The Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018-19 once again fell to the bottom of the NBA following the departure of LeBron James. How close are they to recovering?
In 2010-11, the Cleveland Cavaliers collapsed from title contender to the bottom of the NBA with a 19-63 record following the departure of LeBron James as a free agent. In 2018-19, history repeated itself. The Cavaliers, fresh off four straight NBA Finals appearances, collapsed to a — you guessed it — 19-63 record after James once again left to sign elsewhere.
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It took James returning to Cleveland four years later to get the franchise back on track, but considering James will be 35 in late December and still has three years to go on his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, a repeat of that scenario seems unlikely at best.
Instead, the Cavaliers will have to rebuild the old-fashioned way and they got a jump start on that process in the NBA Draft, ending up with three first-round picks on their roster — Darius Garland, taken fifth overall by Cleveland; Dylan Windler, the 26th overall pick; and trading for the rights to No. 30 pick Kevin Porter Jr.
Add that to last year’s eighth overall pick, Collin Sexton, and young forward Cedi Osman and there’s at least a core of young players around which to build.
And the architect of that rebuilding movement on the court will be new head coach John Beilein, hired to replace Laconic Larry Drew on May 13.
Beilein is a first-time NBA coach after 37 years at the collegiate level, which came after four years as a community college coach and three seasons as a high school mentor in Western New York.
But Cleveland enters this season with many more questions than answers at this point, from a potentially double-edged sword in the backcourt by teaming the smallish Sexton with the similarly smallish Garland, to how well Kevin Love comes back from a lost season and how quickly the rookies get into the NBA flow of things.
The Cavaliers enter the season with a roster that is a curious mix of youth and veterans assembled in such a way that the pieces, from the outside looking in, may not fit so well together.
In 2011-12, the Cleveland Cavaliers followed up that 19-win debacle with a 21-win campaign in the lockout-shortened season. That would translate to a 26-56 record over 82 games, which would be forward progress for the Cavs … just not a lot.
With Act II of the post-LeBron sequel set to begin in Cleveland, we look ahead to the 2019-20 season for the Cavaliers.