The Point Four-ward: All You Do To Me Is Talk Talk

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) In a Presidential election year already full of attack ads and spin, most of it engineered to make one candidate look more appealing by making another appear less so, it’s refreshing (or not… I haven’t decided which) to see the NBA play out its version of the same thing in the week leading up the league’s annual trade deadline. This year, with the deadline coming the week after the All-Star Game, in which writers and fans will have gone seven full days without a real game to distract them from the approaching Swap-pocalypse, there’s been a lot of noise. If you look closely at who is saying what and why, though, what’s real behind the rumors can sometimes become a little more clear.

[Author’s note: now, how’s that for over-qualification!]

That’s why anyone who is not currently a New York Knicks fan immediately rolled their eyes at the Frank Isola’s report that had Carmelo Anthony headed to the Cavs in a three-way deal that would finally land Kevin Love on the Boston Celtics. First off, the report made zero basketball sense for the Cavs. I told a friend that it would “finally give the Cavs the ego-driven, ball-dominant, iso-heavy star they’ve been lacking all these years.” The joke, such as it was, is that the Cavs already have two such players. Secondly, Isola writes for the New York Daily News. This means Isola likely has strong connections all the way up the Knicks ladder and all he would need to be able to publish a report that not only appealed to his media base, but would receive a ton of national attention was for one of those sources to confirm that the Knicks had, in fact, contacted the Cavs and Celtics — who were already known to be in talks about a Love trade — and suggest that Melo could be in play in such a deal, as well. That’s all you need.

And that’s not bad reporting. Isola isn’t making it up. If you want to look at that report generously, you could say that “Melo to the Cavs” was never the correct take-away from that report. Isola’s report, from the perspective of a New York City news source, was that the Knicks had made Anthony available which is, in fact, news. It’s the first specific mention of the Knicks being open to moving on from Anthony for a specific player (or players) in return. It’s the first concrete signal that the team might be ready to start building around break-out rookie Kristaps Porzingis. That’s not a crazy rumor. That’s news… but the crazy rumor is what we take away from it.

2.) The same can be said about the Cavs “talks” with the Celtics about Love. It’s no secret that Celtics GM Danny Ainge has coveted Love for years. Of course, he’s going to be in near-constant contact with Cleveland’s front office trying to get his team a bonafide star player for the stretch run in a year where they’re already exceeding expectations.

But here’s why news of those talks should be held with almost as many grains of salt as the Anthony reports:

First, Ainge calling the Cavs and inquiring about Love already constitutes talks. So, in that respect, they’ve probably been having similar talks to these at every point at which Love has eligible to be traded by the Cavs. One team calls and the other team picks up. It’s common courtesy… and it also can accurately be reported as the two teams being in talks.

Teams know that the combo of Love, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving still haven’t fit perfectly together, so the Celtics can’t be the only team “talking” to the Cavs about Love. It is true, though, that their interest level is different.

The Love-to-Celtics speculation could actually make basketball sense for both teams. The Celtics need a star and the Cavs have to be intrigued by players like Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart (or some combination of Boston’s laundry list of movable parts), especially as they want to be able to play small and versatile without giving up a ton on the defensive end. The Celtics could also offer some potentially high draft picks to restock Cleveland’s bare cupboard.

But it’s not going to happen. A trade won’t go down between these two teams comes down to one simple fact: the Celtics are in third place in the East right now, trailing only Cleveland and Toronto. There’s no chance that Griffin pulls the trigger on a risky trade — as any trade that would send out Love would be — and then wind up facing a motivated Love and a potentially more dangerous Celtics team in the playoffs.

In the off-season, though… you never know.

The same thing is true about the Marc Stein/Brian Windhorst report about the Cavs’ reticence to deal Love. Stein and Windhorst publish a report that says, essentially, that the Cavs are unlikely to deal their power forward mid-season and that teams are being told that nothing short of another superstar will convince them to part with Love. The way this is spun as we hurtle toward the trade deadline, though, is ProBasketballTalk running a headline that says “Cavaliers want another star, not role players/draft picks, in Kevin Love trade.” Using the word “want” here suggests that “another star” is what the Cavs are actively seeking when, in actuality, they’ve been rebuffing other teams with the suggestion that they already have a star in Love (which works as good PR whenever team officials have to look at Love straight in the eyes).

All of these reports are true. Some are just more transparent than others.

3.) While not as high profile as the NBA All-Star break, Cavs: The Fantasy League also took a small breather before this fine collection of CtB bloggers and readers set their sights on the mad scramble for… well, nothing short of immortality.

Just like last season, each team in Cavs: The Fantasy League was required to carry one member of the Cavaliers on his roster. Since we were doing a live draft, that meant that each team owner’s first selection needed to wear the wine and gold and then, with all Cavs off the board, we would proceed with the draft like normal. In a snaking draft format, that meant that whoever would get stuck picking the end of the Cavs bench would, at least, be rewarded with the top picks once the draft opened up to the rest of the league. Nate Smith and his team, later aptly named Team Jared’s Cunning Hams, did, in fact, select Jared Cunningham with the 12th pick, but then turned around and took New Orleans PF/C Anthony Davis, who many believed was poised to have a monster season for the ages. Unfortunately, Smith, who came in second in last year’s inaugural CtFL, has not been able to recapture the magic of last year’s squad, possibly hampered by the dead spot Cunningham occupies on his roster (a fact Smith will not let me forget).

4.) Much like the Golden State Warriors of the actual NBA, Team Evil Genius has been able to build off last year’s championship and sits atop CtFL led by Fantasy Stephen Curry and Fantasy Andre Drummond. But CtFL is full of competitors and no one is about to let Team EG just waltz his way to another crown. My own Team Klutch Me (I’m Fallin’), led by Fantasy Kyrie Irving and Fantasy Rudy Gobert, has withstood some early season injuries and currently sits just 1.5 games behind the Genius, while Mike Schreiner’s Team Evan Turner Overdrive (featuring John Wall and Kevin Love) and reader Gregg Andrick’s Team Fresh Squeezed (with Damian Lillard and Jahlil Okafor) round out the top four.

The battle for the ultimate Cavs: the Blog bragging rights begins… now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gncY6pSuNdM