DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs offseason

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The comments from LeBron/Wade/Bosh make it seem like they think this year is going to be easy. As if they are entitled to the championship because they formed this team.

That type of mentality will be interesting to watch in the playoffs against an Orlando or Boston or LA who wants to squarely knock them off that perch. I think Kobe would take more pleasure in beating Miami next year than Boston even (and the same can be said about Boston and Orlando).

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It's classic overconfidence. I agree with you. The playoffs are such a different beast. Every round you advance, the defenses get tougher, and the lane becomes more clogged. And on the defensive end, you have to be able to defend big men like KG, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Dwight Howard.

These two things alone play against the strengths of the Heat. DWade and LeBron are at their best when going to the hoop; Boston, LA, and Orlando are very good at taking that away over a 7 game series. They might not stop you every time, but they definitely contest everything and tire you out. And despite the signings of Joel Anthony and Z, the Heat don't have the firepower on the block to stop Dwight Howard or Gasol/Bynum from pounding them to death.

Also, there is about a 7-8 man rotation in the playoffs. This puts an immense amount of pressure on Mike Miller coming off the bench. He is a terrific shooter, but so is Mo. And come playoff time, Mo wasn't always up to the pressure. Miller has little playoff experience. Will he be able to live up to the pressure? In contrast, LA has Odom and Orlando has Pietrus, guys who have extensive playoff experience. I believe as much as anything, this will be a huge deal for the Heat.

I would really love to see Lebron and Co. knocked out of the playoffs in the 1st round.

I don't expect it to happen ...... but man, would that be a sight to see.

actually they just said on rizzo that paul has 2 years left and a player option after that. so i was wrong he does have 2 years. interesting.

if he goes to new york or the lakers you run the risk of becoming major league fraudball, where it's the yankees and red sox, and then everyone else. good luck with that dave stern.

If CP3 ends up in a huge market as well I think my interest in the NBA will start to fade. Players on the Trailblazers or the Hornets keep my interested in watching games on TNT/ESPN during the week. If all the best players start ending up on 3 or 4 teams it really detracts from the overall game imo.

As much as I dislike NY....I think it would make sense if he were there. The league is better when the flagship teams are good.

I'm not saying I like how the Yankees and Red Sox are always good and dominate salary numbers....but it's good to have clear cut enemies to root against (Notre Dame, Yanks, Lakers, Candiens, Red Wings, Rangers, Cowboys, Duke...etc). And it's been too long the Kinicks have been down (their own fault of course....and they're thinking of bringing back I.Thomas back - will they ever learn?)

I think a rule that a player who signs with a particular team has to play at least 1 year with the team could help.

In other words .... no more sign and trade.

If a player wants the max contract available under the Bird Rights Rule ..... then he has to stay with his team for a least one season. (as was the intent of the rule) Otherwise, the player gets his freedom .... but has to accept a deal that fits into the standard for free agents.

The way it's set up now, Bird Rights are a joke. A premium free agent can force a trade to his preferred team and still get the max contract. That was never the intent.

it's so funny how espn is defending this, yet every other sports outlet, sports writer, analyst, talking head, etc... is saying how dumb it is.

heard brian kenny trying to defend it on his radio show when i was on the way to my game.

it's kinda pathetic, you can tell they are in bed together, and i bet they still have their socks on, so weak.

Matt Barnes decided he is going to LA. I am not upset. It is funny though how he'd rather be a back up in LA and make less than start in Cleveland and make more money. I guess Kobe doesn't have to worry about Matt "Kobe Stopping" Barnes anymore.

I'm not upset that we missed out on Barnes either. He is a good, tough player, but he is a role player that title teams need, not an All-Star. Not the type of player a rebuilding team should spend a lot of money on.

I do think it says something when anyone we go after is not interested in being in Cleveland, post lbj.

We have not landed anyone we tried to sign, correct?

I think its got less to do with us being Cleveland and more to do with the fact that the Lakers are the odds-on favorite to win the chip next season.

What other free agent have we tried to sign that went somewhere else? Z? We knew he wasn't going to re-up here.

What we know for sure is that no one has signed here.

Read in the PD that it was hard to get players here WITH lbj, going to be near impossible w/o him.

I can't stand NFL live. I love what Chris Carter did for OSU but he doesn't know how to STFU. Keyshawn Johnson is also annoying as hell.

Cavs sign Eyenga

CLEVELAND, OH - July 23, 2010 - The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed guard/forward Christian Eyenga to a contract, Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced today. Per league and team policy, terms of the contract were not announced.

Eyenga, 21, was the Cavaliers’ first round selection (30th overall) in the 2009 NBA Draft. He averaged 3.9 points on .561 shooting and 2.0 rebounds in 12.0 minutes in 29 regular season games during the 2009-10 season with DKV Joventut Badalona of the Spanish League. The Spanish League is widely regarded as the second-best domestic league in the world behind the NBA. In 11 EuroCup games, the 6-foot-5 guard/forward posted averages of 3.4 points on .444 shooting and 1.2 rebounds in 9.7 minutes per game.

“We’re looking forward to having Christian continue his development on the court here with Coach Scott and our team,” said Cavs General Manager Chris Grant. “He has worked hard and we were very encouraged by his recent performance in summer league.”

A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eyenga most recently played in all five games of the 2010 NBA Summer League with the Cavaliers, reaching double figures in each of the games. In five games (all starts), he averaged 11.4 points on .435 shooting, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 block in 29.2 minutes per game.

“I am happy to be here in Cleveland and excited to play with the Cavaliers this season,” Eyenga said. “This is a great opportunity for me and I look forward to playing for Coach Scott and learning from him, our coaches and my teammates.”

