While the whole Cleveland sporting world has been focused on the NFL draft, the Cavaliers have quietly gone home after a 21-45 season.

Their winning percentage of 31.8 was certainly better than that of the previous season (23.2 on 19 wins. 63 losses). But did the Cavs really improve from 2010-2011 to 2011-2012?

Statistically, the only two major categories that they showed a marked improvement season-to-season were rebounds per game (42.3 vs. 40.3) and steals per game (7.1 vs. 6.6). They advanced to the rear in assists per game (19.8 vs. 21.0) and turnovers per game (14.6 vs. 13.7), at least partially due to having a rookie at point guard.

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On a night when the Cleveland Browns made strides to improve their outlook, the Cleveland Cavaliers went into Chicago and did exactly what they needed to do to help theirs.  Byron Scott rested Kyrie Irving who has essentially locked up the Rookie of the Year award.  The Cavs lost by a final score of 107-75 and were thoroughly outmatched.  

Antawn Jamison played his final game for the Cavs.  Jamison was brought to Cleveland by Danny Ferry over two years ago in order to bolster a roster that had the best record two years in a row.  By the time it was all said and done, he played the majority of his Cavaliers career on a lottery team.  Jamison took 18 shots, made 4 of them, scored 12 points and looked like a high school senior on his last day of school in the process.  Antawn Jamison maybe got a raw deal in Cleveland.  He came here expecting one thing and got another.  He will be remembered for scoring a lot of points and taking a lot of bad shots.  He was a consummate professional in Cleveland off the court, but he will not be remembered as the “One that Got Away.”  

Anthony Parker also played what will probably be his last game for the Cavs.  Parker had an invisible 19:52 of playing time.  He was signed as a free agent in 2009 in order to provide some length around the perimeter so the Cavs could match-up better against the Magic  Just like Antawn Jamison, Parker came to Cleveland expecting one thing and found himself as a veteran leader on a lottery team.  

Antawn Jamison was not the only Cavalier to play as if he didn’t care about this game.   Overall, the team shot 32.2% from the field and only had 8 assists.  The only player who clearly played hard was rookie Tristan Thompson.  In his final game of his first year. Thompson scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.  The Bulls big men present a difficult match-up for a rookie and Thompson held his own.  

The Bulls went through the motions and still won by 32 points.  Once again, they played the Cavs without Derick Rose and they did not miss a beat.  The Bulls may not win a championship or even get out of the conference, but the Bulls are a very well-coached and deep team.  

Chicago moved the ball very well.  The Bulls had 29 assists compared to their 9 assists.  As I mentioned earlier, the Cavs only had 8 assists.  Whenever a team has 21 more assists than their competition, they are probably going to win by a lot of points.  The futility did not end on the offensive side of the ball.  Chicago had 60 rebounds compared to 38 for the Cavs.  Considering how much more efficient the Bulls were offensively and how many more rebounds they had than the Cavs, it is impressive that Cleveland lost by 32 points.  

Despite the wishes of many Cleveland fans, the Cavs missed the playoffs and an opportunity to play the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs.  The Bulls are a deep team that play very well as a cohesive unit.  It doesn’t matter if Derrick Rose is hurt when John Lucas III can come off the bench and score 25 points on only 16 shots.  In fact, the Bulls missed Derrick Rose for a large portion of the season and clinched the first overall seed.  In the meantime, Cleveland stumbled their way to the finish line and are tied with the New Orleans Hornets for the third worst record in the NBA.  The 2011-2012 Cavs were clearly not a playoff team.

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As another mostly lost Cleveland Cavaliers season comes to a close, I still can't shake the thought that it will be at least another 5 years, minimum, before the Cavs become really competitive and hence interesting again. And that's being aggressive about it. When a NBA team falls off the map, it's usually a 10-year rebuild, just ask Chicago once they finally lost Michael Jordan.

The real problem with NBA history in this regard is that it is so maddeningly consistent. For reasons which the NBA has yet to fully address, the sport with the least number of players is paradoxically the hardest sport for a franchise to turn itself around. Blame it on a combination of a playoff system that's too large, a salary cap that's too exception-ridden and an abiding bias by players against cold weather cities, among other things.

That's why, ultimately, fans still seethe about LeBron James. Had he not abandoned the Cavs, Dan Gilbert and the team he owns and loves would still be sitting in high cotton. Games would still be selling out and nobody would have to endure a game in which the locals field a team of D league refugees unless it was simply to rest the starters at the end of the regular season for another push to another championship.

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It was the Cavaliers’ home finale, and a dude named D.J. Kennedy led the team in scoring-- a fitting farewell, perhaps, to an exceedingly forgettable 2011-2012 season. On a brighter note, the 96-85 loss to the Wizards now puts Cleveland in a three-way tie for the third worst record in the NBA with one game to go. If you think Cavs fans love wearing those Varejao wigs, just imagine the excitement on Anthony Davis Unibrow Giveaway Night at the Q.

But of course, we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Obsessing over the NBA Draft isn’t proper decorum until the constant, pointless blabbering about the NFL Draft mercifully ends. So, on to the wrap-up of a basketball game devoid of intrigue.

Despite battling the flu earlier in the day, soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving started the game and helped push the Cavs (21-44) out to a 27-21 lead early. Kyrie was matched up against a guy who could be one of his main adversaries for years to come, John Wall. But unlike the last battle between these #1 overall picks, there’d be no real one-upsmanship on display. Irving (5 pts, 1 asst) took a seat 10 minutes into the game and never checked back in. Starters Antawn Jamison (10 pts, 4 rbs), Tristan Thompson (7 pts, 4 rbs), and Anthony Parker (4 pts) also played less than 20 minutes on the night, giving the hardcore Cleveland faithful the rare treat of big minutes from the likes of Luke Walton, Donald Sloan, Omri Casspi, and… D.J. Kennedy? Wait, who the hell is D.J. Kennedy? 

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