If you haven't heard by now (you probably shouldn't be reading this blog), but LeBron James is leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. This is a huge blow to the franchise as a whole, and Gilbert's claim that the Cavaliers will win a championship, not just before the Heat, but a championship at all anywhere in the near future, is not just unfounded, but also insane.
Right now the Cavs are stuck with a few bad contracts that made sense when you had LeBron, because they were excellent complementary pieces, but without LeBron, really don't make any sense being on the team. In my opinion, the Cavs should blow it up. Forget winning for a little bit and focus on the long-term.
Antawn Jamison ($28 million for next two seasons) and Mo Williams ($26 million for next 3 seasons) need to go. Anderson Varejao is a very good defender (really quite excellent, even with the flopping) but he'll be 28 next year and his very expensive deal runs through the 2014/15 season (although that season is unguaranteed). He probably needs to go to. This team needs to focus on acquiring young talent and assets with these pieces. They have some cap space now (more if they officially waive Delonte West as they should), and a nice Trade Exception from the LeBron sign-and-trade.
Jamison most likely would have to be a straight salary dump, just like how he was traded to Cleveland. A contender looking to take that extra step might think adding a vet like Jamison could help them (although he was pretty atrocious in the playoffs for the Cavs. But that's ok.
Williams has a little bit more value because he's still relatively young (will be 28 next year). The best comparison I can find for a player like Williams is Mike Bibby (then age 29), who the Kings dealt to the Atlanta Hawks for Anthony Johnson, Tyronn Lue (waived right after the trade), Shelden Williams, Lorenzen Wright, and a 2008 2nd round draft pick (which became Sean Singletary, never made the team). Not good value right? The Kings waited a tad too long. But what it did do is rid them of Bibby's contract (not dissimilar from Williams own) and the only player that wasn't an expiring contract coming back to them was Shelden Williams, who they still believed had some potential. But even though he didn't, losing Bibby's salary gave the Kings flexibility. The Cavs need to do this as well, and they might be able to score a nice piece to go along with it.
The road back to respectability is going to be a long one for the Cavaliers, and it will be an adjustment for the fans to get use to losing ways again, but they can come back if they play it smart, and trying to win on the fly isn't the right way. Break it down, and then build it back up. That's the way to go.
Excellent site/post.
ReplyDeleteMore unsolicited advice. I'd get rid of the "Writing about men who..." It's a throwaway joke that makes the site seem cheap. It should be thrown away.
Thanks RMJ, I was souring on it anyway. I'm gonna wait till I think of something better.
ReplyDeleteThey have a bunch of junk that won't get them anywhere. When you're in a situation like that, you need to make trades where you're upgrading your talent. If I were the Cavs, I'd look to acquire Minnesota's top pick for the upcoming season (they have to be the favorite for the #1 at this point), and Danny Granger from the Pacers. The Pacers have been going nowhere fast and they might need to blow things up. I don't know what the price on those pieces will be but the Cavs have some decent pieces, as you noted. If you can get them both, you have two lottery picks and an All-Star and your team is on the road to something good, even if you have to take back some bad contracts for a while.
ReplyDeleteThe Cavs have some nice pieces, but not pieces good enough to land them Minnesota's Lotto pick next year and Danny Granger. Last year Indiana turned down Granger for Al Jefferson. The Cavs have nobody on their team nearly as talented as Al Jefferson. The type of trades the Cavs are likely to make will have to be talent-loss, flexibilty and asset gain kind of trades.
ReplyDeleteWell, at this point, who knows what its gonna take to get Minny's #1. Some magic beans maybe. And if you can't pry Granger from the Pacers, maybe they'd have some better luck getting David West from the Hornets?
ReplyDelete