The Cleveland Cavaliers know what it's like to go tumbling off the mountain and crash land at the bottom.
In 2018, LeBron James showed that he was still the GOAT despite being 34 years old and carried a flawed Cavaliers roster back to the NBA Finals, the team's fourth-straight trip. While Kyrie Irving had forced his way out of town, Kevin Love stepped up to play a larger role and new additions at the Trade Deadline supported the roster enough to win the Eastern Conference.
The Cavs would lose 4-0 in a desultory sweep at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, and just weeks later LeBron James was taking his talents to Malibu Beach. Armed with little financial flexibility their ability to replace James was limited, but they did add No. 8 pick Collin Sexton out of Alabama.
Heading into the next season it was expected that Cleveland would take a major step back. Expected by everyone but center Tristan Thompson, that is, who brashly declared prior to the 2018-19 season "We're still four-time Eastern Conference champions, so until you take us down from that, team's ain't got much to say."
Thompson's faith was misplaced. Ty Lue was unable to embrace a rebuild and was fired six games in; his replacement Larry Drew managed just a 19-57 record after Lue spotted him an 0-6 start. 19 wins matched the team's worst record since the 17-65 record from 2002-03 that landed the Cavaliers LeBron James in the first place.
That desultory follow-up to their run to the NBA Finals was largely driven by a lack of superstar talent. LeBron was gone, as was Kyrie Irving. Kevin Love played in just 22 games as he battled injuries. Rookie Collin Sexton played 82 games and was painfully inefficient, and players like Ante Zizic and David Nwaba got significant playing time. Cedi Osman started 75 games.
In crashing out from the NBA Finals to missing the playoffs entirely, the Cavaliers joined an ignominious group of NBA teams since the turn of the century to go from Finals to missing out entirely. The 2019-20 Golden State Warriors would join them the following year after losing Kevin Durant in free agency and Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry to injury.
The Cavs in part mirrored the 2014-15 Miami Heat who dropped out of the playoffs entirely once LeBron James left. Joining the group were the 2004-05 Los Angeles Lakers, after the super team the franchise built flamed out in the NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons.
That's four teams to suffer such a humiliating outcome in the last 25 years -- and now the Dallas Mavericks may add their name to the list.
Mavericks are likely missing the playoffs this year
The Dallas Mavericks are having a rough year, some of it of their own making. Injuries to Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively II pulled them down the standings, but most expected them to get healthy and be a real threat to challenge the Oklahoma City Thunder to come out of the Western Conference, as they did last year before losing to the Boston Celtics in five games.
Then the atom bomb was dropped: Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison shockingly traded away Doncic for a package centered around Anthony Davis. Doncic is winning games in bunches with his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers, while the Mavericks have had nothing but heartache since.
Davis play in 2.5 quarters before suffering an injury and is out indefinitely. Daniel Gafford may not return this season. Harrison made another deadline deal, adding Philadelphia 76ers forward Cody Martin, who has not yet played as he rehabs an injury.
Tuesday the news became even more grim. Kyrie Irving, playing significant minutes to try and keep Dallas relevant without its entire center rotation, suffered an ACL tear on Monday night and will miss the rest of the season and at least part of next year. Sprinkle in negative injury updates on P.J. Washington and Jaden Hardy and you have a Mavericks team with essentially no shot creation left to try and compete in the Western Conference.
Dallas has already dropped to 10th place, and only the sheer ineptitude of the Phoenix Suns in 11th will keep open a chance at making the postseason. This Mavericks team is gutted by injuries and it will be a close race to see which bad team loses least down the stretch to secure that 10th spot.
Winning their way out of 10th is now a lost cause, and that almost certainly means no playoffs for the Dallas Mavericks. They become the fifth team to go from NBA Finals to missing the playoffs, and each example is a painful realization of how quickly things change in the NBA.
The Cleveland Cavaliers know what that is like. They ended up pivoting into a rebuild and have built their way back into a contender with an excellent shot at returning to the NBA Finals this year, with only Tristan Thompson around who was on that 2018 team.
The Mavericks cannot afford a rebuild, however, so the rest of this season and the offseason will determine how they are able to keep their hand on the throttle and try to bounce back. For now, they join infamous company in going from great to terrible, and it's a depressing tale to repeat.