“I’m coming home.”
That’s what LeBron James said, via Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins, to announce he was signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2014. From there, it was on the Cavs’ front office to build a contending team around one of the greatest athletes to ever live.
The results speak for themselves: four-straight Eastern Conference crowns and a championship in 2016, the first ever for the franchise and one of the only titles in Ohio professional sports history. Players such as Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith started alongside LeBron and helped bring four years of success to The Land.
Not every starter was a star for the Cavaliers
Not every starter was pulling equal weight, however. It’s hard work to build a consistent contender, and often times paying three stars means finding bargains elsewhere, be that for bench depth or even in the starting lineup. Sometimes those bargains work out, and sometimes they’re a disaster. Some of the players who started during LeBron’s second run in Cleveland were a couple of levels down the ladder, if not even further.
Let’s walk through those players, the worst starters that Cleveland trotted out during that four-year stretch. We’re looking at players who started for at least 14 games; an injury fill-in or the guy who started Game 82 while the rotation rested isn’t on this list. We’re looking specifically at players who started between 2014-15 and 2017-18.
We’ll rank them from best to worst, starting with some beloved role-players but low-end starters, and ending with players who were truly weak links during their time in the starting lineup.
Who were the 13 worst starters of the LeBron James return era?
Worst Starter No. 13 – Timofey Mozgov
The Cleveland Cavaliers did their best to build a contending team around LeBron James that first summer, but there was only so much they could do at that point. After a few months of play, they identified which players fit best around The King, and which needed to go. At that point, in January of 2015, they pulled the trigger on a pair of trades to shake up the rotation.
One of those trades was to add Denver Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov, a 7’1″ behemoth to man the center position. He started all but one game for the Cavaliers in his first season, including all 20 postseason appearances. Mozgov averaged 10.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game in the playoffs in 2015, but then was famously roasted when the Golden State Warriors went small in the NBA Finals.
By the next season, the changing NBA started to move past Mozgov, and the Cavaliers recognized they needed to be faster and more versatile defensively. Mozgov started 48 of 76 games that year as new head coach Ty Lue experimented with lineups, and then by the playoffs he was on the fringes of the rotation entirely.
That marginalization by a team that won the title should have been a warning flag to the rest of the NBA, but the Los Angeles Lakers still decided to give Mozgov a four-year, $64 million contract in free agency, an absolutely massive deal at the time; he would be out of the league just two years later.
Worst Starter No. 12 – Channing Frye
A part of the Cleveland Cavaliers diversifying their frontcourt rotation was adding a stretch-big to play off of Kevin Love, ensuring the Cavs could space the court for all 48 minutes. That player was Channing Frye, who had been a top-10 pick in the 2005 draft but failed to develop into a star even as he honed his outside shot.
Frye came off the bench for Cleveland in 2015-16 after arriving via trade at the Trade Deadline, and he shot 56.5 percent from 3-point range in the playoffs. He was a key rotation piece for a title-winning team…and that’s probably as far as his role needed to go.
Frye was pressed into service for 15 starts the following year, and in the starting lineup he was exposed defensively. Frye essentially did one thing – shoot. He did that very well, but he didn’t have the skillset to expand his game in a larger role. Given his defensive limitations, his best place was coming off the bench rather than starting.
The following season, Frye was moved at the deadline with another player on this list for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. as the Cavs tried to get back to the NBA Finals one last time (they would). He was one of the team’s best bench players, but nothing special as a starter.
Worst Starter No. 11 – Richard Jefferson
The presence of Richard Jefferson on this list may shock many Cavaliers fans; it may anger some as well. When Kevin Love went down with an injury in the 2016 NBA Finals, Jefferson stepped into the starting lineup for a couple of games and had some big moments defensively as the Cavs clawed their way back to win the title. He was absolutely a valuable piece of their rotation, the “Shane Battier” type of combo forward that helped to unlock the best parts of LeBron James’ game.
