Kenny Roda will be writing a weekly blog on Cleveland Scores covering the entire Cleveland sports universe. Check back often for his updates!
The NBA’s second season, known as the playoffs, has brought joy and pain to Cavalier fans everywhere. Expectations were high this year. Making the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons and securing home-court advantage for at least one round were reasonable goals at the start of the season. LeBron and the Cavaliers did both. Win a playoff series and give “The King” valuable playoff experience? Check those off the list as well. Shock the NBA world by upsetting this year’s favorite to win the NBA title, the Detroit Pistons? Well that’s where the pain part comes in.
The Cavaliers held a 3-2 series lead over the Pistons after stealing Game 5 in Motown and set up a golden opportunity for the city of Cleveland to celebrate an upset of major proportions and do so on their home floor in Game 6. The script was written. LeBron James, in his first playoffs, would lead a late fourth quarter charge at “The Q” and the Pistons would be history, while the Cavs would make history in front of their hometown fans. One problem. Well, actually, there were a number of problems. Never underestimate the heart of a champion. You can’t give up four offensive rebounds to Detroit in the final minute of a closeout game. Mike Brown, the rookie coach, failed to use a timeout to draw up a game-tying play for the world’s best player.
You lose the home-court advantage you stole from Detroit. Then you go and get pounded on their court in Game 7 and it is vacation time for the players, as well as more pain and disappointment for the fans of C-Town.
But even though that was the way the Cavaliers’ season came to an end, it was a season in which LeBron James and the rest of the team grew and got better. And they did so without having their key free-agent acquisition, Larry Hughes, for over 40 games. Hughes was supposed to be Robin to LeBron’s Batman and even though that dynamic duo rarely played together, the Cavs still found a way to win 50 games and reach the goals we stated earlier. Now it’s time for General Manager Danny Ferry to go to work and make this team even better in the offseason.
Ferry will have to decide on whether to keep unrestricted free agent Flip Murray and/or restricted free agent Drew Gooden. Who does he spend his $5.3 million mid-level exception on? Does he spend that on one player or two? What about the biannual exception of $1.8 million? Who gets that? With the 25th pick in the June 28th NBA draft, will Ferry find a point guard that this team desperately needs, or does he go after a power forward?
Can he find a diamond in the rough in the second round of the draft with picks 42 and 55? Will that diamond come from France, Italy or Greece, similar to how the Spurs, his former team, found key players? Is there a big trade out there waiting to happen? Will free agents want to come to play with LeBron? Ferry will be very busy and needs to make the right decisions in order to make LeBron happy because the superstar is eligible to sign a contract extension on July 1, 2006. Ferry has already told me they will offer that max contract of 5 years and about $75 million as soon as they are permitted to. Will LeBron accept it, or play out next season and become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2006-2007 season?
So many questions with very few answers at this time. However, if Ferry is able to convince LeBron to sign the extension and the Cavaliers find a few answers to those questions, the pain of the way this season ended will be forgotten. The future for Cleveland could be full of so much joy for the King and his court that it could make up for all those years of futility that included “The Catch” by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series, Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, Jose Mesa…well you get the idea! All Hail the King! Please stay!
Lets hope Danny Ferry does a better job as the General Manager then he did as a player for the Cavs. It would suck if he screwed up the organization twice!
23 King – That’s a pretty cheap shot at Ferry. He’s already done a decent job as GM. The aquisition of Flip Murray saved the season.
That said, I’ll be very surprised if Murray returns. He’s a solid player, but he probably won’t be worth the money some other franchise will throw his way.
As for Gooden, I like him as well, but again I’d be surprised if he stays. You have to think we can do better with the mid-level exemption.
I wasn’t aware of the bi-annual $1.8 million exemption. That could really help as well.
Everyone knows what we need – more help at point guard and some more toughness at the 4 position, along with some serious outside shooting. Let’s see what Danny can do.
