Want to know why the Cleveland Cavaliersfired their general manager Chris Grant today? Well, where should we start?
The Cavaliers—a team that was expected to make the playoffs this season—are currently 16-33 on the year. Their star player Kyrie Irving is reportedly not happy with the way that things have been going. Luol Deng—a player that the Cavaliers traded the Bulls for last month—can't believe how dysfunctional the organization is at the moment. And, oh yeah, if you haven't heard, the Cavs really, really, really want to convince LeBron James to come back to Cleveland this summer. And yet, they don't look like a very attractive destination for LeBron right now. Last night, they lost 119-108—at home!—to a Lakers team that was so short-handed that they had to keep Robert Sacre on the court after he picked up his sixth foul because they literally didn't have anyone on the bench to replace him:
The bench was so empty that Chris Kaman took a nap on it. So…yeah. There's that. All that. And something clearly had to change in Cleveland. So Cavs owner Dan Gilbert decided that firing Grant was the right move for the future of the organization.
We can't say that we really blame Gilbert, either. Sure, the Cavs could have fired head coach Mike Brown and made the same statement—maybe even a stronger statement—than they did by firing Grant. But the truth is that a lot of Grant's draft picks, free agent acquisitions, and trades simply haven't worked out over the course of the last few years. He was the guy who started his tenure in Cleveland by orchestrating a sign-and-trade deal with the Heat back in the summer of 2010 that sent LeBron James to Miami. And while you obviously can't blame him for doing it—LeBron was taking his talents to South Beach with or without the sign-and-trade that gave Cleveland a bunch of draft picks—it did end up burning Grant in the end because he wasn't able to do much with the draft picks that the Cavaliers have had in recent years.
That was particularly evident last summer when the Cavaliers earned the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. Grant had the opportunity to select anyone that he wanted with the first pick. And he chose…Anthony Bennett. It was a gamble, and so far, that gamble hasn't paid off as Bennett has only been able to average about 3 points and 3 rebounds per game during the 2013-14 NBA season. He's already being called the "B" word (for the record, we aren't ready to call him that just yet) and he very well may be the real reason Gilbert is firing Grant.
With that in mind, we decided to "celebrate" the end of Grant's tenure in Cleveland by taking a look back at five of his most notable draft picks and acquisitions and describing them with Anthony Bennett GIFs. Something tells us that Grant and Bennett's names are going to linked for a long time now that Grant has been fired by the Cavs. So we couldn't think of a better way to send him off…
The Move Chris Grant Made: Drafted Kyrie Irving No. 1 overall in the 2011 NBA Draft
The Anthony Bennett GIF That Best Describes It:
This was one of the few moves that Grant made that people cannot contest. It's easy to see why Irving went No. 1 overall now. But back in 2011, there were some people who thought that Derrick Williams might be a better option. Fortunately for Cavaliers fans, it was Minnesota Timberwolves fans who got to find out that that was not true after Grant picked Irving.
The Move Chris Grant Made: Drafted Tristan Thompson No. 4 overall in the 2011 NBA Draft
The Anthony Bennett GIF That Best Describes It:
Thompson has turned out to be a pretty decent NBA player. He's currently averaging 12 points and about 9 rebounds per game. But he's not the presence in the paint that Cleveland thought he might be when they drafted him so high in the 2011 draft. And that's left them searching for another big man to compliment Thompson ever since.
The Move Chris Grant Made: Drafted Dion Waiters No. 4 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft
The Anthony Bennett GIF That Best Describes It:
Waiters' production has been steady this season as he's averaging 14 points per game. But he's been a headache at times—he reportedly got tossed from a Cavs' practice recently—and he's a guy that the Cavs drafted without ever working him out. Former coach Byron Scott loved him, but now that Scott is gone, the perception is that he wasn't a great pick for the team, especially at No. 4 overall.
The Move Chris Grant Made: Hired Mike Brown to be the Cavaliers head coach in the summer of 2013—just three years after the team fired him
The Anthony Bennett GIF That Best Describes It:
Cavaliers fans were about as excited about Brown's rehiring as Bennett was to set a pick on this play. It was an uninspiring hire, for sure.
The Move Chris Grant Made: Signed Andrew Bynum to a two-year deal in the summer of 2013
The Anthony Bennett GIF That Best Describes It:
You can't blame Grant for taking a chance on Bynum, who played sparingly and was suspended for conduct detrimental to the team at one point during the first half of the 2013-14 season before getting traded to the Chicago Bulls. Er, wait, yes, you can. And the Cavaliers essentially blamed him for that—and for so many other things—when they fired him today.
