CLEVELAND TEAMS

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.