Kenny,,,,,,,,,,,,,,on Friday ,with 18 fouls on the end of the bench, why didn’t we sent Ben to the line the entire forth quarter? One of two things happen…….he goes oh-4 as we know he can do or Flipper pulls him and thier defense suffers and we get to the hoop?
Cameron could have called that one!!!!
Kenny….I think you definitely think you hit the nail on the head with your assessment of the Cavs need to hire an offensive driven assistant to help Coach Mike Brown. What do you make of maybe Austin Carr as a possibilty?Listening to A.C. do analysis with Micheal Reghi on T.V. 43 he shows his passion and love for wanting the Cavs to take it to the next level.Another former Cavalier Jimmy Cleamons sat next to Phil Jackson on the Chicago Bench during their Championship Run.Austin Carr might be a positve influence on Lebron James and the Cavs offensive scheme .Curious to hear what you think.Listen to your show all the time, WilloLee
It may be a cheap shot at Ferry, but sorry the truth hurts. All the pressure is now Ferry to deliver the right players to put around LeBron so in the next game #7 they play in his teamates don’t shoot 9 for 41 or whatever it was.
Kenny, thought I would add my two cents to your blog…I think it’s a great idea, by the way. I like your show, but sometimes it is tough to get through or even listen at the times I would like! Anyhow, what the Cavs might be able to do this summer through the draft, free agency and ultimately trades, fascinates me. Nevertheless, it should be an active summer for the Cavs and now, an exciting one, based on their great showing this year. I guarantee if you would have asked 100 Cavs fans, including yourself, when the year started, if they would be happy with a 2nd round exit, winning 3 games against the Pistons and winning the 1st Round in 6 games, 95 of them would have been thrilled. As much as we complain about Z, Gooden and Snow, etc., this team definitely overachieved, with a 21 year old superstar and a bunch of other non-superstars. Overall, Mike Brown did a good job of running the team and putting them in a position to win on a night-to-night basis. As with any coach, especially a rookie coach, there are goign to be things to question and criticise, but overall did a better job of coaching than anyone has with the Cavs over the past 8-10 years.
Now, onto more important things, what is your opinion on ways they might be able to go with trades and getting themselves an inside presence and a solid starting point guard. Believe it or not, I really do like an Eric Snow as your backup point guard, he brings that experience and character to this team, that they still need. He stepped up on numerous occasions during the playoffs and was solid. He is better suited for the backup PG position. Also, assuming LeBron, Varejao and Hughes are untouchables, you also have Z, who is untradeable (with his contract) and probably Marshall and Newble who are locked in with the Cavs, based on their contracts and lack of trade value. i still do like Marshall, as well as your Sixth Man and backup C/PF, he is still a great shooter when left uncovered and adds the character and leadership this team needs. So, that leaves you six open roster spots and a gaping hole at PF and PG, both staring positions. Any idea of what kind of contract Andre Miller has in Denver…would they be willing to deal him? Also, any other PG’s or PF’s out there, who might be on the market for trades. The free agent market of PF’s sounds extremely weak and I would agree with the SI guy from yesterday’s show that Gooden is a better option than any of them. What about a Sign and trade deal for either Gooden or Flip Murray, those seem to be the two guys who might have some trade value and at the same time, could attract some talent.
Any thoughts?
Kenny, Ive been listening to your show for years and just finished listening to the roundtable with Windhorst and Reghi. You guys did a great job going over all things Cavs. One thing I’ve been thinking about that has yet to be brought up is the fact that moving Z will require a a team to have a large “risk” contract that they want to move. Everyone saw that Z was not very helpful in the big games that count. A guy that we might be able to get that has upside and a lot of risk is Baron Davis. G.S. is probably looking to move him and his contract because they have to resign Pietrus and have Baron’s replacement in Monta Ellis. They have a defensive center in Foyle and could use a scorer in the middle. Baron has 3 years left on his deal and Z has 4 left on his. If we add a Jones or Pavlovic in the deal or the trade exception we have, I think it could be a good deal for both teams.