The Cavaliers: Fake it to Make it

It's pretty obvious that NBA teams in one way or another shut it down when they have no chance of making the playoffs. It makes sense from the player's perspective as they are probably dejected and disenchanted and it makes sense for the high-ups as they probably want to optimize their chances at winning the lottery. A simple example is when the Heat told Wade to stop trying to rehab his shoulder and shut it down for the season, Miami went on to win the number 2 pick (Beasley). But having said that its pretty rare that a team engineers them self (from the beginning of the season) to win the lottery. And though many people suspected the Cavs of doing this (and admitedly no one really cared) its pretty crazy for someone on that team to admit it! Check out what former Cavalier's coach John Lucas was saying:

"They trade all our guys away and we go real young, and the goal was to get LeBron and also to sell the team...I didn't have a chance. ... You can't fault the Cavaliers for wanting to get LeBron. It was hard to get free agents to come there.''

Well I guess it worked, Lebron came to the Cleve and the team got sold. I suppose its hard to argue with those results, and it makes it obvious that the lottery system is ineffective at preventing this. Who knows if stern will be roused to action or not. It does sort of suck for Lucas who then got fired for doing exactly what he was supposed to: loose hella and get Lebron. BREAK TO BUILD!!!

"Both teams played hard...goodnight and godbless."