How Grant, Cavs botched the Thunder's blueprint

The Cavaliers as they exist today are an underachieving and disorderly team. The dismissal of Grant may ultimately have had less to do with the players he

Ian Thomsen | Feb 7, 2014

How Grant, Cavs botched the Thunder's blueprint /

Ex-Cavs GM Chris Grant (right) was put in the undesirable position of having top picks in weak drafts. — Ex-Cavs GM Chris Grant (right) was put in the undesirable position of having top picks in weak drafts :: Mark Duncan/AP

The Cavaliers as they exist today are an underachieving and disorderly team. The dismissal of Grant may ultimately have had less to do with the players he chose than with the way he developed them once he had them.

Spencer Hawes leads the 76ers in rebounds per game (8.7) and three-point shooting (41.1 percent). — Spencer Hawes leads the 76ers in rebounds per game (8.7) and three-point shooting (41.1 percent) :: Sam Forencich/NBAE/Getty Images

* = Eastern All-Stars

Published Feb 7, 2014

IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.