I really can’t blame Byron Scott at all for the pathetic record we’ve seen from the Cavs for the past several years. The team went in major rebuilding mode and suffered a constant stream of injuries.
Something must have gone wrong behind the scenes. Kyrie Irving and other young players have developed, but maybe the chemistry between Kyrie and Scott wasn’t really there.
Let’s see what Chris Grant and Dan Gilbert have in mind. The team is poised with a lottery pick and the Lakers pick to grab more talent, and they should be targeting a veteran as well. The time is now for this team to compete, so we’ll see who they bring in as the new coach.
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The Cavs under Chris Grant certainly can be unpredictable, but that’s also a reflection of how the media narrows in a several potential scenarios in the draft.
The Cavs went with Dion Waiters with the fourth pick, leaving Harrison Barnes on the board. Then, they traded the rest of their picks in order to snag #17 selection Tyler Zeller.
If you look closely at both picks, you’ll begin to under stand what the Cavs are trying to do. The Cavs reportedly went after Bradley Beal but then chose Waiters. They obviously wanted an athletic 2-guard that could get to the rim and create his own shot who could compliment Kyrie. It’s critical to have multiple players who can slash to the rim in the Princeton offense, and not they can add Waiters to the mix with Kyrie and Alonzo Gee.
With Zeller, the Cavs fill an important need at center, so both Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao can go back to their natural position of power forward for the majority of their minutes. More importantly, Zeller runs the floor very well, and the Cavs clearly want to run with Irving and Waiters. Zeller won’t be a dominant player, but he also gives them another scoring option in the half-court game as Zeller plays well with his back to the basket. So the Cavs will be able to run while also keeping size on the floor. Imagine a rotation when you have Irving, Waiters, Gee, Thompson and Zeller on the floor. This unit can run with any team in the league, but can also match up with size in the half court. It could be very fun to watch.
I have no idea if Waiters was the right pick at #4. In today’s NBA, you’re picking kids with very limited resumes and you have to project out their skills to the NBA game. Remember last year when many pundits complained about Kyrie’s lack of experience at Duke? That said, Waiters avoided doing workouts, so there’s clearly some risk here with this pick.
But we can see what the Cavs are trying to do. Players need to fit together in a system, and it looks like Waiters and Zeller could be great fits with Kyrie and the system being run by Byron Scott.
Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports is no fan of LeBron James. He has made that clear with some scathing articles on LeBron and his posse over the past several weeks. His criticisms are often legitimate, as LeBron has shown that he’s a spoiled egomaniac who crumbled under the pressure this year in the playoffs.
That said, LeBron is one of the most significant talents in NBA history. Whether he achieves the highest levels of greatness remains to be seen, but we all know the NBA is built around star players, and LeBron still has the potential to grow up and become one of the greats.
With that in mind, here’s Adrian’s take on the Danny Ferry situation.
What’s been lost for the Cavaliers is the strong, steady leadership they had with Ferry and coach Mike Brown. Gilbert was honest with Ferry: He wanted to take back control and involve himself with everything again. Before Ferry was hired as GM, it wasn’t uncommon for Gilbert to pass notes to the bench for substitutions he wanted Paul Silas to make. Ferry had come out of San Antonio, and believed an orderly structure made for successful, winning organizations.
“LeBron never had to come out and say that he wanted Brown and Ferry gone,” one front-office executive familiar with the Cavs’ dynamic said. “But the anti-Brown and anti-Ferry sentiment from LeBron’s crowd was loud and clear to Dan Gilbert. He knew where LeBron stood.”
Ferry convinced Gilbert to step back, let him do his job. But more and more, the owner’s impulsive need to inject himself into everything took over the franchise. Most of all, Gilbert had become the biggest enabler of LeBron James and his inner circle, and that only promises to get worse. Ferry never loved the players’ pregame skits, the hiring of James’ buddies, the associates’ riding on the team plane, but Gilbert seldom said no to anything. He behaved like the permissive parent who believed his kid would love him more if he spoiled him rotten. And it got the Cavs a superstar, James, who never respected anyone and a cast of associates who had the run of the place. Had James wanted Ferry to still be the GM, Gilbert would’ve backed down and Ferry would have a new contract.
