DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs: Time To Reflect and Look Ahead

Available how? Is he getting released or traded? Not that it really matters though. Unless he's willing to sign for the minimum, there's little we can do to get him as a free agent. We don't even have a Mid-Level Exception to offer. Doubtful we could trade for him either, as I don't think we have any pieces that Detroit would really want.

I read this:

I can't even listen to sports media this week. The talk of Lebron leaving is as stupid as it's ever been. This reminds me of, oh I don't know, every single year since he's been drafted. The asinine press has been trying to force him into New York or LA since year one, regardless of how much sense it makes.

I could MAYBE see him moving to the Clippers, so that he could play with Chris Paul and potentially Carmelo and/or Wade, as he's always sort of hinted at playing with buddies sometime in the future. So maybe he rides off into the sunset losing in the Second Round in the west, as long as it's with his buddies. But him playing for the Lakers just seems like a stupid idea on all accounts.

To get him and Paul George under the cap, they would have to unload all those nice draft assets they are accumulating now. So it would essentially a bare team of a few super-stars (think Miami Year One, or Cleveland 2014) that would get waxed by the Warriors even earlier in the playoffs. Not only that, he'd play for a fanbase that would never really accept him over Kobe (or any other Laker Legend for that matter). He thinks he chasing ghosts now?

Again, this seems like another case of the media chasing it's tail. One guy reports that Lebron could go to the Lakers, someone else reports on it too, then suddenly everyone keeps repeating that "there's whispers around the league that Lebron will go to LA" ... which turns into "There's big talk that Lebron will leave". And all it all just really the same crappy gossip with no actual quotes, substantiated facts, or heck, good logical reasons to make the move.

As it relates to LeBrons "legacy", I don't see how going ring chasing on ANOTHER team helps it at all.

Except.

New York.

I'd LeBron went to the Knicks. And won a title there? Spike Lee would grovel at his feet and make 3 movies about it calling him the GOAT.

Here's the problem.

New York. Is terrible. And for some reason wants to trade their best young player.

I have no idea what Phil Jackson is doing there.

don't feel bad, Phil doesn't know what he's doing either

If you're scanning the NBA headlines, it's mostly not fun reading for Cavs fans.

- Griffin is gone
- Lebron is pissed about Griffin
- Gilbert is going rogue and starting the meddle again
- Lebron is leaving in 1 year
- Kyrie will force a trade if Lebron leaves
- Kevin needs to be traded for Butler/George, who have 1 year remaining on their deals and will probably not sign long term in Cleveland
- Assuming this stays together for now, we have one run before it all blows up, unless we win it all again, but how can we win against the Warriors?
- Would Gilbert trade Lebron now to start the rebuild? (a very weak rumor)
- We may hire Chauncy as our GM, which might work if we know the core will stay together for a few years, but a guy with no experience can't rebuild the Cavs with no picks and expensive role players.

It looks bleak.

However, we won it all last year. I think we'd all take this disaster 3 years ago if we were guaranteed a title. I guess I'm just sitting back and watching, not worrying.

not sure why it did that to my post:

Gilbert should sell the team if alot of what's coming out is true...he's created a toxic environment. Even cavs players are reaching out to butler to tell him to stay away.. that doesn't bode well for how they feel the team is. I just don't see how we can even compete with the warriors next year, we are in rob peter to pay paul mode. you have 3 options, trade Love and create another hole and still not get past GS, stand pat and add ring chasers, more than likely not get past GS, or 3 Trade lebron and knock it down to foundation and build something sustainable. Alot of this is on Lebron too, his stubborness to come out and say what his plans are causes alot of doubt and indecision on what can and should be done..if lebron would have just signed the max, then we'd know what window we had to make moves...this making moves and dumb asset management in fear of losing lebron again are handcuffing the FO. How many times have we heard FA say they didn't pick the cavs because they don't know what lebron is doing.

I find that report about Cavs players telling Butler to "stay away" to be hearsay at best.

I find it hard to believe that a Chicago newspaper has sources inside The Cavs that will only talk to them.

It's also the same reporter who basically said Butler was on his way to Cleveland like two days ago.

I'm just ganna sit back. And watch the show.

There may not be any games on right now. But there sure is some entertainment.

Lead, I don't see this situation falling on Lebron's head. Like, had he signed the max, we'd still be in the same situation essentially. Maybe it looks better to Butler because Lebron is here long term, but we'd still be sending the message that if you don't win a title here and your name isn't Lebron, we'll trade you because Lebron's title window is small and that's all that matters. And our cap situation would be just as bad.

