The Cleveland Cavaliers began their NBA existence in 1970 and employed some early greats such as an aging Nate Thurmond, Austin Carr and World B. Free. Unfortunately their biggest claim to fame in the beginning was the guy running the team, Ted Stepien, whose love for trading away first round picks inspired the creation of the “Stepien Rule”. But in 1986, the Cavs had a dream draft and acquired swingman Ron Harper, point guard Mark Price and Center Brad Daugherty, with the latter of the two becoming franchise legends and forming a great inside - outside and transition tandem. The Cavs started slow, but with the acquisition of all star Larry Nance and development of guys like Craig Ehlo and John “Hot Rod” Williams, they became one of the premier team’s in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. In 8 years, Price and Daugherty helped lead the Cavs to 6 playoff appearances and a conference final in 1992, while being selected to 4 and 5 all star games respectively.
It seemed that they had plateau’d as no matter how hard they tried they always found themselves losing to Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs, but then you also wonder how good they could have been if Price and Daugherty wouldn’t have missed major time in back to back seasons and Daugherty wouldn’t ultimately have had to retire from a chronic back injury in his prime at just 28 years old. This team as a whole is one of the forgotten teams in NBA history as they never had a true superstar, but did have 3 all stars in the same year on two separate occasions. Price’s 3 point shooting accuracy and volume, which would see him win two straight three point shootouts in the mid 90s, was so ahead of his time to the point that you could compare his shooting game to Steph Curry, and this was the perfect complement to Daugherty’s phenomenal inside post game and touch around the basket.
Recency bias has everyone remembering LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as the only great Cavs duo, but as many know before LeBron and Kyrie; there was Price and Daugherty…
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13 июн 2023
