Over the last 50-plus years, the Cleveland Cavaliers have had some great teams and players that have contributed to the franchise’s successes. We’ll take a look back at several of those teams and players as we give you the Cavs Dream Team of the best starting five of all-time. Any guesses as to who’s going to be the No. 1 player?
Before we get there let’s go down “Memory Lane” and enjoy reminiscing about the many great players that have played for the Wine and Gold. The fact is that the Cavaliers have had moments and years of greatness where they were challenging for championships. They’ve also had too many years struggling to reach respectability. When you start looking at the team’s history from a record point of view, one can see how some of their great players had a direct link to their success as a team.
I grew up in the era of watching the great Cavs teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before that window of time and after that period times were really tough for the team. That all changed for the better when one Lebron James was drafted by the team in 2004. I wonder if he makes our list?
Guard: Mark Price
I grew up when Mark Price was the point guard for the Cavaliers. That’s the time when the team went away from the Wine and Gold uniform and were wearing the white/orange and light blue uniforms. I can still remember playing hoops in my neighbor’s driveway acting as if I were Price dishing the ball off to a Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance Sr. or a “Hot” Rod Williams. Those were some of the “Glory Days” of Cavalier basketball.
Those Cleveland teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s were some of the very best and Price was a huge reason why. When you want to define a “point guard” in the dictionary, Price’s picture should be there.
The kid played in Cleveland from 1986-1995. His points per game average was just over 16 points and his assists average was a solid 7.2 per game. He was a four-time All-Star, an NBA First Teamer, and a 2X Three-Point Contest Champion.
He still holds the best free throw percentage record of 90.6 % for his career. Outside of one LeBron James, he is still considered the best offensive player in Cavalier history. His three-point shooting was outstanding. He finished his career in Cleveland shooting 41% from beyond the arc.
During the 1989-90 season Price made over five threes a game and averaged a career-high 19.6 points a game. The Cavs were regulars in the playoffs and Price was an integral part of that.
Guard: Kyrie Irving
We will always be thankful to Kyrie Irving as Cavalier fans. If it weren’t for his dramatic three-pointer in the closing seconds over Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA Finals the Cavs wouldn’t be 2016 NBA Champs.
He played with the team from 2011-2017 and was a huge piece to the success of those teams. Some of those years were lousy but when LeBron James returned in 2014 the Cavs became one of the best teams in the NBA. It wasn’t just James’ contributions that helped the team but also players like Irving who instantly became very important to the team’s run at championships.
Irving was a very good player, even before James arrived. He finished his career in Cleveland averaging 21.6 points and almost six assists a game. He was a four-time All-Star from 2013-2015 and was the MVP of the 2014 All-Star Game. He was the Rookie of the Year back in 2013.
While some Cavs fans might look at his career skeptically because he wanted out of Cleveland after the 2016 championship season, he was a great player.
The Game 5 performance of his in the 2016 NBA Finals when he and LeBron both posted 40-plus points in the game when down 3-1 in the series will always be a clutch moment of his and the reason Irving needs to be remembered in high regard by this Cavs fan base.
Center: Brad Daugherty
He was the No. 1 selection of the 1986 NBA Draft and the Cavs future in the period of years that followed was a fantastic time for the organization and its fans. He helped tremendously, along with the selections of Mark Price and Ron Harper in that draft to turn the team’s fortunes around.
Daugherty came from North Carolina and wasn’t the sexy pick that year. That went to Len Bias, from Maryland, who actually died a few days after the draft. Bias was considered a future Michael Jordan-type player so the tragic news was stunning to the NBA at the time.
Daugherty made an instant impact on the team and would help Cleveland gain respectability and become regulars in the NBA postseason. He played all eight seasons of his career for the Cavs. He finished averaging 19 points and almost 10 boards. That’s a great accomplishment to average a double-double for his career. Even more impressive was that his average rebounds per game continually went up almost every season.
For his career, he was a 5-Time All-Star. He made the All-Rookie NBA Team back in 1987 and was named as a member of the All-NBA 3rd Team back in 1992. More importantly, the Cavs made the playoffs five times while Daugherty was with the squad. The team made it to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Chicago Bulls in 1992. The Bulls had the Cavs number over the years past as they had faced off in 1988 and 1989. The 1989 series is remembered because it was when Michael Jordan hit “the shot”.
Daugherty did all he could against the Bulls over the years but he and the team could never get past the Bulls. I believe if that Cavs team could have made it to an NBA Final during that time frame, Daugherty today would be considered an even more iconic figure in Cavs history.
Forward: Austin Carr
If you are a current fan of the Cavaliers, you might know Austin Carr as a TV analyst for the team now. But before his media days, he was a fantastic player for the former Cleveland teams of the 1970s. He was drafted in 1971 as the No. 1 pick and it was the first year for the Cavaliers as an actual franchise. Carr helped get the team literally off the ground.
The former Notre Dame collegiate player played nine years for Cleveland and helped get them to the playoffs three times. “The Miracle at Richfield happened in 1976 when the team shocked the Washington Bullets in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and won the series 4-3 to move on to play the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Carr was an All-Star back in 1973 and made it on the All-Rookie team in 1972. He ended up averaging just over 16 points a game in an era that didn’t have the three-point shot yet. He liked to shoot the ball and averaged 15 shots when he played with the team.
Before all of the fanfare that would happen later in franchise history like with the signing of LeBron, there were players like Carr who gave this team an identity from the start.
Forward: LeBron James
That takes us to the greatest player in franchise history, the one and only LeBron James. He was drafted by the team in 2004 and made the Cavaliers instant contenders for NBA titles every season. The team got to their first Finals in 2007 and then went back to them four more timesbetween 2015-2018. The team won the title in 2016, which to this day is the franchise’s only championship in history.
James was everything to this team when he played here. He played for the Cavs in different time frames. He played from that initial 2004 season through the 2010 season but then wanted to escape to paradise and joined the Miami Heat in 2011. He won two championships with the Heat in 2012 and 2013 and then shocked the world again by returning to Cleveland.
James has been a human highlight reel his whole career and now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. While he played for the Cavs he averaged 27 points, 7 assists, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1 block. He is a 19-time All-Star, won four NBA Finals, and been named NBA MVP multiple years. He has too many other awards to name here or we’d be here until Christmas recounting every other individual award of his.
He will go down as the Cavs greatest player of all time and will contend for the all-time greatest player in NBA history. It sure is nice for Cavalier fans to have watched LeBron James play for their teams over 11 seasons.
I’d take this starting five of the Cavs over any other all-time greats on other NBA squads. I think LeBron James, Austin Carr, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty and Kyrie Irving would be a treat to watch take the court together while they were in their prime.