and I was reading articles two years prior to their FA departure about the impending Decision, so don't try to sell me some bullshit about how their teams just had the rugs pulled out from under them when those two guys decided to leave.

Cleveland and Toronto had an opportunity to mitigate those losses, and they didn't do well with that opportunity.

Denver had the same opportunity and they did as well as could be expected. they didn't give up and ship Melo once the writing was on the wall, they held out until the trade deadline to get the best value. they found two teams to play against each other and used the deadline crunch to gain extra concessions from NYK. they were in a difficult position and played it as well as could be expected.

and shit, why not add the Shaq trade, which plunged LA into a basement team upon his departure as well. Pau's Memphis years were whatever, I'm really bored of watching Laker + Kobe stans try to rewrite history about what happened in that deal. the owner of the team came out the day after and said it was a bad deal and they could have done better, I don't know what else you want.