The reason Jefferson is here, however, is that he was overall quite bad whenever he was asked to start in the regular season. He did so 18 times, and 11 times had a negative Box Plus-Minus score, suggesting a league-average player would have been a better choice.
Jefferson’s tough defense was a welcome addition to the rotation, but by the time he reached the Cavaliers he was a shell of his former self on offense. He shot 52-of-119 as a starter (44.5 percent) and the contending Cavaliers went 8-10 when he started. It wasn’t his best role at that point in his career, and the numbers bear it out.
Worst Starter No. 10 – Matthew Dellavedova
Another beloved role player, Matthew Dellavedova gave his all to the Cleveland Cavaliers every moment that he was on the court. The undrafted Australian point guard fought his way to a roster spot and then hung around when LeBron James returned, filling in as a rotation player and sometimes starter for the first-half of that second LeBron run.
Dellavedova, known for his propensity to dive for loose balls (no matter who was around) and to make life miserable for anyone he was defending, played reasonably well when asked to start — often in place of an injured Kyrie Irving. He put forth his usual excitable defense and capable ball-handling, putting up a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The issue for Delly was that when he started he lost the ability to score. As an off-ball shooter playing off of LeBron James or Kyrie Irving he was perfect, but ask him to run the action and he struggled. In his 27 games as a starter, he shot just 33 percent on 2-pointers. As with a number of cherished role players on this list, when he was asked to do too much he failed to deliver.
Delly did have a memorable Finals Game where he started and gave his all defending Stephen Curry, but otherwise his starts in the playoffs were more of the same. The franchise will always remember his role on those Finals teams, but hopefully they will forget most of his starts.
Worst Starter No. 9 – Iman Shumpert
We mentioned earlier that the Cleveland Cavaliers made two big trades during the 2014-15 NBA season. One deal was to add size in the middle with Timofey Mozgov, and the other brought in a pair of 3-and-D players on the wing in J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert.
“Shump” had been a starter for most of his first four seasons in New York, but he become a bench wing upon arriving in Cleveland. That was a good role for him; he wasn’t shooting the doors off with the Cavs, but he played excellent defense and was often tasked with defending Stephen Curry when the teams met in the NBA Finals.
43 times, however, the Cavs elevated Shumpert into the starting lineup. Those games did not go so well, as Shumpert shot just 33 percent from deep and 38.6 percent from the field, with 48 turnovers to just 67 assists. Playing on a team that won most of its games, he was +25 in those 43 appearances, or essentially just better than break-even.
He wasn’t a disaster as a starter, as his defense was still there, but he clearly was best deployed as a reserve player to hit shots created by others and play defense. When asked to do more there wasn’t more than missed shots to give.
Worst Starter No. 8 – Shawn Marion
One of the best overall careers on this list (perhaps the best) belonged to Shawn Marion. “The Matrix” was a four-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection and won a title with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. He joined the Cavaliers for the 2014-15 season as a free agent to try and help Cleveland win a title.
Things did not go super well. His declining athleticism limited his ability to score, and he was never a knockdown shooter. He scored just 4.8 points per game overall for the Cavaliers and 5.3 points in games that he started. He played competent defense, but on offense, he had very little left to give.
Marion shot 42.1 percent from the field in his 24 starts for the Cavs that season and a chilly 27.3 percent from 3-point range. He had just about as many turnovers as assists (21 to 23). By the playoffs Marion wasn’t just demoted from the starting lineup, he was on the fringes of the rotation itself, playing just 25 minutes total in their run to the NBA Finals. He retired after that year.
Worst Starter No. 7 – Anderson Varejao
A well-known face in Cleveland, Anderson Varejao would lead this list in total starts for the franchise. He played with the Cavaliers from 2004-05, his first season in the league, until he was traded at the 2016 NBA Trade Deadline; he even return for five games to end his career and retire a Cavalier in 2020-21.
