And I'm not trying to get you guys riled up over Dan Gilbert, but there is an outsider perspective that he's an impatient, emotional and meddling owner. Again, I've watched that type almost sink our franchise for the past 25-years. They can give great soundbites and you try to rally around them as fans. But over time, the people working for them (and frequently fired by them) tend to talk amongst their brethren. The rep develops that the situation is dysfunctional and top tier coaching and front office candidates start to avoid the place like the plague. Right now Gilbert's primary rep with other fans/media around the league is a guy who couldn't put together a functioning supporting cast for LeBron, went off the deep end when LeBron left, and has now spent the last four years burning high lotto picks. If he takes Jabari or Wiggins and gets LeBron to return, he'd clearly shed that rap quickly. But right now that's what he's carrying with him.
Thanks for posting here. Always good to see fans of other teams dropping by for a visit.
I think your comments show why we need to be leery of reputations. Those reputations are so often based on half-truths or incorrect information.
For years, there's been this narrative that "Dan Gilbert didn't get LeBron any help, that's why LeBron left." Truth is, that die was cast before Gilbert ever bought the team. There were two big events in the summer of 2004 that essentially doomed the LeBron-centered rebuild:
1. They drafted Luke Jackson with the #10 pick in the draft;
2. They stupidly let Carlos Boozer get away as a free agent.
IOW, they pissed away their two best attempts at getting young talent to grow with LeBron. (Not to mention that they also had traded away two future #1 picks, which ended up being transferred in 2005 and 2007.) And again, that all happened before Gilbert was owner.
Those moves put Gilbert (and his GM, Danny Ferry) behind the eight ball from the start. They tried valiantly to get talent around Bron, but it was kind of impossible by then, as any other assets they may have been able to use in a trade had already been squandered by the previous regime.
I'm also not sure how he/the Cavs got a reputation as a burner of lottery picks. With their four top picks in the previous three drafts, they took Irving, Thompson, Waiters, and Bennett. Irving is one of the two best players to come out of the draft in the past three years; I think they hit on that one. Waiters is emerging as one of the better players from 2012. 2013 was a sewer pipe of a draft; it's not like they left LeBron and Durant on the board to reach for Bennett; the whole draft sucked.
There are reasons to criticize Gilbert, sure. But if the perception is that he squandered LeBron and then blew a whole string of lottery picks ... well, I think it takes a very slanted reading of history to get to that conclusion.
