This Worthy deal was easily the most lopsided ever...

so the Cavs swapped draft picks with the Lakers...obviously a team that does that should feel some confidence that the other team is going to be worse so they could get the higher draft pick...

some history on the Cavs at that time.... in the 77-78 season they actually made the playoffs under Bill Fitch losing in the first round to the Knicks.... they were led by some veteran players... Campy Russell...Austin Carr....Jim Chones ...Elmore and Bingo Smith...

decent players..but no stars....

then the next season...78-79.... they finish 20 games under .500... with basiclly the same roster...adding a young Mike Mitchell to the mix.... but again...finishing 31-51....

then the year of the trade(s).... 79-80

trades is plural because the Cavs actually made 3 trades with the Lakers that season...

on October 5 the Cavs sent the Lakers their starting Forward Jim Chones for Dave Robish and a 3rd round pick. Doesn't seem like that was a very good trade for the Cavs because Chones had been a starter for the Cavs and was really one of their best players. Dave Robish was the Lakers back up center who put up some solid numbers in the ABA in the early 70's but had never avg. double figures before he was traded to the Cavs in the NBA.... Chones had averaged double figures every season in the NBA leading up to the deal. Chones would go on to play the perfect complimentary role at PF next to Kareem. Robish would later go on to have his best NBA season ever for Cleveland ave. 15 points per and shooting 52% from the field...which isn't that much better than Chones did for the Cavs...


then on October 24 the Cavs sent two 2nd round picks to the Lakers for forward Kenny Carr.. That was actually a pretty good trade for the Cavs.... Carr was the 6th overall pick in the '77 draft... he was in his 3rd year and was coming into his own off the Laker bench.... sending two 2nd round picks for him to me was a solid deal...

Then we come to the 3rd and final Lakers - Cavs deal of the season on February 15th...

When the Cavs made the deal that sent their 1982 first round pick to the Lakers along with Butch Lee for the Lakers first round pick in 1980 and Don Ford....the Cavs had a record of 24-37.

24-37....

they had acquired Kenny Carr and Dave Robish... their main players were vets like Campy Russell and Austin Carr who was in his 8th season...as well as an 8th year Randy Smith. Earlier in the season they had also traded away Bingo Smith...and released Walt Frazier so he could retire...

So they sacrifice their future 1982 first round when they had a losing record.....pretty much a losing recent history....and a team with NO legit young stars who was being led by guys approaching their 10th year in the league....

and again making a deal with the Lakers...who the Cavs should have had NO reasonable thought that the Lakers in 1982 would have a worse record than the Cavs..

Why??

because the Lakers had Kareem....Magic....Wilkes...Nixon...and went on to win the world championship in the 79-80 season....

in that same period of time the Lakers always had a winning record...always made the playoffs..and were always in contention for a conference title. Even before Magic came that was the case.

if anything..the Cavs should have been hoarding draft picks and trying to build a young team since most of their key players were older and getting close to retiring...

Then you look at the player that the Cavs got..

Don Ford????

Don Ford was a role playing reserve with the Lakers...he could average about 7 points per game...was a decent defender...but even on the Cavs..would not have been a starter..not over Mike Mitchell at the SF...

The you have the fact that the guys who were drafted in 1982 were college players when that deal was made...the Cavs would have known what that class would be about...and sure...maybe the 3 juniors who were drafted with the first 3 picks would not have come out of college to play for Cleveland...maybe..but even still..that draft had seniors in it like Trent Tucker, Sleepy Floyd, Lester Conner, Terry Teagle, Ricky Pierce, Mark McNamara, Kevin Magee.... and surely some of the other Juniors besides Worthy, Nique and Cummings would have been willing to go to Cleveland...like Quinten Dailey or LaSalle Thompson...

any of those guys would have helped the Cavs more than Don Ford....lol.


this is easly the worst trade ever simply because of where the Cavs were when they made....where the Lakers were....and who the Cavs had on their roster at the time..

not even close...