Our Fair Justice System

This post shows how fair our "justice" system really is. Let's look at two cases of people who pled guilty to crimes in Cuyahoga County. For those of you who don't know, Cuyahoga County encompasses Cleveland, Ohio and surrounding areas. Two cases in the same court system. Two guilty pleas.

First, lets look at the case of Gerald McFaul.  McFaul was the sheriff of Cuyahoga County for over 40 years. He pled guilty to two felony counts of theft in office. He stole money from his campaign fund and forced his employees to sell tickets to his political fundraisers. McFaul faced up to 10 years in prison. What sentence did he receive?

He received one year of house arrest and five years of probation. McFaul is 76 years old and in failing health so the judge showed mercy on him. Fair enough. But now let's look at the case of Malcolm Bryant.

Bryant was harassing two employees at a discount store. The store security guard told Bryant he was under arrest. Bryant spit in the guard's face and ran. Some police officers helped the security guard chase Bryant. One of the officers chasing Bryant suffered a heart attack and died. What sentence did Bryant receive?

He received a four-year prison sentence. Four years for being an a-hole at a store and running from a security guard. I feel safer already knowing he'll be behind bars. You may think the sentence was harsh, but that's life in a police state. A law enforcement official gets no prison time for felony theft, but an average citizen gets four years in prison when a police officer dies of natural causes.

One Month To Go

As of today, Barack Obama has been President for 18 months. That leaves one month for him to finish his 19-month withdrawal of "combat troops" from Iraq. I don't see him reaching his goal, but it doesn't matter to his supporters. To them wars are only bad when Republicans are in charge. The wars become complex and necessary when Democrats are in charge.

Thoughts on LeBron Leaving

I'm pissed. He stabbed Northeast Ohio in the back and set the Cavaliers franchise back ten years. Now I get to watch crappy basketball instead of good basketball.

LeBron was the only athlete worth watching in Cleveland. Now there's nothing worth watching in Cleveland, which is especially bad for younger fans.

Why are you so upset about an athlete leaving? There are more important things to get angry about.

While it's true that there are more important things in life than sports, LeBron going to Miami isn't going to improve those more important things. His going to Miami isn't going to end the wars, stop the torture, help the poor, help the sick, or improve the environment. Present-day America is a pretty depressing place for a lot of people. Sports can provide some joy and relief to those people. Now there's less joy in Cleveland.

LeBron was free to choose where he wanted to play. You have no right to be upset with his choice.

It was his right to leave, but It's my right to be upset about it.

Dan Gilbert should not have written that letter about LeBron. Now no big-name free agents will come to Cleveland.

No big-name free agent would have come to Cleveland, even if Dan Gilbert threw a parade for LeBron. In the 40 year history of the Cavaliers franchise, no good player ever came to Cleveland voluntarily. They never came when the Cavaliers had LeBron. I wouldn't expect to see them come without him.

What should the Cavaliers do?

They should blow the team up and start over. It's the only way to build the championship team Gilbert guaranteed. To have a championship team, you either need a franchise player like LeBron (Examples include Michael Jordan's Bulls, Tim Duncan's Spurs, and Kobe Bryant's Lakers) or you need 3-4 All-Star caliber players (Examples include the 2004 Pistons and the 2008 Celtics).

The Cavaliers currently have no All-Star caliber players. The best way to get All-Star players is to draft in the top 5. The only way to ensure drafting in the top 5 is to lose a lot of games. The losing will be painful in the short term, but it's the only way to build a championship team in Cleveland.

Unfortunately, the Cavaliers organization isn't planning on rebuilding. They're trying to win now in a desperate attempt to keep season-ticket holders. The Cavaliers forced season-ticket holders to renew their tickets for the 2011 season before LeBron decided to leave. They think if they can make the playoffs in 2011, the season-ticket holders will renew for 2012.

