There are two ways to look at this. One is good, and one is less good.
The Good Way: The Cavs traded cap flexibility and Mo Williams for a lottery pick
The Cavaliers are terrible this year. They will likely be terrible next year as well. The only way the Cavs were going to be able to dig their way out of this hole was to give up their current assets for draft picks, and they did that. Mo Williams is a name, and his spot-up shooting ability makes him attractive to good teams. However, he was exposed this season. He cannot create his own shot consistently, his defense is porous, and he cannot get into the paint.
As bad as Baron Davis may/will be in Cleveland, he will not be significantly worse than Mo Williams was. He will cost the Cavaliers cap flexibility, but we don’t know what that will mean after the new CBA gets done. Also, Gilbert has shown that he is willing to spend money, copious amounts of money, on the team. A buyout or something similar may be in Baron’s future.
The bad news is that the Clippers only traded their pick because they believe, as most do, that this will be a very weak draft. Still, the draft is not an exact science, and it still represents the Cavs’ best chances to find the players that will bring them back to respectability. In order to save this franchise, the Cavs’ scouting staff is going to have to hit two home runs in a draft with few sure-fire prospects. No pressure, guys.
The Less Good Way: The Cavs just traded for Baron Davis
Ramon Sessions’ play at the point was essentially the only good thing the team had going for it. Now Ramon has just lost his starting spot to a low-efficiency chucker whose passing ability and savvy in transition play mean he only works on offense if he is surrounded by talented offensive players. He will not be surrounded by talented offensive players in Cleveland. Baron is still a fast-break virtuoso, but I don’t see that making up for all the quick-trigger threes he’ll almost certainly be firing in Cleveland.
Baron is a guy who doesn’t play well in bad situations, and situations don’t get much worse than the one in Cleveland. And he’ll be taking the starting job of the one guy who was playing his butt off every night (at least offensively) and making the Cavs look like a competent offensive unit. I have watched Baron Davis. I know Baron Davis. I named my first blog after Baron Davis. Based on the last decade or so of Baron Davis’ career, he is exactly the wrong guy to turn Cleveland around. And the Cavaliers now owe Baron Davis just under 42 million dollars over the next three years.
One more thing: The hypocrisy is ridiculous
I understand hating LeBron James. I respect hating LeBron James. I have mixed feelings about this team, at its highest levels, sending an official “screw LeBron James” message, and those feelings are even more mixed now. Yes, LeBron has an ego. Yes, LeBron made it about him rather than about Cleveland when he left. Yes, LeBron could have tried harder when the Cavs were getting blown out in game five. It’s fine to harbor resentment about those things, even though LeBron is the best player in the history of the franchise. I understand tearing down your LeBron posters and putting up posters of guys like Big Z.
What I don’t understand is how burning LeBron James jerseys and buying Baron Davis jerseys is anything other than cheering for laundry. Baron Davis has all the talent in the world, and he has made a CAREER out of putting his ego above the game and quitting on his teams. He shows up to camp out of shape. He launches threes and jogs back on defense instead of running the offense. He does everything he can to keep himself in the spotlight and the bare minimum to keep his teams competitive. And he shot 11-32 in the last two games of the Warriors/Jazz series.
And don’t get me started on Antawn Jamison, who plays offense like a 6-9 Nick Young and doesn’t play defense. You want to call LeBron a quitter? Antawn quits on defense EVERY FEW POSSESSIONS. OF EVERY GAME. And nobody says boo. And Jamison and Davis are now the faces of this new, post-LeBron, pure Cleveland franchise. Sure, the team might suck, but at least it has a moral code: “If you’re going to be selfish and not work that hard, that’s fine. Just don’t prove yourself to be really, really good at anything before you screw up, because then people are really going to hate you. Just be adequate. It’s alright to treat your girl bad, so long as she’s the one you came to the dance with.”
This is not my favorite basketball season of all time. But now the team has hope for the future. And Baron Davis. Until later, campers.
