From Conrad Kaczmarek at Fear the Sword:
Offensively, Casspi has an interesting skill set. At 6-foot-9-inches, he has more than adequate size to play the small forward position. Compare this to Christian Eyenga who measures in at merely 6-foot-5-inches. The size is a luxury that the Cavaliers would be happy to have at the 3-spot. It gives Byron Scott much more flexibility with the roster and would allow him to move Casspi to the 4-spot if they were to run a particularly small line-up out there.
Hit the link for Kaczmarek’s full analysis. As for me, I have little opinion on Casspi because, like most NBA fans not living in California’s capital, I have watched only a handful Kings games over the past couple of years. (I had to check in on my boy DeMarcus Cousins a couple times last season.) From what I understand, Casspi’s a lanky wing player who can shoot the three and doesn’t play defense. Remember when Phoenix wanted to offload Amare and the Cavs wouldn’t give up Hickson? Because I do.
From what I had gathered from various resources the talks for acquiring Amare were in the very early stages, and never really progressed past that. Does anyone have strong evidence otherwise? I just can’t see the Suns ever pulling the trigger on that deal.
i was under the impression that it was cleveland who offered hickson + big Z for amar’e, and pho said no.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4913305
Yeah it’s a rumor that the Suns were willing to deal Amare for Hickson and the Cavs werent willing to part with JJ. A lot of reliable sources came out and debunked that myth and said it was the Suns who decided to not make the trade.
I’ve heard both sides of the JJ/Amare trade. Not sure what’s real or not, only that the Cavs were in fact hopeful that JJ was going to turn into a real beast who worked out a lot with LeBron. Also, there were/are a lot of concerns on Amares’ health (knees/eyes/back) – not just the Cavs concerns.
What I don’t know is who offered whom and which team backed out. We don’t even know if there was any kind of trade really on the table beyond a preliminary phone call or two. IF the Cavs were the ones that said no for JJ/Amare (which I doubt), I wouldn’t blame them considering Amares health concerns and the fact that LeBron liked JJ so much (yes we know how it turned out and we see what Amare is doing in NYC, but at the time it wasn’t a horrible thing).
Anyway… back to Casspi. I think he is clearly the biggest position upgrade the Cavs have had in a while. Bigger upgrade than Baron for Mo or Kyrie for Baron. Bigger upgrade than TT for JJ or Jamison for JJ. BTW – who did Mo replace? Depending on that answer, Casspi may be the biggest position upgrade since LeBron. More so because we were so desperately weak at the SF position last season than it being that Casspi is so good.
Continuing with Casspi, he is a very solid SF. He will definitely get more touches and shots with the Cavs than he has in the past so I think all his stats will only get better. Like the article said, he’s not a guy to feature as our #1 scoring option, (i’m not sure who that will be, likely Baron and Jamison until Jamison is traded) but he does have a nice shot and deceptive quickness/athletic ability to get into the paint and finish. I think a line-up with Kyrie, Baron, Casspi, Jamison and Andy could be fun to watch offensively and with two true PG’s on the court where Casspi would be most dangerous. However, anytime you say Jamison, you have to worry about defense so thats an issue. Replacing Jamison with TT gives the team no offensive inside guys, so maybe that’s when we may use Casspi at PF (assuming he picks up his D – which he should be able to).
So this will really be an intersting season, we still have Sessions and the TPE that we’ll likely use before next season (whenever it starts), then more than likely we’ll move Jamsion in a mid season trade – so the team will be and feel a lot differnt soon.
What is up with the TPE? Is it extended? I am very excited for casspi. I think he has tons of potential and Sacramento was a horrible fit for him. I think his downside is a decent 3 and if the cavs pick up a shooting guard for the future in the next draft casspi will be a good fit for this team.
Plus, you can’t blame chris grant for bringing an isreali to Cleveland. That’s genius for selling tickets to beachwood.