I'm glad we signed him. He wasn't getting many minutes in Europe.

i've also heard american players are just not treated well over there. i know josh childress said something along the lines of it being pretty horrible.

Paul bends to King James’ rule

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
6 hours, 7 minutes ago

Chris Paul had come into the NBA with so much of Kevin Durant’s pureness of purpose: humble, grateful, still the kid who worked summers pumping gas and changing tires at his grandfather’s gas station in North Carolina. He constructed himself a reputation of values and character, and separated himself in all the best ways.

He should stay on course to be his generation’s Tim Duncan, but that no longer appeals to Paul. He’s veered the wrong way, into the wrong clutches. Bad enough that LeBron James damaged his own standing in the sport this summer, he wants to take down Chris Paul with him too.

James, his business manager Maverick Carter and powerbroker William Wesley have far too much influence over Paul’s career, and they’re running it right out of the sunshine and into darkness. They’re using Paul as a commodity to elevate their clout, to show how they can take a player with no contractual leverage and muscle him out of New Orleans.

What they don’t care about – and maybe don’t understand – is that Paul built such a beautiful, unique relationship with the city of New Orleans. He’s been so truly invested there, a beacon and ambassador in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Yet, the James gang see these bonds as disposable and they’re convincing Paul of it, too.

In a Twitter pronouncement on Thursday, King James declared, “Best of luck to my brother [Chris Paul] … Do what’s best for You and your family.”

James was referencing Paul’s half-baked trade request that’s come through Worldwide Wes. Do what’s best for your family? Here’s an idea: What Paul ought to do is run away from James, Wesley, Carter and not stop moving until he’s returned to New Orleans and reaffirmed the obligations he’s made there. No, this isn’t a championship team, but a franchise player reveals himself in good times and bad.

What’s best for Paul’s family is best for everyone’s family in the NBA. It needs James to restrict the polluting onto others of his own warped value system. James plays for the Miami Heat, but somehow he wants control of transactions elsewhere, too. He wants the building of these so-called super teams to protect his own legacy, to make it look like he isn’t the only superstar searching for the easy way to championships.

Wesley has been running around for months trying to orchestrate a trade for Paul, and the packages he proposes are beyond comical. He doesn’t even know half the names of players on the rosters. CAA should take a long look in the mirror, and ask itself what kind of outfit it’s turned into with Wes running basketball operations.

Wes is a full-service middleman now: players, coaches and general managers. He has long orchestrated deals for players and coaches, but through CAA he’s also in the GM business now. Worldwide Wes was responsible for Oklahoma City Thunder executive Rich Cho getting hired as the Portland Trail Blazers’ GM. Now, Portland is one more franchise under the impression that Wes can broker a trade for Paul.

Before New Orleans hired Dell Demps as GM, Wes was asking people: Who is that guy? Now, Wesley and CAA will try to overrun the young, inexperienced Demps and coach Monty Williams with a trade demand. CAA does have a list of preferred teams, and Demps’ first act as GM should simply be to take the list and tear it up. Paul has two years left on his contract and no leverage unless the Hornets are foolish enough to relinquish it.

Paul is a first-team All-NBA talent, and you don’t trade those players. All the proposed deals for him bring back the same thing for New Orleans: far less value. Five nickels don’t add up to a quarter in basketball trades.

All this saga promises to do is cast Paul as an insolent star, and James’ group as the ultimate powerbrokers. Paul doesn’t want to hear this, but they’re preying on his insecurities. They’re using him.

In Paul’s earliest days with Team USA, officials preferred Deron Williams to him because they believed Williams was far more his own man. No one liked the way Paul was so eager to follow James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. These changes haven’t come overnight with Paul, but over time. James, Carter and Wesley embarked on a long, orchestrated campaign to work Paul over, unfasten him from past loyalties and trusts, and transform him into a creation of their own.

And he’s let them, for no other reason than it seems Chris Paul believes this is somehow the path that will convince people that he belongs with the sport’s biggest stars. He could’ve stayed true to himself and elevated his standing, and now they’re dragging him down with them. Everyone else embraced Paul for an All-American image, for a wholesomeness, and it feels like he’s rejected it all now.

Chris Paul doesn’t need LeBron and Maverick and Wes. They need him. For their operation, Paul represents credibility. He’s always been better than this, and he needs to be again. As much as ever, the NBA needs Chris Paul to be true to his upbringing and character. Commitment always mattered to him, and it still should with the Hornets.

After all this bluster comes and goes this summer, and the Hornets don’t trade him, he still has to return to play there. All his brand new business partners have made that so much harder for him. He saved the NBA in New Orleans, and now it’s time he saves something else before it’s too late. His reputation, his good name.

All the advice that Chris Paul has ever needed out of LeBron James came calling in less than 140 characters on Thursday. Do what’s best for you and your family. Before it’s too late, Chris Paul needs to think for himself and respond with the best move of a brilliant young career: Turn around, go home and leave King James and his court of jesters far, far behind.

Adrian Wojnarowski is the NBA columnist

web page

Guess what, more heart felt emotional crap that should be spread in a farm feild as fertilizer.

Chis Paul has his own life as does LeBron and they should be able to decide they're own lives!

Yeah kind of like Kobe, although I don't think Laker fans would have liked it if he signed with the clippers

The 'Witness' Car is For Sale on Craigslist, $23,000 and It's Yours

LINK


Craigslist posting

Oh look, a Laker fan in Texas. How original.

LMAO at the asking price for that POS.

Oh hey that Kobe Bryant is pretty good. They always win too, I think I'll choose them as my team even though I have no real ties to the city at all. Yeah! That sounds like a great idea. -CorpusDawg.

Maybe I'm selling you short here but you have to admit that Lakers fans in general are some of the least respectable fans. (I live in the LA area).