i think he's just having some fun. i think deep down, and i'm completely honest, ozzie loves cleveland. i think he loves the passion of the fans.
remember, it wasn't too long ago that he tweeted about how it's a good thing the bears weren't playing the browns, because they'd get their rear ends kicked too, as the tribe was beating down the sox and the cavs were beating down the bulls.
i like ozzie, probably one of the few clevelanders that does, but i love how he just doesn't care what people think. i wish he were the indians manager.
-Agree with that, I dont mind Ozzie. On a manager front I think ppl in cleveland would love him, even though I have been suprised with Acta, granted the tribe are terrible but him as a manager has been solid. He's far and away better than Wedge imo.
Back to Cavs talk, I have been hearing some Cavs trade rumors popping up, perhaps the Cavs attempt to land someone before FA to entice LBJ to stay?
"The medium for the bad news was ESPN, which figured. The network represents much of what is loud, obnoxious and empty in sports today."
I agree. I actually don't mind Ozzie either. I like that he is willing to speak his mind. I wasn't really serious about beaning him. I was just having some fun too.
Back to Cavs talk, I have been hearing some Cavs trade rumors popping up, perhaps the Cavs attempt to land someone before FA to entice LBJ to stay?
rizz said on his show yesterday that they should go after cp3, the pieces are in place for that trade.
i mean, really look at both sides, it's not all that far fetched.
hornets: financial problems, may not be able to pay him when he hits the free agent market, i think in 2 years.
they have collison, who played GREAT when paul went down
cavs: lebron is closer to cp3 than anyone else in the league, closer than derek rose, closer than chris bosh, closer than dwyane wade. they've been friends for a long time. my mom actually had a run in with lebron way back when cp3 was at wake forest, they were staying at the marriot, and lbj was visiting him.
they have delonte west and his non-guaranteed deal. i think he's due 4.6 but if you release him before a certain date, it's only 500k. i think most have already heard that.
you also have a few expiring deals for next year. you may have to take a bad contract a la okafor. but i think okafor is a solid player.
we've been doing this for years. dealing expirings for guys like shaq and jamison. and honestly, it's not exactly the best way (i don't blame ferry one bit though) but if you can get chris paul, you do it any way possible. if you can land chris paul, and a good coach, lebron doesn't even consider going.
i truly believe he wants to stay, but needs a reason. i think he fears that cleveland can't get another great player. like topdawg mentioned, all these championship teams have 1 or 2, sometimes even 3 and 4, all stars.
Quote: I would be estatic to get both okafor and CP3 on the Cavs.
Okafor has a terrible contract, but let's not forget one huge thing with taking it on:
it means that we don't need to resign Shaq. Okafor is the type of physical defender that can handle (though not stop like Perkins) Dwight Howard 1on1.
I would think that NO would want us to take on Okafor AND Posey (and if we can figure out a way to save them $$$ on Peja, they'd appreciate it)
I mean, they would take a HUGE hit on the local marketing if they gift-wrap Chris Paul for anything other than another star. Think what happened to the Indians after trading CC, Lee, and Victor. That's about on par with public perception of Paul down there.
Quote: I would be estatic to get both okafor and CP3 on the Cavs.
Okafor is not a offensive threat but he is a big physical center than could slow guys down. Rondo wouldn't be able to blow past CP3 because they're both equally fast. Also if we added CP3 imagine how much better guys like JJ and Andy would be. Lastly adding CP3 means puting Mo on the bench. If Mo gets hot he'll get a lot more minutes if he's cold then it's not a big deal.
CP3 AP LBJ JJ Okafor
That's a extremely athletic line up that could run Bostons old wrinkly arses out of a gym
it's the move that makes the most sense of anything mentioned on here.
however, if it becomes known that paul is available, we won't be the only team inquiring. and it's not a sign and trade, so the hornets can do whatever they want with paul.
also, i don't think they're just gonna give up a guy like that. they may say no thanks and try and work through and do what they can to keep him, or they may want quite a bit. who knows.
but like i said, it makes the most sense of anything i've heard. including iggy/brand.
Quote: it means that we don't need to resign Shaq. Okafor is the type of physical defender that can handle (though not stop like Perkins) Dwight Howard 1on1.
That's all we really need from the center position. We would be built a LOT like Boston:
Okafor - Perkins Jamison - KG Lebron - PP Mo/Parker - Allen CP3 - Rondo
Hickson ($1.5) AV ($7) Delonte ($4.6) --- only 500K guaranteed
then who? Z and Shaq sign-n-trade for non-guaranteed contracts isn't going to go over in the NBA office. Doing it at the end of a contract is one thing, but doing it specifically to skirt the NBA trade rules will be not taken lightly.
Jamison has a bigger contract than Okafor (though shorter term) Mo Williams has more on his contract than Posey (though a better player)
I just don't see why NO wouldn't take the next 2 years of Chris Paul helping sell tickets over what we have to offer them right now.
