I don't have much faith in Dan to be able to build this up right. He should go back with hat in hand to Griffin and ask him to come back.
What Gilbert Should Do: Hire a more seasoned front office, stockpile young & foreign assets including draft picks, create as much cap flexibility as possible without worrying about in-season performance, stir a lot of interest up in Love as "the missing piece" to fringe contenders and extract a big offer toward the beginning of the year or trade deadline What Gilbert Will Do: Stick with Altman as 'his guy' for being loyal to him through Kyrie/LBJ departures, convince himself we are a piece or two away from being a playoff team next year, shed the small amount of young assets we do have (Osman, Zizic, Nance, future firsts) in an attempt to bring in a fringe all-star (see: Walker, Kemba), watch the team muddle in 33-38 win obscurity for years on end
Dan Gilbert is anything but protective of his guys. I don’t think he’s had a GM that has seen a second contract in Cleveland.
I don't mind the guy, he knows value in trade but isn't he blackballed considering he pissed off Adam Silver and would he really want to work for Dan Gilbert? http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...be-another-process-or-a-gm-job-for-sam-hinkie An article on him
i feel like hinkie blew a ton of really valuable picks. i mean yeah, he understood the value of assets and of maximizing lottery odds, but beyond that, what evidence is there that he's actually competent? would take him over koby, but still.
i wonder if boston would be interested in kevin love. the challenge with trading him is that he's only really valuable to a contender and we're not going to get much of value in return. but boston has lottery picks to burn. just not sure love really fits with them.
lol Demarcus Cousins just signed with Golden State. Nothing we could've done this offseason would've come close to competing with GS. Makes it easier to deal with.
I bet owners and the union are not happy about this. How do owners even try to compete with this and the union ain't gonna be happy about a All-Star taking much less than what he's worth. I bet this season will be 5-6 teams trying to win a title and half the league planning their own Bataan death march to the #1st pick. It's not sustainable.
Yeah, the NBA has a bit of a problem on its hands. Outside of California, the viewership and attendance will be drastically lower.
Yep, just said as much inthe NBA thread. Thank God I’m not going to have to spend the year trying to convince myself we have any sort of shot. NBA is trash right now.
I honestly haven't noticed, but I don't pay much attention to baseball outside of the Indians and the AL Central. It's harder to tell, in my opinion. Regardless, the NBA is heading in a bad direction. Quickly.
the quality of the basketball is top notch and there are far fewer garbage front offices. but the competitive balance is obviously a problem. the whole point of a salary cap is to prevent stuff like this. honestly, with cousins' personality and the amount of talent he's going to have to share the floor with, this might not have been the best move for gsw. probably won't matter though
East Coast will still be good viewership and attendance. As for places not on I-95 or I-5, I can see people tuning out. If the NCAA were smart, they'd capitalize on this right now.
and just imagine in March-April there could be a handful of teams separated by less than 3 games for spots in the playoffs and spots in the lottery. If you see teams actively avoid being a #8 seed in favor of trying to win that #1 pick..there will be trouble, it won't look good.
Yeah, considering the dumpster fire that is currently the Cavs roster and contract obligations, I was already fine with LeBron leaving. Completely understandable. With that said, the Boogie signing with GSW actually makes me glad he went to LA. I’ll be much more content as a fan watching the team try to rebuild than trying to convince myself they wouldn’t get motor boated by GSW in the Finals again.
this is why i'm a bit surprised he went west. the lakers have zero chance against that gsw team. even if they get kawhi, that series goes 5 max. the lakers are still two superstars away from being able to even think about competing with the warriors, and while they have the ability to pull that off, it's hardly guaranteed.
I may tune in just to see the league collapse under its own weight. But yes, I'll be watching the Jackets, NCAA and HS basketball, European soccer, and WWE this winter.
FWIW, have a buddy who works for LeBron in some capacity (don't want to say how). Said he didn't know, but his bosses who interact with LeBron directly told him after it's been a done deal for months that he would go to LA. Dunno if that makes me feel better or worse.
Literally nothing makes me feel bad after Boogie went to GS. I mean that. All feelings I had disappeared. Now I’m just looking forward to the rebuild.
it kind of surprises me. i figured he'd wait for someone like kawhi to go to LA first and then make the jump. and if that didn't happen, he'd do another one year deal with cleveland. they're at least two players away from even having a chance against gsw. guess he just wanted to go to la regardless, which i can't really blame him for. but if that's the case, i'm kinda surprised he couldn't work something behind the scenes to bring at least one other player with him.
This is me exactly. I think I might have even said it in this thread. With that development resulting in the obvious farce the NBA will be next season, it really was the best for both parties for LeBron to go to LA. The Cavs can rebuild, and he’s got a shot to win another title before he retires, given the impending Warriors deconstruction and the Lakers workable roster space in the next couple years.
It's hard for me to feel much about this team with Lebron gone as long as Dan Gilbert owns it. Yeah he's spent a fuck ton of money and there's no doubt he wants to build championship teams here, which is better than several NBA owners but he doesn't know what he's doing. Not paying David Griffin was a massive mistake. I really think Griffin could have sorted out the Kyrie situation or would have gotten more long term pieces out of it. After hearing Altman say they think they can compete in the East, I've lost even more faith. It's proven that you're going to have a lot better chance of long term success by tanking when you're not a destination franchise. If they don't get a solid future asset for Love (first round pick with little or no protections), it'll be a massive mistake.
FWIW Bryce and Bronny are not happy about the move. They had a going away party for them and the kids were told to not bring it up. Lebron said this was a family decision, but I tend to think this was a post-NBA decision.
I still think when that 3/4 year deal is up, and his skills start to deteriorate, he’ll have a going away tour with the Cavs.
Exactly this was 100% about his outside interests. It makes zero sense to jump to a middle of the road West team instead of jumping to Philly and staying in East or to a lesser extent stay in Cleveland and ride out this next year and wait to for cap purge after the season.
Today is "LaBron free pizza day" at all the Blaze Pizza locations in LA from 2 to 5 PM to celebrate LeBron going to LA. This is all going to be some massive scheme to promote all his investments, post-basketball initiatives, etc., and if he lasts another season or two because he's out in the first round every year while the Warriors dominate the league, all the better. Maybe in two years he'll worry about making a run if/when Klay and Draymond move to be the stars on their own teams.
I may have said this before, but I honestly think LeBron leaving was the best thing for both parties involved. Let's face facts, the roster and contract situation was/is a mess for the Cavs. They had no room to make any moves that was going to bring in enough talent to beat a team out of the West in the Finals. Of course it would be nice to make the Finals consistently for the next few years, but even that wasn't guaranteed with teams like the Celtics consistently getting better. LeBron leaving allows the front office to rebuild without the expectations of making the Finals, or even the playoffs. With that said, I really don't like the Love contract. Also, I fully expect LeBron to return to Cleveland for his last season after his Lakers contract is finished.