Cleveland Cavaliers: Five best bench players of the 2010’s
By Dan Gilinsky
With the decade coming to a close, I decided to give my take on the five best bench players for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the 2010’s.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have had their ebs and flows in the 2010’s. At the beginning of this decade, fans of the Wine and Gold were heartbroken when LeBron James left via unrestricted free agency for the first time to the Miami Heat.
The Cavs had some really dark days in the first post-James departure, but in 2011, Cleveland did draft Kyrie Irving, which at least made a few more rebuilding seasons more entertaining.
Fast-forwarding to the summer of 2014, the Cavaliers became the epicenter of the NBA universe, as LeBron signed back and Kyrie was a budding star. Cleveland also created their own star trio from there, as they reportedly traded for Kevin Love in a deal with Love’s prior squad, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the trade was a three-team deal involving the Philadelphia 76ers, for reference, too.
The Cavaliers, though Irving wasn’t involved in the last go-round with him eventually requesting a trade and then being dealt to the Boston Celtics (and now he signed with the Brooklyn Nets via unrestricted free agency this past offseason), would go on to reach four straight NBA Finals from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
Of course, the Wine and Gold would go on to win the franchise’s only championship in historic fashion in 2016 over the Golden State Warriors, as Cleveland became the only team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
Moreover, with the 2010’s coming to a close soon, I figured I’d hit on the Cavs’ five best bench players from this decade, plenty of which made their mark on the big stage.
Alright then, so let’s get started with number five.