The Cavs’ recent success has only been because of LeBron James

After the Cleveland Cavaliers made it to the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs in 2007, which I recently flashed back to, it looked like they were going to rule over the Eastern Conference with an iron fist.

However, despite acquiring Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak from the Seattle SuperSonics (who should still be a team, sorry Oklahoma City) and Ben Wallace from the Chicago Bulls, the Cavs were ousted in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in an epic seven-game series against the-then new-look Boston Celtics. The Celtics acquired Ray Allen from the Sonics and Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves before the 2007-08 campaign.

The series culminated with a Game 7 for the ages as LeBron James scored 45 points and Paul Pierce scored 41 points. Pierce’s 41-point performance helped to propel Boston to a 97-92 victory. The Celtics would eventually go on to defeat their rival Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals to capture their 17th banner.

In 2009 the Cavaliers would again come up short as Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic ousted the Cavs in six games to win the Eastern Conference Finals and advance to the NBA Finals against the Lakers. Orlando prevented fans and media members alike from getting the series we all wanted of LeBron vs. Kobe Bryant (may he rest in peace).

Then in 2010, it was again the Boston Celtics who eliminated the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Later in the summer, LeBron announced during “The Decision” that he was “taking his talents” to South Beach and joining the Miami Heat to team up ultimately with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

During the four years that LeBron was with the Heat, he made it to the NBA Finals every year. His record was 2-2. Interestingly, all four teams that Miami went up against during that stretch were from the Oklahoma-Texas region. Miami played the Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio, and San Antonio again. The only team from that region who the Heat didn’t play was the Houston Rockets.

During those same four years (2010-2014) the Cavs were at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and consistently got high lottery picks. Although in 2011, that resulted in Kyrie Irving being drafted no.1 overall and Tristan Thompson getting drafted no.4 overall.

The Cavs got the no.1 overall pick via trade from the LA Clippers, but overall, it’s been clear that LeBron’s been the reason for their success at all somewhat recently.

The Cavs’ success in their recent history has been solely because of LeBron.

It wasn’t until LeBron came back in 2015 that the Cavaliers would be back in the national spotlight.

Once LeBron came back, the Cavs packed up Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett (both of whom were drafted no.1 overall) and sent them off to Minnesota in exchange for Kevin Love, who could potentially be helping the Cavs currently if he wasn’t injured. Cleveland qualified for the playoffs as the no.2 seed as the Atlanta Hawks somehow, some way captured the no.1 seed and had quite a regular season.

The Cavs would end up qualifying for the NBA Finals in 2015 against the Golden State Warriors. Although, they did so without Love who suffered a shoulder injury thanks to Kelly Olynyk in Game 4 of the first-round series between the Cavs and Celtics. Unfortunately the injury bug bit Cleveland again as Kyrie hurt his knee during Game 1 of the Finals against the Warriors near the end of that one.

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This left James largely on his own (much like 2007 against the Spurs). Even still, Cleveland was able to grab a 2-1 series lead after three games. But they were unable to overcome the losses of Love and Irving as the Warriors won the series in six games.

In 2016, Cleveland ran through the first three rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs in a relatively easy fashion.

They swept the Detroit Pistons in the first round (though Detroit put up a decent fight), swept the Atlanta Hawks (thanks in large part to the three-point shot), and defeated the Toronto Raptors in six games. Then in the NBA Finals, a rematch with the Warriors awaited them.

We all know the story, the Cavs got down 3-1 in the series and it looked like Stephen Curry and the Warriors were going to cap off their historic 73-win season with a championship. 73 wins by Golden State set the record for the most wins in a single season in NBA history.

Albeit that wouldn’t end up playing out, and LeBron James had back-to-back 41-point games in Games 5 & 6 to send the series back to the Bay Area for the penultimate game: GAME 7! In that one, the King delivered for his hometown as the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to come up with a 93-89 victory.

Cleveland and Golden State would link up in the next two NBA Finals with the Warriors winning thanks in large part to the addition of Kevin Durant. Golden State won in 2017 in five games and then the Warriors swept the Cavs in 2018.

Following the 2018 season, LBJ decided to leave the Cavs again (the departure to Miami was formally via sign-and-trade, for reference, though). This time he headed out west for the Lakers.

In the 2019 season, LeBron and the Lakers were poised to make a playoff run until James got injured and LA missed the playoffs. Over in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors were able to overcome their playoff demons thanks to the addition of Kawhi Leonard.

In fact, Toronto would go on to win the NBA Finals by defeating the Warriors in six games; Durant was not involved the series much, though, due to injury, and would end up suffering an Achilles tear in Game 5. Klay Thompson would have a hamstring strain though, and would tear his ACL in Game 5.

Of course, last season, LeBron and LA, with Anthony Davis (acquired via trade before the season), in tow, would win the title in the NBA’s Orlando bubble in 2020 in six over the Miami Heat.

Cleveland meanwhile was back down in the bottom tier of the Eastern Conference jockeying with the other bottom feeders of the league to feasibly try and improve their chances of getting a high draft pick for the upcoming draft.

And now, although the Cavs do have some nice budding young pieces, such as leading scorer Collin Sexton (23.1 points per game), to go with Darius Garland, who has rebounded well in his sophomore season, and mid-season trade acquistion, Jarrett Allen, Cleveland has a ways to go.

They did come up with an entertaining win on Tuesday versus the Atlanta Hawks, but the Wine and Gold had previously lost 10 straight, and are looking to have another high lottery selection upcoming.

Moreover, what’s been apparent is that the Cavs’ only recent success, realistically, has been tied to whether or not they’ve had LeBron. Hopefully, that can change in the near future, but we’ll have to see.