>However, ironically, only with 2 rings to his name, he may
>have been better served to have waited in Cleveland and seen
>what team was built around him there. But you're only going to
>get so much help when you're picking in the high 20s every
>year.

Make no mistake: The Gund/Pax combo in the front office in LeBron's earliest years (the most critical ones) was AWFUL. Awful trades, awful drafts.

The only crime I could say of Gilbert/Ferry was to acquiesce too much to LeBron's supposed demands at the time instead of using basketball knowledge to get the best players available to him. Mo Williams was probably the best one they had, and as has been seen with #2KnicksUnited you still can't really lean on a player in that tier to be your next best player. Even if you are LeBron James.

But they never had the chance to get quality players in the draft, even before they became a playoff team, maybe because LeBron played too well. Luke fuckin' Jackson, dogg? I know they picked Iggy right before him, but damn.

The Cavs other pick in that draft, Carlito Caribbean Cool aka Anderson Varejao was way better than him. Hell, that draft, awful as it was, also had other people who have played for the Cavs (J.R. Smith, Delonte West, Sasha Vujay-jay, LOL...) Trevor Ariza, even was better. He's still in the league! LOL, 2 of the higher picks in the draft were on that GS team that just won the title.

If the Cavs had the kind of lottery "luck" they had post-LeBron, they could have had Dunce12 or Luol Deng or someone else -good- with him. That's why I don't believe the whole "lottery is rigged" BS. If it were truly rigged, LeBron could have had "help" early in his career. Or Kyrie could have actually had "help". "Winning" the Lottery the Anthony Bennett year was the opposite of luck. Anything to have gotten the Cavs out of the top 3, even past an Alex Len pick would have been more desirable.