“Danny’s been miserable for the past two years,” a friend of his told Yahoo! Sports. “Even if they kept LeBron, do you still lose for winning there anyway?”
Ferry fought to retain Brown, but Gilbert, a staunch Michigan State man, is determined to hire away Tom Izzo. Unless James tells him he wants John Calipari, and then they’ll hire John Calipari. As much as anything, the Cavaliers are giving the franchise completely over to James and his inner circle now. Whatever he wants to stay, he’ll get. Now, Ferry isn’t there to play the wet blanket anymore. He never feared fighting Gilbert on issues because he had stature, money and, truth be told, he didn’t need the job.
I think he’s being too tough on Dan Gilbert. Has Gilbert enabled LeBron, his ego and his posse? Of course he has, but you have little choice in the NBA to do that with a star of LeBron’s caliber. Ferry may not have liked it, but the San Antonio model is tough to replicate entirely – they have a superstar who doesn’t have much of an ego. That’s very rare.
What Adrian doesn’t address is that Mike Brown was LeBron’s biggest enabler. Sure, he turned LeBron into a defensive player, but he had little control over LeBron during the games. He never disciplined LeBron for taking idiotic 3-pointers at critical points in the game without setting up the offense. LeBron ran the show, so the decision to get a new coach is one of the few things Gilbert could do to possibly control LeBron. Also, Brown’s performance in the playoffs was terrible this year. If Ferry was going to side with Brown, I don’t blame Gilbert for moving on.
Also, an owner who invests this much money has to have a team approach to the roster. He is putting up millions to get over the hump, and a GM needs to be on board with that. Ferry’s notion of total control make little sense in a setting where Gilbert is paying huge amounts in luxury tax money.
In the end, Gilbert is doing the right thing in trying to keep LeBron. Brown and Ferry are dispensable.
We all know that Delonte West won’t be back in Cleveland next season. Putting aside the off-court rumors, Delonte was inconsistent last season and his contract makes him a very valuable commodity to teams looking to dump salary, given the $500,000 buyout clause.
The real issue involves Mo Williams. Brian Windhorst is reporting that the Cavs are exploring Mo’s trade value and are open to trading him.
That shouldn’t be a surprise givens Mo’s struggles on defense and in the playoffs. Naturally, it’s hard to figure out where the Cavs are heading without word on LeBron’s decision, but it seems clear that Dan Gilbert and new GM Chris Grant are looking to shake things up. It’s going to be an interesting summer.
UPDATE:Bob Finnan has some interesting tidbits on possible moves.
If the Cavs decide to trade Mo Williams, one possible destination could be Toronto in exchange for Jose Calderon. Williams is a more dynamic scorer and Calderon is more of a distributor. Both are great free-throw shooters, but neither player is a good defender.
Their contracts are similar in amount and length. The Raptors would like to move Calderon and swingman Hedo Turkoglu.
I wonder if the Cavs would be interested in Hedo Turkoglu? He’s another scorer and ball-handler who could compliment LeBron.
The photo above shows Danny Ferry in happier times, joking around with Shaquille O’Neal as he is introduced to the Cleveland media during a news conference at the Cavaliers’ practice facility last year.
The O’Neal experiment didn’t lead to a title, but I won’t say that Danny Ferry’s move didn’t work. The Cavs were favored to win it heading into the playoffs, and Ferry and O’Neal can’t be blamed for the LeBron James meltdown.
Unfortunately, things still didn’t work as planned, and Ferry surprisingly resigned today. I didn’t expect this, though when reading the article the reasons became a little more clear.
Ferry still wanted control of the roster, and he argued to keep Mike Brown. Dan Gilbert probably wanted a little more input, and he certainly didn’t want to keep Brown. In that respect he made the right move letting Ferry go. Ferry made some good moves, and he made some mistakes. But he put together a team that should have won it all.
I wasn’t aware of this, but the Cavs have an assistant GM in Chris Grant who is more than ready to step up and take Ferry’s place. At least there will be come continuity as the Cavs face the most important off-season in team history.