“Antawn quits on defense EVERY FEW POSSESSIONS. OF EVERY GAME. And nobody says boo. ”
quite the contrary, we do boo him. There just isnt enough fans showing up anymore for you to hear it. After Lebron came back to town, all passion has left us for this group of players.
I feel like that last rant was directed at the front office… but that wouldn’t make sense since this was a nice move for a rebuilding team.
When I look at that rant as being aimed at the fans… I still don’t get it because most Cavs fans I know can’t stand Jamison, and I’ve yet to see anyone partying in the streets because the team traded for Baron.
The only way I could make sense of that rant would be if the Cavs traded for Baron because they truly believe that he will help them, but that’s clearly not the case as the trade was done to get the lotto pick. To sum up, that rant left me confused.
Who is cheering for Baron Davis? Who is buying Baron Davis jerseys? I have no idea who that is even directed towards. You won’t find a cavalier’s fan that I know of who is excited about Baron Davis playing or who thinks Baron Davis is a good teammate.
Same with Colin on Jamison. Show me the fans standing up and cheering for Jamison. Do you think you’re the only guy out there calling out his poor defense? Quite the contrary. We all see it. What the hell are we supposed to do about though? Nothing.
Oh, and the other problem with the rant is you assume LBJ is hated because he quit. No, he quit and then went on national television to give a big eff-you to Cleveland. Has Jamison done that? Has Baron Davis done that? Don’t think so….
If he’d had the opportunity, Baron would have done “The Decision” in a heartbeat. Believe that. And if you don’t think the franchise is going to try and sell Baron jerseys or use him to sell tickets/grab ratings, you’re foolish. And I’d be fine with that if the franchise hadn’t made a big, big statement about how they believed in having players that were good role models above players that were good at basketball. I understand that this is a business, I really do. But I don’t like being fed propaganda.
And personally, I’m more offended by basketball players playing terrible, lazy basketball than basketball players making a bad TV show. LeBron was not a Cavalier employee when he made his TV show. This team wears the uniform and supposedly represents the city, and they shame the franchise on a nightly basis with the effort they show, particularly on defense. If this team showed the kind of defensive/all-around effort that Larry Brown’s teams always did, Thibodeau’s teams have for the last decade, or the Cavs did under Mike Brown, I’d happily watch “The Decision” every week in exchange. And bring the popcorn.
JK,
Completely agree with you as far as Baron, but I’m looking at it from a different perspective. Neither Baron Davis nor Mo Williams are going to be around when the Cavs are contenders again. Much like Ricky Davis and Darius Miles. So I don’t really care who they are putting on the court for the next two years. Just gotta enjoy the ride and be amused.
In essence, the Cavs bought a Top-10 Draft Pick (in a most-likely subpar draft) for $10mil. This is what it must feel like to be a Yankees fan, and I’m lovin it.
This post is Krolik’s 2010 Celtics series. He’s been a proven performer night-in, night-out, but her realizes that he just can’t win with this Cavs team. He’s looking to the future as he picks up big exposure on the national level. He’s prepping us to bolt.
Just as LeBron mailed it in during the Celtics series in a misguided attempt to make it easier for him to leave us (it would have been much harder with a championship), JK is quitting on the management. He feels he will be completely justified in leaving this blog after the season if he’s able to pin it on a bad front office instead of the team.
Don’t go, John! We can’t have this happen to us twice in two years (thrice if you count Windhorst).
Just kidding; I love you, Krolik. This was all tongue in cheek.
I’m not excited about the forthcoming “Baron Davis” era either, but let’s keep perspective — the Cavs just acquired a lottery pick in this year’s draft without giving up Varejao or Hickson. A month ago I don’t think anyone expected them to pull that off. And maybe they can still pick up another late 1st rd pick for Parker. I’m hoping Davis gets bought out at some point rather than playing here through 2013.
