CLEVELAND – The Nets and Cavaliers were teams in two very different places when they met inside Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday night, but there are a surprising number of similarities in how the two teams were built.
Both teams built their rosters with the goal of trying to meet the wishes of one star player. The difference? The Cavaliers did it for LeBron James, while the Nets did it for Deron Williams. It might have made sense when the Nets did it, but it simply hasn’t worked out.
After the way the last couple of years have gone for Williams and the Nets — Wednesday’s 117-92 loss was a good capsule — it’s easy to forget just how good Williams was when he came to the franchise in the blockbuster trade with the Jazz in February 2011. Williams was a top 12 player in the league, on the same level as star point guard Chris Paul, on his way to being selected to a second straight gold-medal-winning US Olympic Team.
So, naturally, the Nets did what they could too keep him happy and satisfied during a trying final year-and-a-half in New Jersey. Williams only played 12 games for the Nets in his first season before undergoing wrist surgery, then was forced to go into the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season without Brook Lopez, who suffered his first foot fracture during the preseason.
As the Nets piled up losses that season and free agency loomed for Williams – his hometown Mavericks had the cap space to sign someone to a max contract – the Nets tried to keep Williams involved in their pursuit of Dwight Howard.
When that option went out the window when Howard opted into his contract with Orlando, the Nets started to make moves — first trading a first-round pick to Portland for Gerald Wallace, then trading a first-round pick and the right to swap two more with the Hawks for Joe Johnson.
Those moves — plus the later decision to send three first round picks and the right to swap a fourth with the Celtics for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry — meant the Nets went all-in on a group that was supposed to be led deep into the playoffs by Williams, whom they viewed as a franchise cornerstone when they re-signed him to a five-year deal.
It’s similar to how the Cavaliers have operated since James agreed to re-sign with them last July after four years in Miami. They sent the last two No. 1 overall picks – Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins – to Minnesota as part of the Kevin Love trade last August, then sent out another first-round pick – plus Dion Waiters, who had been the No. 4 overall pick in the 2012 Draft – in a pair of trades that brought them J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks and Timofey Mozgov from the Nuggets. Those moves have given the Cavaliers the size and defensive weapons they needed to take off after a 19-20 start.
The Nets have never gotten going — in large part because Williams has basically posted the same mediocre numbers he did a year ago: 13.1 points and 6.1 assists while shooting 38.6 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from 3-point range.
Both teams pushed their chips into the center of the table after acquiring a marquee player. So far, it’s only worked out for one of them.