Former Cleveland Cavaliers big man Brendan Haywood believes that guards Dion Waiters and Kyrie Irving weren’t exactly ready to hand the keys over to superstar LeBron James when he returned to Cleveland ahead of the 2014-15 season.
“At that point, I don’t really think Kyrie and Dion Waiters were ready to allow Bron to take the reins because it was a long time ago, but we once lived in a world where Kyrie and Dion Waiters were considered to be one of the up-and-coming backcourts,” he said. “And they used to have debates, ‘Who’s better, Kyrie and Dion or [Bradley] Beal and [John] Wall? Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson]? Dame (Damian Lillard) and C.J. [McCollum]?’ … I watched Bron teach them — or at least try to teach them — how to win.”
Haywood talked about Waiters and Irving having to play a different way alongside James, as they didn’t have the ball as much as they did in the years prior to him returning to Cleveland.
While Irving and Waiters might have felt that they were on track to do something special in Cleveland, James’ return expedited the franchise’s success.
The Cavs ended up making four straight appearances in the NBA Finals once the superstar returned to the franchise that drafted him, and the team won a title in the 2015-16 season.
Irving was a massive part of much of that Cavs era, hitting the go-ahead shot in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals to complete the Cavs’ comeback from a 3-1 series deficit against the Golden State Warriors.
Eventually, Irving was traded to the Boston Celtics, ending his Cavs tenure in a move that allowed the star guard to return to a No. 1 role with a franchise.
Waiters, on the other hand, didn’t even last a full season with James on the roster in Cleveland. Instead, he was moved in a three-team deal that sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2014-15 season.
While Waiters and Irving might have eventually been able to become a great backcourt, the Cavs’ four seasons without James (when he left for the Miami Heat) were downright awful.
Cleveland won 19, 21, 24 and 33 games in those four seasons, failing to make the postseason even once. So, it makes sense that the Cavs were willing to speed up their rebuild and bring James back as the top option when he was a free agent in the offseason before the 2014-15 campaign.
Ultimately, Irving’s willingness to play alongside James for a few seasons helped the Cavs capture a title in a season that will go down as one of the best in franchise history.
