It didn't take long for the ax to fall. One day after the Cleveland Cavaliers failed to make the playoffs for the first time in the last seven years, the club announced that they had fired GM Jim Paxson.

The Cavs finished the season with a 42-40 record, tied for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference but lost out to the New Jersey Nets on tie breakers.

Cleveland slumped badly down the stretch this year. The team was 31-21 on February 25 but finished the year 11-19 despite having the game's most exciting young player in LeBron James.

The Cavs are also under new ownership which didn't help Paxson's chances of keeping his job. Coach Paul Silas was let go in March. On March 1, Dan Gilbert became the club's majority owner after buying the club from Gordon Gund.

'We felt the team had made progress in the past two years,' Gilbert said when he announced Paxson's dismissal. 'But to get to a championship level we felt we needed to bring our own people in.'

Just who those people might be remains open to speculation.