Cleveland Cavaliers: Looking back at the historic 1986 NBA Draft

The Cleveland Cavaliers will participate in a big NBA Draft coming up later this week as they hold the #3 pick in this year’s draft. Cavs fans around the globe are anxiously awaiting to see what the Cavs decide to do at that pick. The Cavs could stay there at No. 3 or potentially move up or down depending on various opportunities.

I’ve been preaching for a while now that the Cavs should make every attempt at moving up to that No. 1 spot and taking Cade Cunningham, the talented big man out of Oklahoma State. I believe he’d be a game changer for the organization.

In preparing to cover this big draft by the Cavs I’ve ventured down memory lane reminiscing about what the Cavs did over 35 years ago in the 1986 draft, and how that draft had defined this organization for such a long stretch of time prior to Lebron James’ arrival in 2003. I believe it’s worth the time of the Cavs’ front office to review their history books once in a while to see what has worked and what hasn’t worked. I understand that times change and what might have worked then might not now, but the Cavs are in a position of trying to get better and, in this case, history repeating itself would be fine by me.

A tumultuous series of events had the Cleveland Cavaliers in rough shape leading into the 1986 NBA Draft.

The Cavaliers began as a franchise in 1970 and from that point to 1986 the team only had three winning seasons. George Karl had been the Cavs’ coach before that 1986 NBA draft, but the Cavs got rid of him and general manager Harry Weltman toward the end of that 1985-86 season where the Cavs finished at 29-53.

So the Cavs were without a coach or general manger as they prepped for the draft. They had actually gone through eight coaches in the seven years prior to 1986. Yikes!

After the departure of Weltman as GM the Cavs hired Wayne Embry, an Ohio native and former star at Miami (OH) University. Embry had a long NBA career with teams like the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks and is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

With little time after his hiring with the Cavaliers Embry immediately went to work and so began a stretch in its organizational history that will forever be remembered as the first time the team was very successful for a sustained stretch of time.