Plus, how is Gilbert creating a toxic environment? From what I read, Griffin wanted a long term deal, a ton of money and more power. If we truly are in a one year win-now mode, why keep Griffin? As discussed, it's not like he's been an amazing GM. Anyone could have done most of the good moves. I'm not saying he's junk/average or I'm glad he's gone, but given the situation, maybe Gilbert is starting everything over from scratch, which is totally fine assuming he knows Lebron is gone.

It would be interesting if Gilbert called Lebron and asked him about a trade. It would save Lebron from leaving and allow him to save face in the media/fans eyes, give us a great start on the rebuild and get Gilbert out of cap tax hell for an upcoming year where we can't really contend for a title unless the Warriors get injured.

I'm not saying I'd do it because I think it's worth one more shot at a ring, but it'd be compelling if they pulled the trigger. I wouldn't say it's dumb.

It's known that Gilbert sticks his head into basketball ops. I think we won't know the whole story on how the Griff deal went down, but its not a good thing to change GM's in the middle of stretch of championship possibilities. Griffin has been known however to be a crybaby about things if he doesn't get exactly his way as evidenced from Phx days. As i said, "If" the reports about Gilbert being the spoon that's stirring this crapstorm then yeah I'll blame him, and again.. I still think Lebron has some culpability in how the team is built currently and what we can do..I don't think Griff is anything special, I think he's made more bad moves than good when you look at them, but I really want to know how it goes from everyone liking the direction to the next day parting ways..Theres something we're not being told yet.

Yeah, more will come out. We'll see.

I expect Lebron will leave, eventually. I kind of hope he finds a way to buy the Cavs from Gilbert though. That might be the best thing to happen to Cleveland sports since June 19th, 2016.

I'm really not liking the idea of Billups, Gilbert has a passion for trying to be smarter than everyone else and find people to do jobs they've never done before...so far he's 0-3, he picked Brown (twice), Blatt, and Griff. He needs an experience guy to head up Basketball OPs and setup the structure. You have to be ready to move forward without lebron

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y8gjaw64

They really need to update the Trade Machine. The contracts are wrong

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ya2qgjca

This one took a good minute to organize.

Trivia time...

Since 1985, only 4 players that have been drafted #1 overall have gone on to win a title for the team that selected them. Can you name them without checking the Google machine?

first 3 are easy, Admiral, Duncan and lebron. NOt sure who the 4th is

wait nevermind...I forgot Kyrie..lol

Lol, I was going to say! I thought Kyrie and Lebron were the obvious two.

Yeah, it's funny, of those four names, two of them were carried by the other two names.

Robinson wouldn't have won without Duncan
Irving wouldn't have won without Lebron

(Irving is no slouch, he might win more titles without Lebron, but it's unlikely at this point)

Odd that it would happen like that, twice.

I somehow forgot him as well.

I was thinking Hakeem Olajuwon as the 4th (he was actually drafted in 1984.)

The #2 pick is even worse. There are only two since 1985. Can you name them without looking it up?

I wouldn't have gotten either if you gave me a week to think about it.

Darko Milicic, Kevin Durant

Darko, yes. Kevin, he won with the Warriors, not the Supersonics/Thunder.

Won with the team that drafted them.

I have a hard time just naming #2 picks. I think Haus is right though with his first. I think Darko was still with the Pistons when they won their title. Durant was drafted by the SuperSonics though.

Well, Durant didn't win with the team that drafted him (Sonics/Thunder).

Was Michael Beasley back with the Heat when they won the title in 2013?

i don't know if he was or not

Okay, I had to Google #2 picks because I was having a hard time thinking of any. It's not Beasley, although he was close. He resigned with Miami a few months after they won, and then lost in Lebron's final year there.

I know the answer now, looking over the list of picks. (There's not a whole lot of teams that have actually been to the Finals there) Never would of got that one too! I'll give you a hint ... it's a player similar to Beasily, who was drafted by them, and later rejoined with them much later in his career to win the ring. Although, this guy was much older. I almost was thinking he was a Coach on the team.

I looked it up as well, and yeah, it is a sneaky one.

I started my search with the #3 pick. I think there's only one.

Looked at the list of number 3 picks that have won a ring with the team that drafted them too. Since Michael Jordan, there's only one. And he played for San Antonio.

Checked the #4 and #5 picks as well. I believe there are one one for each there as well. They should be a lot easier to guess though.

Ha ha ha....I got the #5 easy, but I couldn't figure out #4.

#5 is Wade.

One for the #6 pick (You'll never get it) and two for the #7 pick (they're both on the same team, and fairly easy to guess).

You're going to slap your head when you think of #4.

I had to go to Wikipedia....I felt dumb.

Removed due to spoiler...see better post below this if you want the answers.