Varajao thus played 1.5 seasons during the scope of our piece today, starting 26 games for the Cavs during that time. His cumulative plus-minus in those 26 starts? Five. As in, on average the Cavs outscored their opponents by 0.2 points while he was on the court. Playing for a contending team, that level of “average” was both impressively consistent and overall a negative; by contrast, the Cavaliers won 53 games that season and had a point differential of +4.4.
The Brazilian big man had some offensive pop, scoring efficiently around the rim and even showing off a bit of range on his short jumper, but outside of his rebounding his defensive impact was muted. When he went down with a torn Achilles 26 games into that first season, it was an opportunity for the Cavs to make an upgrade at the position.
That injury accelerated his decline and he played in just 72 games total the rest of his career, making only one start. He was a major figure for the Cavs for a very long time, but by the time LeBron James was back he didn’t have enough in the tank to be the starter they needed at the 5.
Worst Starter No. 6 – George Hill
George Hill is the king of just missing out on NBA championships. A former first-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs, he joined the team 12 months after they won the 2007 title over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He played three seasons with the Spurs before he was traded for Kawhi Leonard, missing the Spurs’ next title. Later in his career, he would play for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020 and in 2022, missing their title in 2021.
Hill did the same with the Cleveland Cavaliers in between, joining the team a full season after they won the 2016 title. At that point, the steady point guard was no longer able to drive his own scoring with any consistency, but he was installed as the starting point guard because of a paucity of other options.
The fit overall was fine, as Hill had honed his ability to play off of ball-dominant forwards playing with Paul George and Gordon Hayward. The production was another story, as Hill shot just 44.4 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from deep. He didn’t play poorly, necessarily, as much as he didn’t make much of an impact on the game at all.
Box Plus-Minus estimated that he was -1.2 points per 100 possessions worse than a league-average player; that’s both an indictment of Hill, who was unable to excel starting alongside LeBron James, but also of the Cavs — if they had another league-average point guard they would have played him.
Worst Starter No. 5 – Jose Calderon
In the 2008-09 NBA season, Jose Calderon set the second-longest streak in NBA history for consecutive free throws made, hitting 87 straight. He finished the year with a league-leading 98.1 percent percentage from the stripe.
When the Spanish point guard joined the Cleveland Cavaliers nine seasons later, his free-throw shooting had eroded down to 80 percent, as had the rest of his game. The once dynamic passing maestro was simply a bit player, a capable facilitator (3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio) but without any juice left to his game.
Calderon, never a high-octane scorer, started 32 games for the Cavaliers in 2017-18 but averaged just 4.5 points per contest (6.4 in starts). He shot the ball well (48.1 percent from deep on 81 attempts) but only because his shots were all wide open; he took fewer than five shots per game. His 14 percent usage was in the 3rd percentile leaguewide that year.
Calderon played with some talented players, and his minutes were closely linked to LeBron’s, so he had a positive on/off number, but he was merely a bit player. That was useful at times, but the playoff tape tells the tale: he appeared in only 13 playoff games (of the team’s 22), averaging eight minutes per game (despite starting three times) and 1.8 points per contest.
He faded fast, spending one more year with the Detroit Pistons before hanging it up in the NBA. At the end of his career he helped the Cavs at times, but he was one of the worst starters of the LeBron return era.
Worst Starter No. 4 – Jae Crowder
The worst season of the LeBron James return era was clearly 2017-18. The team’s depth was eroded from multiple seasons of being all-in, and Kyrie Irving had jumped ship and forced a trade over the summer. The return from that deal should have helped them maintain their high level of play: Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder were both productive players on good teams in Boston.
Things did not go according to plan, and Crowder was far from a player the team could rely on. He started 47 games with the Cavaliers, shooting a mediocre 42.7 percent from the field (a ho-hum 55.5 percent true-shooting) and a truly abysmal -6.8 point differential; that is, the Cavaliers were 8.4 points per 100 possessions worse when he was in the game, in the 14th percentile leaguewide.
A player known for his tough defense was a turnstile with dreads that season, with opposing teams shooting five percentage points better when he played. VORP (Value over Replacement Player) estimates that the Cavs could have signed someone off the street and been 0.3 wins better than simply playing Crowder for 53 games.
