Links to the Present: Hurry up and Wait Edition
2013-07-03
Not much news on the free agency front. According to Sam Amico, Chris Grant is being extremely tight lipped, and asking players and agents to do the same. Here’s a live chat Amico ran earlier today. Lots of non-news there. The general trend? Be patient. The Cavs aren’t going to throw money at mediocre players.
Belying that thought, free agent forward, Earl Clark, will meet with the Cavs again on Wednesday. The interest is “mutual.”
As Bob Finnan of the News-Herald, remarks, “The Cavaliers might be trying to corner the market on power forwards.” Hey, it helped the Rockets get James Harden last year. It’s not the worst strategy in the world.
Power Combo forward, Anthony Bennett got the key to the city in his hometown of Brampton, Ontario, Monday.
Cavs.com has the video of Bennett’s arrival in Cleveland and the Cavs practice facility for the first time.
The rumor du jour is that Cleveland is interested in Chauncey Billups. You know, the Chauncey Billups who posted a 15 PER last year, shot .402/.367/.938 from the field last year, and was a shell of himself in the playoffs? Regular season Chauncey would be an o.k. backup, I guess. I’ll avoid the obvious joke about the fork sticking out of his back. I’m betting he ends up in New York.
Yesterday on WKNR, Cleveland’s the Really Big Show, the Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd stopped by to talk about the Cavs’ discussions with Greg Oden and Andrew Bynum. Listen here. (Also, there’s a cool Omar Vizquel interview there, for all you Tribe fans).
Wages of Wins has a fun Cavs inspired piece about the history of teams with two No. 1 draft picks on their team.
Checking in with Dion… After a full day of running his basketball camp, Dion worked hard last night with his trainer, Chuck Ellis. I like pics like this. Nothin’ to do but to keep grindin’, Dion. I’m betting on a dull holiday weekend when it comes to Cavaliers’ news. Happy Independence Day, everyone.
@ Tom Howard not being a melodramatic drama queen for 5 years of a contract is impossible to imagine. He’s probably going to get more prone to injury (like everyone else on the planet) as he ages. As you stated, he already has a lot of miles on him. The backend of that deal could be bad. Howard destroyed two separate locker rooms in the past two seasons. He’s not built for LA. He’s better off going to Houston where they don’t give a shit how the Rockets do and Harden can do the heavy lifting at the end of… Read more »
Rumor has it we’re in the mix for Copeland as well. So let’s see, if we signed both he and Earl Clark (unlikely), that would give us 6, conceivably 7 PF’s: Andy TT Bennett Clark Copeland Kevin Jones Zeller is probably more 4 than 5 also. The two biggest FA’s we’ve chased? Love and Aldridge. If Bron comes back, he’ll also man the 4 for large stretches. All of those guys can play multiple positions with the exception of Jones, so maybe this is some crazy new hybrid bigman strategy. Either CG is mad genius, or the Bizarro version of… Read more »
@Cory
Howard staying healthy is tough to imagine? Before his back injury his last season in ORL he was the healthiest big man ever. I’m serious he played 5 full seasons (82 games) 78 games and 79 games and broke 3,000 mins three times.
The Lakers cap space isn’t as nice as people make it sound. To get 50 million they have to rescind bird rights to Pau and Kobe, otherwise their cap holds prevent them from signing anyone.
Also, I’ve wondered why Billups wasn’t being persued by the Cavs. Perfect fit as a mentor for Kyrie, IMO..won’t need a ton of minutes, defensive pedigree, winner.
Great articles Underdog, the morphing lineup would be a great experiment.
Bynum will get a max offer from the Cavs. Book it.
One more lineup related article:
http://www.fearthesword.com/2013/6/28/4476248/my-take-on-anthony-bennett-from-a-big-nerlens-noel-fan
On a different subject . . .
We’re all wondering, with the drafting of Bennett, “what in the world is our lineup going to look like?” I’m attaching a blog that has an intriguing answer that makes a lot of sense. If you are a little patient with the writer’s style, you may get a glimpse into the future of basketball –
http://www.fearthesword.com/2013/6/29/4476780/a-team-without-a-lineup
Lebron to the Knicks or Brooklyn isn’t happening and a S&T is off the table because both will be over the cap. The only team other than Cleveland that Lebron could leave Miami for is the Lakers. They are going to have $50 million in cap room and 40 year-old Steve Nash if Dwight leaves. If Howard stays, they’ll have $30 million in cap room, Dwight Howard and 40 year-old Steve Nash. 2014 is a good free agent class but a lot of those guys are old (Pau, Granger, Randolph, Duncan, Kobe, Dirk), play the same position as Lebron (Deng,… Read more »
Well Pihc, don’t tell me LeBron’s not coming back. I don’t really care. Tell the Cavs front office.
I prefer a “healthy” Andy over any of the other the centers we’re pursuing. And I wouldn’t pursue any if we knew he’d be healthy. BUT. Agree with JHill totally. I would say that there’s no way we’d trade Andy unless we underperform next year and a contending team makes an offer we can’t refuse. However, if we do sign a “keeper” of a center like Pekovic . . . I can see us trading Andy for a small forward (and he better be a near all star). The thing is, I’d be more excited about TT being Pekovic’s backup… Read more »
LeBron is NOT coming back to Cleveland. Just stop the nonsense as it makes the rest of us Cavalier fans look unreasonably delirious. LeBron will most likely resign in Miami OR he’ll head to LA or NY. Andy is much better than then what people give him credit for. Albeit he has been injury prone. I wouldn’t mind a trade if the value is correct. B/c if he were to have a good season the entire season, look out if we trade him for a lousy future draft pick. Howard is not coming to Cleveland even if Chris Grant fell… Read more »
Well…. Varejao is NOT overpaid, his contract makes him one of the best performance per dollar guys in the league. Varejao was the best center in the league for about 2 or 3 months last year, we paid 8 million for that. If he wouldn’t have gotten injured we’d have an allstar center averaging 15 and 15 for 8 million a year. It’s part of what makes him so valuable as a trade asset in the first place.
Part of the reason the Cavs are keeping Varejao is the draw for LeBron, who loves playing with him.
and karesev\gee for the 9th man in the rotation.
What we need is a center that can block shots and spread the floor a little bit… Samuel Dalembert. We also need to get a reliable guard to fit in the rotation with kyrie and Dion…. Ellington would work. RESIGN HIM! If Lebron is a legitimate option next season we should get rid of varejao. For a reliable backup point that can push the tempo and spread the floor. Varejao is good but, is overpaid and doesn’t protect the rim. Or we could trade him for a 2014 lottery pick and maybe use felix to sweeten the offer. kyrie. Dion.… Read more »
Not only will Dwight Howard never play for Cleveland, he no longer appears to be worth all the trouble/assets it would require.
In the Cavaliers world flipped upside down, we get Clark, Billups, and Howard. We also resign Ellington and get Marion. -Kyrie, Billups -Dion, Ellington, Felix -Marion, Gee or CJ, Keresev -Tristan/Bennett, Clark/TT/AB -Howard, Andy, Tyler If the maths are right, that gives us 15. I would like Kadji as well, but I doubt we keep both Gee and CJ. Tyler, Carrick and Keresev spend a lot of time in Canton to really hone themselves. I would like to see Tyler go nuts down there and just start putting up 30 and 20 and like 5 of the defense stats, and… Read more »