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Mark Price & Brad Daugherty: The Great Cavs Tandem before LeBron and Kyrie | Disregarded Duos by FPP



The Cleveland Cavaliers began their NBA existence in 1970 and employed some early greats such as an aging Nate Thurmond, Austin Carr and World B. Free. Unfortunately their biggest claim to fame in the beginning was the guy running the team, Ted Stepien, whose love for trading away first round picks inspired the creation of the “Stepien Rule”. But in 1986, the Cavs had a dream draft and acquired swingman Ron Harper, point guard Mark Price and Center Brad Daugherty, with the latter of the two becoming franchise legends and forming a great inside – outside and transition tandem. The Cavs started slow, but with the acquisition of all star Larry Nance and development of guys like Craig Ehlo and John “Hot Rod” Williams, they became one of the premier team’s in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. In 8 years, Price and Daugherty helped lead the Cavs to 6 playoff appearances and a conference final in 1992, while being selected to 4 and 5 all star games respectively.

It seemed that they had plateau’d as no matter how hard they tried they always found themselves losing to Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs, but then you also wonder how good they could have been if Price and Daugherty wouldn’t have missed major time in back to back seasons and Daugherty wouldn’t ultimately have had to retire from a chronic back injury in his prime at just 28 years old. This team as a whole is one of the forgotten teams in NBA history as they never had a true superstar, but did have 3 all stars in the same year on two separate occasions. Price’s 3 point shooting accuracy and volume, which would see him win two straight three point shootouts in the mid 90s, was so ahead of his time to the point that you could compare his shooting game to Steph Curry, and this was the perfect complement to Daugherty’s phenomenal inside post game and touch around the basket.

Recency bias has everyone remembering LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as the only great Cavs duo, but as many know before LeBron and Kyrie; there was Price and Daugherty…

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/pricema01.html
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/daughbr01.html

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12 Comments

  1. This 90’s team was so balanced and promising! Imagine having Larry Nance, Hot Rod Williams, Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Craig Ehlo, and Ron Harper all on the same team! Gritty, smart, full of talent, and clutch shooting when needed. Just sad that that MJ and the Bulls were in the same conference. Otherwise, Cleveland would definitely have multiple championships. Magic Johnson once called these Cavs the team of the 90’s.

  2. Keep the content coming man, there's massive growth for this channel coming right around the corner

  3. the Harper for Ferry trade was a bad deal made om part because they felt Harper was hanging with a bad crowd. Also the KJ for Nance trade was a rare deal that worked out great for both teams

  4. This channel single handedly has the absolute best basketball content! And it's not really even close!

  5. Some teams or players just have your number sadly this Cavs was just built for the Bulls to defeat Jordan feasted on their backcourt and the Bulls team d shut their best players down everytime they faced

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