And, if NO really wanted to just cut costs, they would call Dallas. Dampier's $13mil contract is non-guaranteed. So:
Roddy-B ($1.1mil) Dampier ($13mil) - non-guaranteed Butler ($13.5mil) - expiring 1st round pick in 2011 or 2010 (we can't offer either) total = $27.6mil (125% of = $34.5) for Chris Paul ($14.9) Okafor ($11.5) Posey ($6.5)
I still don't see why NO would want to get rid of CP3 so early. Even if they know they can't afford him when he's a free agent, which I doubt, I'd expect them to keep him until he can leave. Why dump the only draw you have for a few scraps from Cleveland? It would save money but alienate the fans.
I'd give it a .01 % chance of happening.
If they were going to trade him, I'd expect a few teams to get involved just to block us from keeping Lebron.
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
perk has about 20-25 pounds on okafor, but i think he could hold his own against a lot of guys. he's a good rebounder too.
also, i think the byron scott thing could play into it. the guy is not a bad coach, he has a history with paul, i don't think it was paul that got him fired. i would look into it though. i think that is a guy that could really work well with lebron. not my first choice, but he would be a good sign.
now if the cavs were able to land a guy like cp3, maybe you go after iggy too. if you have the assets.
although neither paul nor iggy are great outside shooters, but i do love the physical play that iggy can bring.
it's all fantasy right now though. hopefully dan and danny are coming up with a plan to bring in that other guy.
what i would love to see is to get a guy like paul in here, tell him that you'll extend him immediately. hopefully you can get a long term extenstion from lbj. if you can lock both of those guys up long term, cleveland becomes a little more desirable.
like i have said, it's tough when cleveland as a city can't match up with new york or chicago or miami, and it doesn't help when your star player is non-commital.
but remember, this whole lebron thing isn't about cleveland v new york, or cleveland v chicago, or new york v chicago. it's about the cavs v the knicks, cavs v the bulls, or bulls v the knicks.
when lebron goes july 1 to start getting recruited by all these teams, it's not like he's gonna be "wow, new york is so nice, who'd a thought"
"man, chicago, what a nice town!"
no, no. lebron knows those are nice towns. that won't be news to him. what this is about is the organizations. and that is where i think we are right there with all these other suitors. the cavs are a first class nba organization. dan gilbert is a first class owner, danny ferry has proven he can work other gm's, and with all the other stuff, like the facilities, like some of the stories you heard about dan gilbert and danny ferry running z did in the airport, etc...
that's the kind of stuff lebron is looking for, i love these other people that think lebron doesn't realize how nice those other cities are. he's been to new york. he's been to chicago.
i honestly don't think this is about home life, or lifestyle, or night life, or glamour and all that. lebron chose to stick with the cavs in 2006, even after we realized larry hughes and donyell marshall were awful (and when he signed, they had only been here 1 year)
if it was all about market size, and lifestyle, he would have never signed that extenstion, he would have played out that last year, and took off (like screamin a smith reported and was dead wrong on)
Quote: i disagree. nice player, but he's not a #2 option.
We'll just have to agree to disagree.
I would say he's close to a #2 option, but not quite there. He's not quite as good as Gerald Wallace, who I had always championed to get to pair with LeBron (though no way Charlotte trades him now after last year).
The one thing I would love about bringing Iggy here is that he would give us back a defender for once in a trade. It seems we keep trading defensive guys away. Well, Iggy didn't always give the effort for the 76ers, but when he did he was a fantastic defender (to be fair to Iggy the whole team lapsed on defense many times).
can you tell me what you think NO would accept for CP3?
I tried above, but couldn't come up with anything even close to reasonable. add in the fact we don't have a draft pick to give them in '10 and can't give them our '11 1st rounder (Stepein Rule).
And Dallas has a more attractive offer in terms of saving $$$ (though Hickson + AV > Roddy-B in terms of talent)
okafor and his deal, maybe even posey. although that is almost 30m and i don't know if we have 30m worth of players that they'd want.
that is $32.5mil, so we need to come up with $26mil in contracts to meet the 125% trade clause.
The problem is coming up with 'contracts' that they'd want. Outside of AV, Hickson, Delonte, and maybe Gibson, I don't see any contracts that they would jump at. We'd have to somehow convince them to take Mo?
If they don't need us to take Posey, then we need ~$21.5mil in contracts. The above 4 players add up to $17mil. We'd have to convince them to take Parker and Jawad or something (then they'd be getting back 6 contracts for 2 players...even cutting Delonte, they'd have 3 extra spots they'd have to find).
LBJ, Dwade, and Joe Johnson are having lunch together as reported on ESPN! If lebron chooses a Chicago Deep Dish pizza fromthe menu he must be goingto chicago! Or will he choose a new york deep dish??!?!? Maybe he will complain about temp of his food, hinting toward joining the "heat"!!!!!!
*Stole the joke from a friend.