The 1986 draft was weak also, and many of the top players had their careers derailed by injuries or drugs, yet the Cavs managed to pull Daugherty (1st), Harper (8th) and Price (2d Rd) out of that draft. Let’s hope for something similar in 2011.
Well, I can honestly say that I did not see this coming. I am happy for Mo, however. He will be able to split time with an already great Gordon, and an improving Bledsoe and of course, Mr. Griffin. Sounds fun at least. Moon can help them a bit as well, though he is unlikely to steal many minutes. Yes, the Clips can claim that they hate this year’s draft, but the thing they hate more is having Baron Davis take minutes from their young guys. With the improved play of their backcourt, Foye included, he isn’t worth the money or the playing time.
As for Baron and the Cavs, bad uninspired Baron is annoying to watch and we all know that is the likely version, but he is still the best player of the trade and we get a likely top 10 lottery pick. Not a bad thing. Sessions has been playing better lately, but I still don’t see him as a starter on an even decent team, so his potentially stunted development doesn’t bother me. Listen, can you give me an example of one point guard on a good team who can’t space the floor, is not lightening fast or at least a defensive stopper? Once we have the talent to compete on a high level, Sessions will have the ball taken out of his hands by competent offensive players and his only attribute, his attacking mindset will become less important. We would be left then with a guy who has no confidence in his jumper and rightly so,(yes, I am aware he has finally hit a few this last month, but please) who is absolutely awful on D and makes ridiculous turnovers at the perfectly wrong time. I like the guy fine, just as a backup.
I am actually incredible amused by the reuniting of Byron and Baron. This will be very comical to watch….
And finally to John… I guess I understand what you are getting at, but I will reply with this: I don’t find LeBron to be that much better than Baron when it comes to selfish play, me first attitude, bad shot taking lazy play, and playing for self entertainment rather than overall team good ie. playing to his real strengths. Two things are glaringly different between the two guys. 1. LeBron is probably the most talented basketball player ever so his inefficient play still dwarfs the rest of the league which is the primary reason he still hasn’t got “it” 2. Baron has been in the spotlight longer and has had more time to be understood as a “when I feel like it guy” To be honest, the two guys play a surprisingly similar game. It is just at wholly different levels. (small point: I know I am greatly disappointed by Baron after enjoying the GS-Mavs series so much. I think people just want to feel that way about him again as he is a likable player, so when he doesn’t play hard, we are very disappointed).. Oh, and anybody else notice LeBron is a little fatter this year? maybe it’s the jersey,,,ummmm
John,
ESPN is reporting that the Cavs did not trade Ramon, or Razor Ramon as you call him, but rather Jamarion Moon.
Chris, I saw that, was going to edit it, and thought I got away with it, but you busted me literally 30 seconds before I updated. In any case, it was simply a typo to begin with and is fixed now.
Why the rant? That was unexpected and kinda childish imho…
As for the trade, we got another first round pick which is exactly what we need. And we also got a pg that can actually play and not be hurt every few days. I like it as a rebuilding step. Good move for the Cavs!
So the Cavs took on a devout team killer just so they could get a high pick in a lousy draft? The Clippers fleeced the Cavs in this deal, and I say this as someone who hates Mo Williams above all things.
Assuming the pick is in the top 7 or so and Dan Gilbert is willing to eat Baron’s salary for the next 2+ yrs (he’s shown in the past that he’ll do these things), this could actually work out ok for the Cavs. And for anyone overly concerned about the strength of this year’s draft: take comfort in the fact that at least some of the “experts” insisting that this is going to be a weak touted Nikoloz Tskitishvili as a top 5 prospect in 2002, while Amare Stoudemire slipped to #9.
Good luck Cavs fans!
