The Cleveland Cavaliers are 31-22 sitting in 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. To some teams, it's an enviable position, but for LeBron James and the Cavaliers, it's a massive disappointment. After three straight trips to the NBA Finals, anything less will be considered a failure in 2018. The Cavaliers began to gear up for the 2018 NBA Finals last summer, when they made an NBA landscape-shifting move, shipping star point guard Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, and Brooklyn's 2018 1st-round pick. Fast forward to February's trade deadline and both those players are gone. The Cavaliers flipped their roster on Thursday in an unprecedented fashion, trading away six players in an effort to raise the team's playing standards. Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye and Dwyane Wade are all gone. In their place, the Cavaliers received Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance, Rodney Hood and Geor...
by Billy Sakmann, B.S. Sports Management '17