John Lucas Says Cavs Tanked To Get LeBron
2010-01-13Chris Thomasson on Fanhouse with the story. It’s long enough ago so that this shouldn’t become a huge deal, and it was never a state secret that the Cavs wanted to be at the bottom of the league going into LeLottery. For me, the interesting question here is what constitutes shady tanking and what constitutes “aggressive rebuilding.”
Trading mid-level vets for unproven young guys, like the Miller trade? Really just cutting losses and managing with an eye on the future.
Benching vets for younger players? Debatable, especially on a younger team, and one of the young guys Lucas was told to play more like Carlos Boozer.
For me, shady tanking is something like the Madsen three-point barrage game, and it may worth a look into the end of the Cavs’ 02-03 season to see if anything like that was going on. I have class in 10 minutes, so this is just discussion-starting more than anything; please chime in with thoughts.
You really cant say they tanked when it was up to lotto pick.
Hey John, what are your thoughts on Blake Griffin? I know you are out in LA, what was it like out there when the Clips declared him out for the year (or are the Clips so irrelevant that no one really cared)?
There wasn’t a person in the city of Cleveland that wanted to see competitive basketball that year. I still remember where I was when that ping pong ball fell our way. That is the 2nd most my Dad and I have ever celebrated a Cleveland sport “accomplishment”! (First was the Tribe making that first World Series by beating the Mariners, and watching Joey Cora cry)
How about the fact that the lottery balls are selected behind closed doors? Tank or no tank, we all love a conspiracy. Any thought to the idea that stern wanted the 18 yo phenom close to home? In hopes that a life closer to home would be more stable?
In the end, I could honestly care less if we tanked that season.
Hard to argue now that it wasn’t worth it…
They tanked on purpose, playing guys who they knew would likely end up losing games.
And they got LeBron. So in other words, it was a GREAT idea.
possible stretch 4… closer than we think?
Rob Kurz.
Tearing up in the D-League at Fort Wayne. >45% on 3’s, rebounding well, etc.
Any idea if the Cavs are keeping an eye out?
Oh, and one more thing:
I think tanking is a disgrace to the game, but when a team is tanking to get the surest sure thing in draft history, maybe its not such a bad thing.
This would only have mattered if the Cavs didn’t end up with LeBron. Then people would have been angry. However, Im guessing no one really cares now…