Cavs mismanaged the LeBron era

In the aftermath of the Cavaliers elimination from the playoffs, I think it's worth looking back and noting that horrible job the front office did of building a team around LeBron James. (And I fully acknowledge that LeBron had a lousy series against Boston, although if it's true that his elbow was often numb it would explain why he turned the ball over so much). And I say this despite being truly impressed by the way they had put various pieces around him.

Of course, I was wrong.

The coaching from Mike Brown was terrible. The offense never developed at any point during his tenure and his rotations were always, um, curious. To be kind. He never seemed to understand how to use different players or when. The offense too often was to give the ball to LeBron and hope for the best.

The front office tried to build an instant-contender around LeBron rather than try to build a strong nucleus of young players that could grow with LeBron. Thus, LeBron never had a legitimate all-star with him. Instead he had former stars who were in their 30s (like Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O'Neal this season, Ben Wallace a couple years ago) or spare parts playing key roles (Delonte West, Mo Williams, Boobie Gibson, Damon Jones, Ricky Davis, Drew Gooden, Eric Snow). Or he had solid fourth or fifth men playing the role of a No. 2 man (okay, he only had one of these, Zydrunas Ilgauskas). The Cavaliers repeatedly failed to find strong young players to complement LeBron, instead overspending on those in their decline or relying on spare parts.

The one exception to this was Carlos Boozer. Would the Cavs have a championship by now if they had a LeBron-Boozer nucleus these last few years? Very possible. But the Cavs stupidly didn't exercise an option on Boozer, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent because Boozer had allegedly promised former owner Gordon Gund he would re-sign. The joke was on Cleveland; Boozer went to Utah instead and it took the only legitimate No. 2 player LeBron has ever had.

I'm interested in tracking what happens in Oklahoma City these next few years. While the Cavaliers tried to surround LeBron with veterans who really had no business playing such a big role, OKC general manager Sam Presti has opted to try and surround Kevin Durant with good young players who can grow with him. LeBron never had equivalents of Jeff Green or Russell Westbrook. How will it work for OKC? It has to work better than it did for Cleveland, right?