Danny Ferry's Failures Put Jerry Krause's Successes in New Light

Mr. Ferry, Mr. Krause. Mr. Krause, Mr. Ferry. I believe you two have a lot to talk about.

Following the Cavaliers crushing series loss to the Magic, it has once again become apparent that LeBron James' supporting cast is simply not good enough. It is easy to call this an overreaction to one unfortunate series loss that even LeBron himself pointed out "could have gone either way."

However, this was not the NCAA tournament with fluke one-game upsets. This was not even the old NBA five-game series that presented more possible upsets. This was a seven-game series and, simply put, the best team won.

If anything, it's both surprising and a testament to the greatness of James that the Cavaliers did not get exposed earlier. I can't recall many championship teams built around a trio of 6'3'' and under guards.

I also can't recall many championship teams featuring past-their-primes centers and a flopper at power forward. These guys simply weren't that good.

The failure once again of Ferry to put together a championship caliber supporting cast brings to light the still-formidable task ahead of Ferry if he wants to keep James in town. It also shines some long-deserved light on the success of the only other man in the past 30 years who can relate to the position that Ferry is in—Jerry Krause.

Krause was hired in 1985 and faced the difficult and unenviable task of building a championship roster around Michael Jordan. At the time, he had two decent pieces in place: John Paxson and Charles Oakley. The rest? Well, Jordan's chewed gum probably had more trade value.

The rest of the story is pretty familiar to those who follow Chicago Bulls basketball. Krause pulled off one of the greatest drafts of all time by landing both Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant in the 1987 NBA Draft. Krause then displayed extraordinary foresight by trading the suddenly expendable Oakley for Ewing-killer Bill Cartwright.

Krause nabbed B.J. Armstrong in the 1989 draft to round out his Jordan sidekicks. Lastly, Krause put his final masterstroke on his work by hiring the just quirky enough to garner respect Phil Jackson.

After a few early growing pains, the supporting cast finally came of age in the 1990-91 season as the Bulls conquered the NBA to win the first of three consecutive championships.

Undoubtedly, Jordan elevated the play of each and every one of these players. Still, lost in the shuffle of Jordan's greatness was just how good his supporting cast was without him. In their only full season without Jordan, the 1993-1994 Bulls went 55-27 (compared to 57-25 in 1992-93) and came within a controversial Hubert Davis call from knocking off the Eastern Conference champion.

Thus, the Bulls only dropped two games and one could argue were a couple of calls away from reaching the NBA Finals again.

These accomplishments are even more impressive after comparing other supporting casts from the past 30 years that essentially played a full year without their star.

1990-1991 Los Angeles Lakers (first season without Magic Johnson):
Went from winning 58 games and an NBA Finals appearance NBA finalist to winning 43 games and being eliminated in four games in playoffs.

1990-1991 Boston Celtics (Larry Bird hurt his back badly 34 games into the season):
The Celtics roared to a 29-5 behind the sensational play of Bird. However, Bird then suffered a compressed nerve root in his back that caused him to miss 22 games. The Celtics never recovered and stumbled to the finish with a 27-24 record.

1996-1997 San Antonio Spurs (minus David Robinson for all but 6 games):
Went from being a Western Conference Semifinalist with a 59-23 record to having the worst record in the Western Conference at 20-62.

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