So on one hand you believe, like i do, that the Cavs will ultimately buy out Davis’ contract. Yet on the other hand you believe he will take Sessions starting job. Two contradictory positions. If the Cavs buy out Davis they will do it shortly; not wait a few games to have Davis poison the team even more than it already is. If they do buy out Davis, then we traded Mo Williams and filler for a lottery pick. Regardless of what the Clippers front office says (and remember, this is the same team that drafted Michael Olkawandicantspellhisname first overall) lottery picks are how to build this team.
The team owes Baron 42 MILLION DOLLARS, and he will not command much on the open market. Don’t expect a buyout to come too soon.
Anytime, you can take an unprotected lottery pick from the Los Angeles Clippers you do it with no questions asked. Personally, I think this is a coup.
Baron Davis can sit at the end of the bench and rot for all I care though.
Oh come on man. The only reason the Cavs did this deal was for the draft pick. You should of known that. Obviously the Cavs dont give a rats ass about Baron Davis. As far as we know, he wont even play.
This is all about the lottery pick, plain and simple.
Love it. I think Grant and Scott have enough sense to realize there’s not a whole lot of benefit to playing Baron over Ramon. Hopefully, Ramon will still get a larger share of the available minutes while Baron smiles as he collects his millions from the bench.
Even if this is a weak draft, the Cavs just doubled their “diamond in the rough” search time.
I’m still tryin to figure out what the rant was all about…
I don’t get it John. What would you have done? You can’t make lemonade without lemons.
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=4no6gl6
Baron’s arrival should be a boon to Cleveland nightlife, at least.
Baron is “Hurt” within the next two weeks. I would put serious money on that.
I completely understand what you are saying about Twan not trying on D – I think everyone would agree with you. But isn’t booing Twan over this is the equivalent of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Lebron quit on the team at the exact moment he should have stepped up and pushed the Cavs to the next level. Twan doesn’t play defense, and what does it really cost the Cavs?
Does Twan suck on D, for sure – but I think we can all agree that if were going to boo every lacking aspect of the Cavs this year, we would all be miserable, miserable people.
I’m not a Cavaliers fan and only came across this blog through Truehoop, but wow. Just wow.
I’m going to have to read this blog because you tell it exactly like it is and I wish we had this sort of thing in Orlando. It’s painful to watch night in and night out as Dwight is surrounded by a bunch of roleplayers with egos who are too lazy to play defense or put up good shots. Say what you will about Vince Carter, but the man tried. Not unlike Sessions, he put forth the effort and did the work. It never panned out but I respect him 100x more than I respect Arenas, Turk or even J. Rich some nights.
I love this post though. It really brightened my day after watching my team lose at home to the goddamned Kings.
This is the weirdest straw man arguments I’ve read in a long time. Nobody is throwing a parade in Cleveland for Baron Davis. Everyone is excited about getting a pick, and to a lesser extent getting rid of two players that don’t exactly have championship DNA.
And Antawn Jamison??? You’ve clearly laid out in past blogs how he’s practically invisible on the defensive end. Did anyone actually say, “no, Antawn plays hard on D, JK, you’ve got it all wrong?” So to echo many of the posts above me, who the hell are you writing about?
My hope is that Scott’s past feud with Boom Dizzle leads him to demand he play hard in practice before he sees more than 10 MPG. Dizzle is offended and decides to keep partying, Scott benches him ad infinitum, he gets horribly out of shape, Cavs still get to play Ramon. I really, really hate Baron Davis. Possibly more than LeBron, at least as a basketball player. Jury’s out on the human being aspect but I can’t think of any player in the league I hate watching more than Baron Davis. Still, even though there is a positive argument to be made about this trade, I can’t stomach the fact that Baron Davis is now on my favorite team. I think I’m gonna be ill.
My hope is that either a) we are able to turn around and trade Baron (Bobcats have shown interest – maybe we get wallace for a slighly cheaper contract with a year less) before he even plays. This is a long-shot but not impossible. Otherwise b) I hope that Baron plays well for the Cavs and actually makes an effort. A motivated BD is still arguably the best player on the team offensively. Which I’m not sure will add to any wins, but at least it’s a plus. Hope c) We are now able to pull off another trade – we can afford to lose sessions/boobie now that we have another ‘reliable’ PG. Giving up one of them for another first round pick wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen to us.
