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I think you're giving too much credit too
West, and not enough credit to
Mark Price or
Larry Nance. Or
Daugherty. He was a good center, and the best player from that draft to see any NBA time.
KJ was better than Price, but not by a whole lot. They put up a competitive team in the east against the likes of Jordan's Bulls and Isiah's Pistons. Championships are hard to come by. They made a push and came up short. There have been many, many, many worst deals than the Nance one. They paid a little more than value, but sometimes you have to.
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I'll admit that my view of the trade is slightly askew as I was living in Phoenix at the time. That trade (along with the Tom Chambers signing) turned the entire franchise around. And after looking at his numbers, I'm not really giving Nance enough credit for the player he was. I had always remembered him as being "the best player on a bad team"; kind of like Mitch Richmond with the Kings.
I still think taking Daugherty ahead of Bias was a bad decision (although it obviously worked out better for them) and that they gave up too much for Nance. But I do see your point that they were in "win now" mode, and those Cleveland teams were very good. They just couldn't handle the Pistons and the Bulls, like you said. Thanks for pointing out to me that Nance was indeed a very good player, and not just a slam dunk champ / best player on a bad team.