Looking back at the career of Joey Albert Belle , nothing Porter JR did here in his brief stay in Cleveland can compare to all the antics Belle did in both his minor league career and with the Tribe yet the Team never gave up on him.
I'm going to preface this by saying my starting point is that everything we've been told here about the Cavs and KPJ is factual. So starting from there....
Belle did whatever he was told to do after one of his incidents to get back in the good graces of the league/organization. So if he was told to go to anger management -- which happened more than once -- he went. And that was his pattern: screw up, accept his punishment/mandatory counseling, and return.
That's exactly what KPJ refused to do. Every time he'd fuck up, the Cavs would give him something he was supposed to do, like anger management classes, which is typical around the league. KPJ simply refused do any of it. When Cavs coaches, FO, and players all tried to contact the guy at home to get him involved in some activities even before he screwed up, he just kept saying "no". The Cavs could have had the best support system in the league set up, but if KPJ refuses to meet with anyone, it's worthless.
It's pretty apparent that KPJ refused to accept any accountability/responsibility for his actions in the off-season, and likewise refused to accept help that was offered. And because this was all happening in the offseason, simply imposing a suspension wasn't going to cut it because there weren't any games being played anyway. It was just blatant defiance for which he refused to accept any responsibility. And whatever
else he he was doing in terms of his interactions with the team and/or offseason conduct that we didn't hear about, it apparently was bad enough that other players wanted him gone.
So why did it work in Houston? Well, one answer could be "they had a better support system there". Of course, he apparently did more or less fine with whatever support system the Cavs had in the 19-20 season, so I think it's unfair to assume the Cavs' support system was flawed.
I think it's more simple than just looking at the support system, though. Because he was going to a new team that was going to give him a "fresh start", Houston didn't ever hold him accountable for his offseason misconduct, and that was exactly what he'd wanted all along. Do what he wants, not be held accountable, then just play the game. He couldn't do that with the Cavs because he'd done it all on their watch, and they had to hold him accountable. The Rockets didn't so....he won. He wanted to engage in unacceptable behavior without any team consequences, and that's what he got.
I suppose the Cavs could have tried the approach of just letting him get away with all of it, and not holding him accountable at all. Let him mouth off to coaches, or FO guys, or whomever, and just ignore it because of his talent. If that would have been the cost of keeping KPJ, then I'm glad we didn't.