CLEVELAND TEAMS

Photo from fOTOGLIF

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.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

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.