Craig Lyndall on Chris Grant’s Autonomy
2011-06-20
Dan Gilbert says all the right things about building the team and doing things the right way. As a rich guy, you know he must have seen the story play out at least a hundred times in the financial world since the recession began. Making plays for short-term profitability to boost stock price quite frequently sees CEOs out of a job and stockholders holding a very heavy bag. Same thing in sports. Without the autonomy to do his job and pick who he thinks are the best players as opposed to those that might be the most popular or productive right away, Chris Grant could find himself out of a job and labeled a failure.
Grant’s right to make unpopular decisions is even more crucial in wake of recent news that Jonas Valanciunas will most likely not play in the NBA until the 2012-13 season. I feel I’m parroting every other sportswriter who doesn’t watch college or European basketball, but I am not a talent evaluator. Chris Grant is, or at least he has a team of talent evaluators at his disposal. If he believes Valanciunas is the guy to anchor the Cavaliers’ painted area for the next 10-12 years, then he should select Big V with the number four pick. Perhaps Chris Grant is an Enes Kanter guy. That’s terrific, and I’ll trust his judgment over my own, but the important thing here is that he selects the player he believes in regardless of short-term circumstances. Netting the seven seed and the right to be swept by Boston next May should not be a priority. Being legitimately good in three to five years is the goal.
Honestly, there needs to be a closer look given to Leonard. I think that he has all the makings of a great role player who can put up some points and eat up minutes defensively that not a lot of people in this draft have the staying power to do. Of course he is a tweaner, but he is one of the more solid people in this draft. Forget Irving–I am not sold. To have an injurious college season and then be numbero uno seems very odd. Not to mention that the league is shifting, point guard after point guard… Read more »
2013 draft might be nice, but the 2012 draft will be just as solid. Cavs need to target Harrison Barnes and Austin Rivers…get one of them and we can fast-forward the rebuilding process. Especially if we can get a productive player with our 4th pick this year.
Completely agree for four reasons. One, assume both guys end up being very good (which is the goal). You don’t want their contracts always expiring in the same year. Two, there’s really no guarantee that Valanciunas comes over before 2013-2014 because he has 2 years left and no buyout clause. By that year the hard cap will have kicked in, so things will be a lot tighter money wise. Three, the 2013 will quite possibly be a 2003 draft rudux because of Andre Drummond and Shabazz Muhammad. We want one of the top two picks that year. Valanciunas helps us… Read more »