"The medium for the bad news was ESPN, which figured. The network represents much of what is loud, obnoxious and empty in sports today."
okafor and his deal, maybe even posey. although that is almost 30m and i don't know if we have 30m worth of players that they'd want.
that is $32.5mil, so we need to come up with $26mil in contracts to meet the 125% trade clause.
The problem is coming up with 'contracts' that they'd want. Outside of AV, Hickson, Delonte, and maybe Gibson, I don't see any contracts that they would jump at. We'd have to somehow convince them to take Mo?
If they don't need us to take Posey, then we need ~$21.5mil in contracts. The above 4 players add up to $17mil. We'd have to convince them to take Parker and Jawad or something (then they'd be getting back 6 contracts for 2 players...even cutting Delonte, they'd have 3 extra spots they'd have to find).
it's very messy. i don't think we can take all 3 guys. it might have to be cp3 and then either okafor or posey.
i don't think they'd want mo or gibson. gibson makes like 4 million a year and doesn't see the floor. isn't good enough of a ball handler to be a point guard, isn't big enough/consistent enough to be a starting 2.
however, if the hornets are looking to stay competitve, maybe they'd want boobie as a bench guy. i just don't see it though.
Quote: then who? Z and Shaq sign-n-trade for non-guaranteed contracts isn't going to go over in the NBA office. Doing it at the end of a contract is one thing, but doing it specifically to skirt the NBA trade rules will be not taken lightly.
Besides, we can't sign-and-trade Z ... we lost his Bird rights with the trade-and-resign deal. So that leaves Shaq as our only sign-and-trade option. (I don't think we have Bird rights on Jawad or Telfair)
Shaq and Z are also free agents ... so I'm not sure they are just going to happily sign non-gaurenteed contracts, just to be pawns and get traded and cut immediately again.
Honestly, I think we may have seen the last of Z and Shaq in Cleveland. Z still wants a starters role, and may just retire if he can't get major playing time. He was getting plenty of interest from the Mavs and other teams when he was a free agent, so I don't see him happily signing a veteran minimum contract with us to sit on the bench.
Shaq wants to start, period. And if the rumors about him causing locker-room unrest are true ... then Ferry probably wants him gone too. If he signs a one year contract for a sign and trade ... the team that gets him will probably just keep him for that amount. I just don't see a team eating cap space/salary and getting no playing time from Shaq in the process.
Quote: I still don't see why NO would want to get rid of CP3 so early. Even if they know they can't afford him when he's a free agent, which I doubt, I'd expect them to keep him until he can leave. Why dump the only draw you have for a few scraps from Cleveland? It would save money but alienate the fans.
I'd give it a .01 % chance of happening.
If they were going to trade him, I'd expect a few teams to get involved just to block us from keeping Lebron.
well for one, i don't think every owner in the world cares what the fans think (dolans, anyone?) sometimes the bottom line is the most imporant factor.
plus, i think the hornets can sell collison to their team and fans, if they were looking for a reason to deal cp3. while he's not as flashy or as well known as paul, he showed that he's more than capable of being a starting point guard and a damn good one.
and they wouldn't be getting scraps back, they'd be getting a developmental player like hickson, maybe even a solid piece like andy, a draft pick, and some cap relief.
i'm not saying this is signed sealed and delivered, but i give this a chance more than i do a lot of the other scenarios.
Besides, we can't sign-and-trade Z ... we lost his Bird rights with the trade-and-resign deal. So that leaves Shaq as our only sign-and-trade option. (I don't think we have Bird rights on Jawad or Telfair)
doh. yes, we don't have bird rights on Z. my fault.
Telfair has a player-option he will be exercising, so we can just consider him under contract ($2.7mil that noone else is going to offer him).
Jawad's Bird rights are more interesting, we have a qualifying offer of just over $1mil for him, but I think RFA's have more complex 'bird' rights where the sign-n-trade would actually have to be the 'other' team signing him and us then trading him.
The Atlanta Hawks GM just got fined 20k for making comments about Lebron ... he's the third person in a week to get fined for tampering. At this rate ... maybe we'll be the only team left that can afford James when FA finally rolls around.
yup, pretty much. he and scott skiles did a great job with brandon jennings though.
don't think this is the guy though, i think the cavs are just going to do the most full search that you've ever seen though. because they have to prepare for life with lebron and life after.
if lbj leaves, you can probably bank on a much different coach than if lbj stays.
and knowing dan gilbert, they are gonna be prepared either way.
and has anyone brought up the wade comments from yesterday?
i know he's doing it to get lbj to consider miami more, but i think he helped our cause.
because it's true. bulls fans don't want to admit it, but there were bitter feelings with that entire organization, as well as a power struggle. reinsdorf, krause, jackson, jordan. everyone wanted their credit, their due.
and remember, it all ended at once. after jordan sank that jumper in utah, it was all over, they all kinda went their seperate ways.
jordan said many times that the bulls and the city of chicago used him.
he definitely did not leave on a good note.
and i have been saying for weeks that their roster and situation is not exactly as great as the media is making it out to be.
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