Sure, the Cavs' history book has a lot of space taken up by all-time greats. But along the way, the team's rosters have also featured some memorable bombs— the wash-outs, has-beens, over-hyped, and just plain terrible. We reminisce.
(player, 1990–2000; GM, 2005-10)
Although the name will probably click with most fans as the former Cavs General Manager, Ferry also has the distinction of being the front office's biggest flub. After a promising career at Duke, where Ferry distinguished himself as basketball's once-a-generation Larry Bird-type (i.e., white guy who can play), Ferry inked a 10-year deal with Cleveland in an exchange that sent Ron Harper and a handful of high draft picks to Los Angeles. But Ferry never caught fire as expected, doggie-paddling through his time on the Cavs until suiting up with the Spurs management.
Darius Miles
(2002-04)
When Miles was grabbed by the L.A. Clippers as the third overall pick in the 2000 draft, it was a serious roll of the dice: At the time, Miles was the highest-picked high school player ever. Unfortunately, he never lived up to his own scouting reports, particularly when he landed in Cleveland two seasons into his dismal career. On the Cavs, the small forward never pushed his point average above 10. But at that point, Miles was busy hustling a movie career equally as bad as his poor hoops performance. Among his memorable screen belly-flops were forgettable turns in National Lampoon's Van Wilder and The Perfect Score.
Ricky Davis
(2001-03)
Another dim light of the pre-LeBron, early-aughts Cavs, Davis made several stops around the league and overseas after leaving Cleveland in 2003. When he was with the Cavs, Davis was primarily known for ball-hogging and show-boating his way through games. His career lowlight: a 2003 Cleveland-Utah match-up where Davis, only a rebound away from a triple-double, purposely shot on his own basket in order to scoop up the stat. Sportsmanship, ladies and gentlemen, pure sportsmanship.
Fat Shawn Kemp
(1997-2000)
The six-time All-Star was supposed to be a game-changer when he joined the Cavs. Instead, Kemp dragged into the 1998-99 season training camp tipping the scales over the 300-pound mark. The team focused considerable resources on the problem, including teaming Kemp with his own Cleveland Clinic nutritionist and offering a private chef to come to the star's house to cook his meals. Nothing curbed Kemp's munchies, and most Cleveland basketball fans are still wondering how he could make a sprint back to defense look like the Bataan Death March.
Larry Hughes
(2005-08)
You could make the argument that Cleveland failed to win a championship during the Le-Bron era because the front office never assembled the right supporting cast. Hughes was the first swing-and-miss on that front. After signing a big contact with the Cavs on the basis of good years in Washington, Hughes was supposed to play a point-producing secondary role to James. But the shooting guard failed to repeat his previous numbers. Injuries slowed him down. He's also the only Cavs player to inspire an entire website devoted to tracking his bad shots, titled appropriately: heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com.