The Cavs pulled the ripcord by the trade deadline, sending Crowder on to the Utah Jazz and remaking the team around their core. He established a solid career for himself from there, but his time in Cleveland was truly awful.
Worst Starter No. 3 – Mike Miller
Mike Miller had enjoyed a long, productive career by the time he joined forced with LeBron James in Miami, helping James win two titles and make it to three NBA Finals. After a gap year in Memphis, Miller then joined James in Cleveland for his first attempt at bringing a title to The Land.
At 34 years old, however, Miller didn’t have much left in the tank. He averaged just 2.1 points per game that year on 32.5 percent shooting from the field. His 32.7 percent 3-point shooting was the lowest in any season of his career; he hit 40.7 percent for his career, putting his frigid season in Ohio in stark contrast.
Miller had an extremely low usage of 8.9 percent, and when he wasn’t hitting shots he had very little to contribute on offense. His strength helped him survive defensively, but he was overall a net negative for the team. David Blatt and the rest of the coaching staff recognized that, and by the playoffs he averaged just 7.2 minutes per game, playing in only nine of their 20 games.
Like many of the players on this list, Miller was a talented player who came to Cleveland near the very end of his career. That was the kind of player that was available for a bargain as the Cavaliers filled out the roster around LeBron James; sometimes it worked out, but oh-so-often it resulted in a player with very little left to give.
Worst Starter No. 2 – DeAndre Liggins
Out of all 13 names on this list, the No. 2 player in our rankings of the worst starters may be the most obscure. Nearly all of the other players we have mentioned had an extended career in other stops, or at the least played a long time in Cleveland. DeAndre Liggins did neither.
The former Kentucky wing went 53rd overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, made a handful of appearances over three seasons, and then was out of the league for two years before signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers in August of 2016.
Liggins was not good. His career arc probably speaks to that (he played for four teams in two years and then was gone for good) but he showed very little of any value as an NBA player while with the Cavaliers. In 62 games he shot 38.7 percent from the field, averaged 2.5 points per game and had 3.7 fouls and 2.0 turnovers per-36 minutes. His usage rate was in the second-percentile leaguewide, and the Cavaliers’ offense was 2.2 points per 100 possessions worse when he was on the court.
So why did the Cavaliers let him start 19 games? It was because of his defense. He was their best option against many of the top wings in the league. For every point he saved them on defense he gave it back on offense, but he had a role because he could defend. In the end, however, the Cavs needed a two-way player and waived Liggins prior to the end of that season.
Worst Starter No. 1 – Isaiah Thomas
The worst player to start a game during the “LeBron Return” era was Ante Žižić. The worst player to start a series of games and make it onto this list was DeAndre Liggins. The player who was the most harmful to the team during his starts? That would be Isaiah Thomas.
Isaiah Thomas had an amazing career before he came to Cleveland. He was a two-time All-Star and in 2016-17 finished fifth in MVP voting. Despite standing just 5’9″ tall he became one of the best scoring threats in the league. Unfortunately, then injuries struck.
The Cavs knew they were getting a compromised Thomas; they contemplated backing out of the Kyrie Irving trade that brought Thomas to their team in the first place. They couldn’t know just how bad it would be, however.
Thomas played 15 games in Cleveland, starting 14 of them. In those games he shot 36.1 percent from the field on 12.9 attempts per game, hitting just 25.3 percent of his 3-pointers. He was the equivalent of a traffic cone on defense. His overall plus-minus in those 14 starts? -151, or -10.8 points per game. That was worse than the worst team in the league that season, the Phoenix Suns. Cleaning the Glass estimates that the Cavs were 18.5 points per 100 possessions worse with him on the court that season, a truly bonkers number.
Isaiah Thomas wasn’t a starter for long, as the Cavs shipped him and half of the rotation out at the Trade Deadline. His time with the Cavaliers was brief, but it was so destructive that he earns the title of “Worst Starter” of the LeBron James Return Era.