Any move that puts us in better positon for the future is a good move. And this trade puts us in a better positio for the future. Sure this draft class may be considered weak. However I’d say that there are at least 5-7 guys that could be considered clear/very likely impact players. If we could get two of them, then we would be well on our way. No there isn’t any clear #1 guy who is likely a superstar caliber, but that’s not necessarily the formula we need to follow right now.
I didn’t realize the Baron jersey were rolling off the rack. But if a fan wants to buy a jersey and then burn it, who are you to criticize? I have a Bron Bron game day jersey I’d love to sell you.
Good post – thanks for including Raab’s post too – provided a nice contrast – I appreciate that you understand that you might have different emotions about the Cavs since you aren’t really a Cleveland-er.
I’m going to give some unsolicited advice. This is from a native Clevelander to all non-native Clevelanders:
In short,
1. stop trying to rationally evaluate the effect Lebron leaving has had on the Cleveland-psyche.
2. stop telling Clevelander’s (whether directly or in a passive-aggressive way) how they should feel about LeBron James, Dan Gilbert, and the Cavs.
I’m not saying this because the above two things bother me (although they do bother me). I’m saying it because it is a lesson in futility. I keep reading all these bloggers/journalists writing what they think are apples to apples arguments comparing LeBron/Cleveland to anything/anything.
While I’m on the topic, why is ANY writer telling ANY fan HOW TO FEEL about sports figures? Why do I need someone telling me how to feel about Tiger Woods, or Brett Farve, or Mike Vick, or LeBron James. If I want to “hate” them – and by hate I mean “boo them and hope they lose” what’s it to anyone else? Every time I read Kelley Dwyer I’m basically being told that I should hate Dan Gilbert, and not hate LeBron James. Why? From a fan’s perspective, LeBron told the entire planet Earth that all the thousands of dollars and thousands of hours I spent supporting HIM meant absolutely nothing – that all the blind love, endless hours of defending him against delusional hyperventilating Kobe fans and wasting my time writing LeBron for MVP articles wasn’t even worth a simple “I’m sorry” when asked repeatedly about “The Decision”. Gilbert has provided a stark contrast to other owners – he just spent 12 million dollars on a crapshoot lottery in a weak draft – to make the team better. At the end of the day, I don’t know either of them personally – LeBron could be the nicest guy in the world and Gilbert could be the spawn of satan – but as A FAN – I see ONE guy putting his money where his mouth is when he says he’s got my back.
Why is this so hard for everyone to understand? Henry Abbott writes 3 articles a week about how my priorities are messed up because I “hate” LeBron James – I should “hate” something else – “hating” LeBron is irrational. Guess what? Being a fan is irrational. Being an NBA fan from a small market is irrational. Being a CLEVELAND fan is a word signifying a cosmically comical level of irrationality that hasn’t been invented yet.
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As for the trade? Not sure why there is any negative analysis. Gilbert bought a 1st round pick – that may or may not turn out to help the Cavs in the future. And if it doesn’t, we’ll read articles in 3 years about how we should obviously hate Gilbert and blame him and not LeBron for the Cavs futility because OBVIOUSLY trading Mo Williams and Jamario Moon for the rights to select the next Dajuan Wagner is evidence at how dumb Grant (Gilbert) is.
Tom Pestak are you writer? You should be. Everything you said was on point. Thanks!
And the award for best post of of the night goes to Tom Pestak. Nice, man.
Great note, Tom. Hit the nail right on the head. You have to live in NE Ohio to appreciate us I guess. Go Cavs!
It’s fine to be irrational, but I don’t why you expect rational people to understand your irrationality of the situation.
Thanks guy, appreciate it.