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Last week Chad Ford of ESPN.com stated that the strategy used by GM Danny Ferry to build a team around Lebron James was wrong.  Ford goes on to expound on this statement by saying that Ferry chose to put veterans around Lebron James whereas, GM Sam Presti of the OKC Thunder has done the correct thing in surrounding Kevin Durant with a young nucleus around him that will grow and develop together.

If any Cleveland GM is at fault for not putting together any semblance of a talented nucleus around Lebron James, then Ferry’s predecessor, Jim Paxson is certainly the man to look at.

In 2002 he drafted Dajuan Wagner with No. 6 overall pick while, Nene Hilario, Amare Stoudemire, Caron Butler and Tayshaun Prince were still on the board.  Wagner averaged 13.4 points his rookie season on 36.9% shooting from the field, suffered from injuries the following two years and was out of the league.  He is currently playing for the Polish team, Prokom Trefl Sopot, not exactly even a European powerhouse.

I could go back to his previous 3 drafts, but needless to say even with picks all in the top-10 of the draft, Paxson was unable to unearth one above average NBA player.  In fact the only player Paxson drafted before he drafted Lebron James, was Carlos Boozer in the second round of the 2002 NBA Draft at No. 34 overall.

Boozer could have been the perfect career-long complement to James if the Cavs had re-signed him

Boozer would average a double-double his second year before he became a restricted free agent.  Instead of excersizing their qualifiying offer on Boozer, Paxson allowed him to enter free agency with a handshake agreement to re-sign with the Cavaliers for the full mid-level exception.

The only problem was the the Utah Jazz swooped in and signed the emerging power forward to a 6-year, $68 million dollar contract.  Boozer was 22 when he was signed by Utah and would provided a perfect complement to Lebron James.

From the beginning of his tenure in Cleveland, Danny Ferry was working with a team that other than Lebron James had little in the way of talented players or tradeable assets.

Ferry took over a squad that finished 9th in the Eastern Conference with 35 wins.  In fact after taking a look at the roster of 2004-2005 Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s amazing they even got 35 wins.  They had Desagana Diop, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Lucious Harris, Luke Jackson, Jeff Mcinnis, Jerome Moiso, Ira Newble, Sasha Pavlovic, Eric Snow, Anderson Varejao, Dajuan Wagner, Jiri Welsch(traded an 07′ first round pick to get him), Scott Williams and last but certainly not least the immortal Robert Traylor.

The 2004-2005 Cavaliers (Paxson’s last year as GM) were a one-man show with role players that have had lackluster careers. On the roster there 10 players that are no longer in the NBA, with Pavlovic, Gooden and Diop having left via trades or free agency from Cleveland.  Ilgauskas and Vareajao are the only players left on the current roster other than James.

The summer Ferry took over he had ample cap space to sign a free agent, which he did.  He signed Larry Hughes, 25 year-old at the time, who was coming off a career year with the Wizards, averaging 22.0 points a game and being voted first-team All NBA Defense.  The signing however was questioned due to Hughes’ style of play as a slasher, which many thought would not complement James well and also his well documented injury problems.

The signing was a disappointment with Hughes’ production significantly dropping and with injuries propping up again, limiting him to 36 games.  It was obvious that the pairing was not working out as expected, but James had taken his game to the next level leading his team to the No. 4 seed in the conference that year, boosting the team from 35 wins the year before to 50 wins that year, most of this in Hughes’ absence.  Lebron carried the team into a second round series against the Pistons and took the defending Eastern Conference Champions to seven before bowing out.

Ferry, hoping that Hughes could stay healthy and develop betetr chemistry with James gave the partnership another chance in 2006-2007.  During the season Lebron, now in his fourth year, led the Cavaliers to another 50-win season in which they advanced to the NBA Finals, beating Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals before getting swept in the Finals by the Spurs.  However, it was obvious by this point that Hughes could not play alongside Lebron James.

Delonte West has been a solid addition to the Cavaliers backcourt and is only 25 years old.

The following season Hughes was traded at the deadline for Delonte West, Ben Wallace, Wally Sczerbiak and Joe Smith.  West, currently 25, was the key to the trade and is now a fixture in the backcourt for the Cavaliers.  James led this version of the Cavaliers into the playoffs, taking the eventual champion Boston Celtics, a full seven games in the second round and nearly winning Game 7 in Boston.

Ferry then made a move to solidify the backcourt by trading for point guard Mo Williams, currently 26, and only giving up little used and againg guard Damon Jones and Joe Smith (later resigned after being bough out by the OKC Thunder this past season).

Ferry has also used draft picks he has had on Shannon Brown, Daniel “Boobie” Gibson and J.J. Hickson.  Brown did not find success with the Cavaliers but after bouncing around the league became a part of the point guard rotation during the Lakers’ championship run this season.  Gibson, now 23, has provided an effective shooter for the Cavaliers and has helped to provide excellent floor spacing and benefited from James’ kick outs.  Hickson, 20, has shown promise and could become a key part of the rotation for the Cavs next year.

In his time in Cleveland, Ferry has taken a collection of non-distinguished talent and traded for an All-Star point guard in Mo Williams and an effective shooting guard who can hit shots and play great on-the-ball defense, Delonte West.  He also has drafted an effective shooter and a promising young big man in Hickson.

Of all these players not one is over the age of 27 and Gibson and Hickson are younger than James.  Ferry also has kept Varejao, who is 26 years old and has provided a good complement to James’ passing abilities as one of the best big men in the game in his movement off the ball.  Other than Ilgauskas, who should remain with the team and Shaq who they recently traded for, only giving up little used swingman Sasha Pavlovic, an aging Ben Wallace, a second round pick and cash, not one player in the Cavs’ rotation is over 30.

Not only this but Ford’s statement makes it seem as if the “veterans” around James have pushed the team into immediate championship contention and not James’ own development.  Without James on the floor, the team had the worst plus/minus ratio in the league.  James has stated he wants to win a championship and to do that Ferry has made the best moves available to him, while not sacrificing the future, by not trading 1st round picks and young rotation players, for established aging stars.

GM Sam Presti’s situation in Seattle/OKC has been completely different.  He had a trade asset in Ray Allen, which he traded for the No. 5 pick in the 2007 draft to Boston.  He used that pick to draft Jeff Green.  He received two first round picks from Phoenix for merely giving up a trade exception worth $8 million and a second pick, and taking on Kurt Thomas’ remaining contract.

GM Danny Ferry has done the best job possible adding young role players to help James win a championship.

He then traded Thomas to the San Antonio Spurs, who were desperate for frontcourt help and in return received the expiring contracts of Brent Barry, Francisco Elson and another first round pick.

Presti has done a fantastic job and I agree with Ford is assessment there, but his situation in comparison to Ferry’s was completely different.  Presti was walking into a situation tailor-made to start from scratch, armed with the No. 2 pick, which ended up being Kevin Durant and tradeable assets.  He has made trades in order to acquire talent on this team the draft while using the team’s over high-draft picks because the Thunder have been awful during rebuilding, something to be expected.

The Cavaliers since Ferry has been GM and with James have never been in a situation to rebuild.  In fact James’ impending free agency, desire to win a championship and ability to nearly single-handedly make this team a playoff contender have not allowed them to draft lottery talent to pair with him.  As such Ferry has made the best moves possible to put players that fill roles and are young enough to be part of an extended championship run.

Ford without taking any consideration of the situation both GM’s have faced made an analysis that is false.  To criticize Ferry for failing to take advantage of the cap space he had would be fair, but certainly not for a flawed method in putting a team together.