Despite last two games, the future still looks good

The Cavaliers were officially eliminated from the playoffs on Wednesday last week, and then the bottom kind of fell out. They were subsequently beaten by the worst team in the NBA in Milwaukee, and then blown out at home by the 25-win Celtics.

After that game against Boston on Saturday, Mike Brown was asked whether or not his team had mailed in the season. His answer (via Ryan Lewis) was, "I don't know." Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

For fans, it is frustrating to watch our favorite team give up like this. We'd obviously prefer that they act like the professionals that they are and at least pretend to care about the outcome of games, even with the postseason out of reach. Their performance these last two games was nothing short of embarrassing.

That does not mean, however, that this is a "complete joke of a franchise," which is what former play-by-play man Michael Reghi called them on Saturday.

I get that there is a lot of frustration here, and nobody should be satisfied with how this season played out. But let's be real about this. It is really hard to go from being bad to good in the NBA. I mean, this is a league that is known for its lack of parity compared to other professional leagues.

While progress has not come as quickly as we would have hoped, it isn't as though there has been no progress at all. This team won 19 games in 2010-2011. They have won 32 this season. They were last in the league in opponent field goal percentage just last season. They are 12th in the league this season. There should be absolutely no question that this is still a team on its way up.

It was a mistake for Dan Gilbert to guarantee that his team would not be back in the lottery this summer, and it was an even bigger mistake for us all to believe him. Going from being terrible to being a playoff team isn't easy, even in this very mediocre conference.

Michael Reghi is entitled to his opinion. I just worry that the outrage from more casual fans will put pressure on Gilbert to, once again, completely revamp the organization. Franchises that reinvent themselves every few years rarely find the success that they are looking for.

Gilbert initially fired Brown in 2010 so that he could hire a more offensive-minded coach with playing experience (mostly because that's what he thought LeBron would want). Then, he fired Byron Scott after last season because the team's defense was horrible. He brought back Brown, and he actually did improve the defense. But would anybody be surprised if he's fired again in favor of another offensive-minded guy? How many times is Gilbert going to go back and forth on this?

(This is the part where I need to make it clear that I am in no way endorsing bringing back Mike Brown next season simply for the sake of continuity. I thought it was a mistake to re-hire him in the first place, although I did eventually talk myself into it. If he does come back, I'm sure I could talk myself into it again, but that's not necessarily my preference.)

Despite everything that they've done wrong in the post-Decision years, this is still a franchise with a ton of upside. They are not a complete joke. Would any of us want to trade places with the Kings? Jazz? 76ers? Bucks?

The Cavaliers at least have their franchise point guard. Yes, he needs to mature, but I'm no longer going to even entertain the idea that they shouldn't be building around him. They also seem to have something in Dion Waiters (and by "something" I mostly mean a very a valuable trade asset). Hopefully Anthony Bennett becomes something as well, and hopefully they hit on their lottery pick this summer (or flip it for another piece).

When all is said and done, the future still seems very bright. They have the assets to make the necessary improvements this summer, Gilbert just needs to decide who will be making those improvements (I'm probably alright with keeping David Griffin). If they play everything well, they should be a playoff team next season.

It's been very slow, incremental progress, but that's still better than the alternative.