Slow Moving Ferry: Cleveland Cavaliers' Trouble at the Top

LeBron James is back in the Cavaliers' lineup, the team ended a six-game losing streak  by defeating the Indiana Pacers, and once again, all is well in Cleveland.

But is it really?

Prolonged doubts about LeBron’s supporting cast were only confirmed during his absence.

The Cavs were crushed by the Pistons in the game in which James was injured on November 28.

What followed were losses at Toronto and Boston, a humiliating 21-point loss at home to the New Jersey Nets, and two more road defeats to the Washington Wizards and the lowly Charlotte Bobcats, a team the defending Eastern Conference champs have no business losing to—with or without King James.

The inability of the Cavaliers to win a game without James in the lineup exposes a great deficiency in Cleveland: far too great of a reliance on one man, even if that man is as talented as LeBron.

That deficiency can only be traced to general manager Danny Ferry. It is stunning LeBron can be surrounded with so little help this far into his tenure as the Cavaliers' main man.

Let's examine Ferry’s pathetic record as GM in depth. Since beginning his era of mediocrity in 2005, Ferry has pulled off five trades:

• Sent the Cavs' 2006 second-round draft pick to Orlando for the draft rights to Martynas Andriuskevicius, who played a total of six games for Cleveland, and who I believe was the lanky waiter who served me at Applebee’s last week.

• February 2006: In his only move which can be considered decent, Ferry sent Mike Wilks to Seattle for Ronald Murray. While no longer with the team, Murray filled in nicely during his brief stint in Cleveland.

• August 2006: Pulled the plug on the Martynas project, trading him to Chicago for somebody named Eddie Basden.
  

"I had to google Basden because I had never heard of him. Turns out head coach Mike Brown has probably never heard of him either—he has never played a game for the Cavaliers. He is, however, the 18th all-time leading scorer for the University of Charlotte!"

• October 2006: Dealt Luke Jackson and cash to Boston for backup center Dwayne Jones; yawn.

• September 2007: traded David Wesley to New Orleans for Cedric Simmons.

So basically, the next trade Danny Ferry makes that actually has an impact on the team—be it positive or negative—will be his first.

Ferry’s free agent signings are not much prettier. Excluding the brainless re-signings of LeBron, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilguaskas and Sasha Pavlovic; the list of Ferry’s acquisitions includes Damon Jones (overpaid and one-dimensional), Alan Henderson, Zendon Hamilton, Stephen Graham, David Wesley, and Demetrius Nichols.

One would usually have to visit the mortuary to find a collection of stiffs that vast.

Excluded from the list are Ferry’s two "prize" signings in August 2005: Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall.

Hughes has been consistently injured—and at $13 million per year, owns one of the top-five worst contracts in the league.

Marshall was brought in to hit outside shots and unclog the paint for LeBron. Unfortunately, he has struggled with his perimeter game and now sits injured on the bench.

Many general managers around the league who get burned—the way Ferry did with the Hughes contract—tend to shy away, as Ferry has, from making further high-impact moves.

But with a player like LeBron James on the roster, taking the safe route can also blow an opportunity that most GMs will never experience.

Franchise players come once in a lifetime. The Cavaliers have never had one before, and if Danny Ferry cannot figure out a way to give James the championship-caliber supporting cast he deserves before LeBron's contract winds up, they may be without one yet again.