With better health and lottery luck, postseason may not be so far away for Cavs
By Corey Casey
The Cleveland Cavaliers are still in a rebuild, but with some good fortune and a healthier team, the postseason may not be as far away as originally expected.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are recently coming their best stretch in franchise history where from the 2014-2015 to 2017-2018 seasons, they won 50 or more games each year, and they made it to four straight NBA Finals, which only a few franchises can claim that they’ve done.
Things were a lot different for the Cavs in 2018-19 as they missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2013-2014 season, though, and they bottomed out and tied for the league’s second-worst record at 19-63, per NBA.com.
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That shouldn’t be a surprise when you consider they lost, due to free agency, (at the time) LeBron James, who was universally recognized as the best player in the world and the amount of injuries they had this past year.
When a team loses a superstar it often leads to a drop off in wins. It’s very similar when Michael Jordan retired (the second time) from the Chicago Bulls, when they didn’t have prime superstar Scottie Pippen, who was arguably a top-five player of his era.
The Cavs have fallen off twice when James has left via free agency (last summer he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers) , and even the Miami Heat with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (though Bosh’s injuries didn’t help) missed the postseason the year following when James returned to Cleveland in the summer of 2014.
The difference between LeBron leaving last time versus this time, though, appears to be that the Cavaliers had a plan in place for life after James’ departure.