Redd hard but they were offering like Drew Gooden.

[jokeboy86]

Big z
Carlos Boozer
Lebron
Rick Davis
Dejuan Wagner
D. Miles off the bench

What could have been. Even had they been able to sign Ray Allen or Michael Redd in 06 instead of Larry Hughes. They just couldn’t land any free agents and didn’t pull the trigger on an Amare trade I think because they didn’t want to give up JJ Hickson

I still stand by if Redd signs with the Cavs that changes the trajectory of the NBA because peak Redd was a beast briefly and he would’ve been perfect with Lebron. Throughout Lebron’s career he’s never been paired with an elite shooter in their prime. I guess the closest you could say was Kyrie but I wouldnt call him elite. Lebron with say somebody like Booker or Klay might have more rings than he does now

[JustBuzzin]

It's annoying when people act like poor management is the only possible explanation for a bad roster. Sometimes the assets just aren't there to make something happen. Not saying they were well-run, but realistically what was there to be done to significantly improve the roster?

JJ was a big asset back then. They could have cashed in on a big trade, but there were high on JJ's potential.

[NyKnicks1714]

Big z
Carlos Boozer
Lebron
Rick Davis
Dejuan Wagner
D. Miles off the bench

What could have been.

You know those teams were bad when this is the "What if" scenario.

[mg]

They legitimately did try to build a team around Lebron but it can be difficult to lure good players to smaller, midwest markets in the NBA.

Unfortunately they let their 2nd best player Carlos Boozer out of his contract based on a handshake deal and he double crossed them by signing with the Jazz. Lakers current GM Pelinka was the agent who orchestrated that too.

Ilgauskas was still pretty good but had so many foot surgeries wasn't the same player anymore.

Lebron was so good in year 1 they never had another high lottery pick until after he left. The highest pick they had was #10 after Lebron's rookie season but unfortunately Luke Jackson ended up getting injured and never panned out.

They finally got enough capspace to sign a max cat in free agency and the best they could do was Larry Hughes since guys like Ray Allen and Michael Redd would not consider the Cavs. They did cobble together a good team by 2010 but choked in the playoffs and Lebron was out the door to Miami.

[EmpireFalls]

4 things

-Mismanagement of assets by the comically incompetent Paxson in 2005 (Jiri Welsch trade, lol), -Boozer going to Utah for free
-Bron was too good too early for them to get a Scottie, a Klay, any decent young player etc. in the draft
-Larry Hughes sucked balls, got hurt, sucked even more
-Progressively desperate panic trades after 2007

The thing is I thought the 09 and 10 Cavs were actually built pretty well by the end. 126 wins over 2 years. Great defense, Mo Will arguably the perfect LBJ PG. but they also signed over the hill Wallace, Shaq, Antawn, etc. and that just ruined them in the playoffs. They were too slow and predictable with those dinosaur bigs clogging the middle… all their moves were one year behind, and they didn’t pivot to the right formula (which is athleticism and pace) around LBJ.

It’s not quite KG and Hakeem levels of franchise hell (imo, their first 9 years are probably the biggest decade long wastes of talent ever by comical mismanagement) but it’s a close 3rd.

[DimesandKnicks]

Big z
Carlos Boozer
Lebron
Rick Davis
Dejuan Wagner
D. Miles off the bench

What could have been.

You know those teams were bad when this is the "What if" scenario.

Considering what he did with what he had a young core of Wagner Boozer and James could have won a ship