Category: Cleveland Cavaliers (Page 83 of 88)

Reports are that Danny Ferry has agreed to a contract to be the next Cavs GM. Hal Lebowitz reported yesterday that Ferry was holding out to make sure he had final say on all personel matters for the Cavs. These details were ironed out and the announcement will be made shortly.

Where does this leave Larry Brown? According to Lebowitz, the Cavs will still pursue Brown to be team president, but Brown is OK with Ferry having final say on personel decisions. Brown would be more of a consultant and he would not be living in Cleveland. He would fly in for games and would give most of his input by telephone.

Under this scenario it would make a ton of sense to bring Brown into the mix. He would be an excellent resource for Danny Ferry and new coach Mike Brown. Things are finally falling into place. I expect Ferry to hit the ground running to rebuild this team around LeBron. It should be an interesting summer.

UPDATE – FERRY IN, BROWN OUT

At today’s news conference announcing the hiring of Danny Ferry as GM, owner Dan Gilbert stated that Larry Brown is no longer a candidate for team president, citing health concerns.

LeBron James said last week that he’d like to have some input on how the Cavs spend their free agent money. That makes sense to me. Frankly, anything Lebron wants makes sense to me. First, the Cavs have to make him happy, but more importantly, he is a student of the game and would be a very valuable resource.

That said, Brian Windhorst makes a great point when he explains that LeBron will also need to be a big part of the recruiting process. He has to help the team convince free agents to come to Cleveland, and he’s much more apt to do this if he buys into the decision making process. Let’s hope that Dan Gilbert doesn’t waste too much time getting a GM in place. Reports have Danny Ferry poised to become GM, but they were unable to finalize Ferry’s contract. I’m not sure what to make of this. Hopefully it’s just a matter of ironing out details with Ferry’s agent. If Gilbert loses Ferry, things will certainly appear to be out of control, and that will be a real problem now that the free agency is about to get started.

Hi name usually brings back terrible memories for Cavs fans as they consider the infamous trade that sent Ron Harper packing years ago. You can’t blame Danny Ferry for that deal, but many fans resented him as his salary hung like an anchor for years on this franchise. Now, to his credit, it appears that Dan Gilbert is not letting this history stop him from considering Ferry as his next GM. Everyone seems to think this is a done deal, and frankly it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. He’s still very young, but he’s had the benefit of being a part of the best organization in basketball. It would also reunite Ferry with Mike Brown. Let’s see what happens.

Well, Cavs fans are going to have to wait a while longer to find out if Larry Brown will become the team’s new president. Brown’s Pistons pulled out a grueling 88-82 win over the Miami Heat Monday night and will now face the Spurs in the NBA Finals.

ESPN Insider is reporting that the Cavs are trying to get back in this year’s first round of the draft:

“The Cavs should have the 13th pick in the draft this year. However, they foolishly dropped their lottery protection on the pick they owed Charlotte so that they could send their 2007 first-rounder to Boston for Jiri Welsch. That worked out.

Now owner Dan Gilbert is trying to get back in the draft. They team has no draft picks to dangle, but the Cavs are offering teams their choice of Sasha Pavlovic or Welsch in return for a mid first-round pick. Given the number of teams in that area ? Clippers, Celtics, Grizzlies ? that are willing to deal out of the first round, it appears they might get their wish.”

Say what you want about Gilbert, but it’s hard to criticize his decision to let Paxson go. The Jiri Welsh move was a joke. Hopefully they’ll be able to salvage something out of it, though I’d much ather see Welsch traded instead of Pavlovic.