The Cavaliers organization is in for a rude awakening. They are going to lose at least half their season-ticket base in 2012 unless they can manage to win at least 55 games, which they have no chance of doing. They could win 40-45 games and lose in the first round of the playoffs, but that's the best they could do. If they take on bad contracts to try to win in 2011, they are going to lose a ton of money in 2012. The team should trade their three highest paid players, Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao, and Mo Williams, while they can. Get rid of the bad contracts now before they're stuck with a high payroll and low attendance in 2012.

Blame Jim Paxson

After Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wrote a letter to fans blasting LeBron James for leaving, it's becoming fashionable among the national sports media to blame Gilbert for LeBron leaving. Gilbert failed to put a good team around LeBron so Gilbert has no one but himself to blame for losing LeBron. Leaving aside the fact the Cavaliers went 127-37 the past two seasons, Gilbert did the best he could, which you can learn more about in my Defending Danny Ferry post. If you want to blame someone for sabotaging LeBron's chances of winning a title in Cleveland, blame Jim Paxson.

Who's Jim Paxson? He was the GM of the Cavaliers from 1999-2005. The Cavaliers missed the playoffs all six seasons he was GM, which tells you all you need to know about how good a GM he was. Outside of drafting LeBron, which I couldn't even trust him to do, his reign as GM was a disaster.

Terrible Drafting

Paxson did the most damage to the organization through his horrendous drafting. Here are the names of some first round picks made by Jim Paxson:

1999: Trajan Langdon (11th pick)

2000: Chris Mihm (8th pick*)

2001: DeSagana Diop (8th pick)

2002: Dajuan Wagner (6th pick)

2004: Luke Jackson (10th pick)

* Technically, the Bulls drafted Mihm 7th and traded him to the Cavaliers for Jamal Crawford, who was picked 8th, and cash. But since the Bulls could have just drafted Crawford with their pick, I'm calling Mihm the 8th pick.

Five terrible lottery picks. While the Cavaliers may not have been in a position to draft LeBron if Paxson had drafted well, his atrocious drafting left little talent around to help LeBron.

Bad Trades

Paxson made two disastrous trades as GM: one prior to LeBron's arrival and one after. Prior to LeBron's arrival, Andre Miller was the best player on the Cavaliers. In the summer of 2002, the Cavaliers traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers offered their two lottery picks in 2002 for Miller, but Paxson turned them down. He traded Miller for Darius Miles. Why Miles? Because Miles appeared in the movies Van Wilder and The Perfect Score. According to Paxson, only star players get to be in movies so Miles was a star in the making. Miles is currently trying to get back in the NBA at age 28.

After LeBron arrived, Paxson started trading away draft picks that could have been used to assemble young talent around LeBron. The worst of these trades was trading a first round pick in the 2007 draft to the Celtics for Jiri Welsch midway through the 2005 season. In the late 1990s, the Cavaliers traded a lottery-protected first round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Wesley Person. The Cavaliers playoff drought meant that pick hadn't been conveyed to Phoenix yet. To get the Welsch trade through, the Cavaliers had to give up their first round pick in the 2005 draft to finalize the Person trade.

The Cavaliers missed the playoffs and would have picked 13th in the 2005 draft. They could have had Danny Granger, who went 17th that year. But instead they had Jiri Welsch. Thanks, Jim.

Other Bad Moves

Jim Paxson's worst move as GM was letting Carlos Boozer out of the last year of his contract. Instead of signing a new contract with the Cavaliers, Boozer signed a huge offer sheet from the Utah Jazz. The Cavaliers could have matched the offer, but they didn't have the cap space to do so. They ended up losing Boozer for nothing.

Another horrible move by Paxson was leaving Jason Kapono unprotected in the 2004 expansion draft for the Charlotte Bobcats. Instead of protecting Kapono, Paxson protected Kedrick Brown, who ended up playing eight more games in the NBA. He has been out of the league for five years.

Conclusion

Jim Paxson did an awful job as GM of the Cavaliers. He caused so much damage that Danny Ferry and Dan Gilbert couldn't undo it all in five years. If you want to blame anyone in the Cavaliers organization for not putting the right pieces around LeBron, blame Paxson. He left the organization with few draft picks and few tradable assets.