Borowski: “This is not fun.”
July 2, 2008See, Someone Wants to Play Ball in Ohio…
July 2, 2008
With little-to-no news reports coming out of the Cleveland media about the free agency period and what the Cavaliers are trying to do these days, we do our best to scrape together what information we can to pass along.
Obviously reporting on the Cleveland Cavaliers is the farthest thing from Brian Windhorst’s mind these days, as he is still in the hospital fighting illness, but his absence is felt more than ever these days. Without Brian’s reports and Branson Wright no longer on the beat for the Plain Dealer, we have been left hanging high and dry, for the most part, in terms of reports of what Danny Ferry is trying to do right now. Either that, or he’s simply doing nothing, which, who knows, is always a possibility. But regardless, we still want to be able to let our readers know what’s going on, so here’s some of what we’re hearing…
Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an interesting article today talking about what’s going on with the Golden State Warriors in the wake of Baron Davis’ defection. What I found particularly interesting was when Janny wrote,   Â
“Golden State vice-president Chris Mullin has the right to match any offer Ellis receives and has vowed to do so. But if the Warriors come in with an initial offer that Ellis’ camp deems too low, then they risk creating a sticky situation similar to that of Davis.Few teams can offer Ellis an outright deal worth more than the mid-level exception, but Ellis can push for a sign-and-trade to a team willing to pay him significantly more, which is what Davis was seeking before the Clippers unexpectedly found themselves with cap space.
Possible suitors include the Cavaliers, who could use a dynamic guard to pair with LeBron James, or the Heat, who could offer Shawn Marion in a trade.”
Monta Ellis would obvious be a tremendous pickup for the Cavaliers if this were somehow possible. After winning the NBA’s Most Improved award in the 2006-07 season, he followed it up last year by having a real breakout season. A 6’3″ guard who can play either position, Ellis put 20.2 ppg last year while adding 5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 2.1 turnovers, and 1.5 steals per game. Ellis is a poor outside shooter, but his raw explosive offensive game would go a long way towards easier LeBron’s burden on offense. Ellis’ attacking game off the ball would be a huge asset that would mesh nicely with LeBron’s passing game. LeBron and Monta could be deadly operating a 1-2 pick and roll game.
Alas, though, it is likely nothing more than speculation, and it’s hard to fathom any scenario in which the Warriors would get rid of Ellis, especially after losing Baron Davis. The Warriors don’t really have any awful contracts that they could seek to unload on the Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade. If they didn’t want to pay Ellis big money and the Cavs wanted to overpay Ellis to the tune of $7-8 million in the first year of a deal, perhaps by offering Daniel Gibson and either Sasha Pavlovic or Delonte West back in a sign-and-trade would possibly be enticing to Golden State, but the problem is that the Cavaliers only have their MLE available, which is only expect to be around $5.5 million. Obviously, in a sign-and-trade the Warriors could use Ellis’ Bird Rights to sign him to a higher deal and then trade him to Cleveland, but I just don’t see this happening.
It does sound like Cleveland is at least exploring sign-and-trade options. Bob Finnan wrote about some of the Cavs options in the Morning Journal yesterday,
“A league source said the Cavs have been working on some possible deals, including a sign-and-trade.
The salary cap will be announced July 8 and will be worth between $58.8 million and $60.5 million. The Cavs currently have about $82.7 million committed in salaries (about $24 million over the cap).”
There has been no mention of who those sign-and-trade talks have been with, but with Baron Davis already off the market, Gilbert Arenas being thrown way too much money, and Elton Brand rumored to be joining Baron back in LA with the Clippers, the only remaining major unrestricted free agent that Ferry could possibly be looking at doing a sign-and-trade for is Corey Maggette.
Maggette is an interesting option. A 6’6″ wing player, he would certainly provide some instant offense for the Cavaliers. Last season Maggette scored 22.1 ppg on 45.8% shooting from the field. There are a lot of questions with Maggette, though. First off, with LeBron handling the 3, would Maggette be able to play the 2? He’s a pretty poor outside shooter (think Sasha Pavlovic), and his defense has never been his strongest asset. Maggette has also battled injury issues throughout his career, as he has only played in 75 or more games once since his rookie season 9 years ago, although he has played in at least 70 games in 3 of the last 5 seasons, and only played in fewer than 66 games once over that period. The bottom line is, Maggette’s PER numbers the past 5 seasons have been 20.1, 19.9, 18.9, 18.6, and 19.3, which shows a level of consistency that would at least represent an improvement from what the Cavaliers currently have. For comparison’s sake, Wally Szczerbiak’s last 5 PER’s have been 15.3, 17.1, 17.7, 14.8, and 13.9. So clearly Maggette would offer some improvement over Szczerbiak, but would it be enough to warrant whatever the Cavs would have to pay him and give up in a sign-and-trade?
Finally, the Cavaliers are probably looking at a couple other mid-level players that they can use either their MLE or their Bi-Annual Exception on, including Anthony Carter and James Posey. Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News wrote about some of the Nuggets free agents, and he said,
“Regardless, the Nuggets need depth at point. Unrestricted free agent Anthony Carter, who started last season, wants to return, but it’s uncertain if he will.
“I’m trying to get a three- or four-year deal,” said Carter, saying he wants a raise from last season’s minimum contract of $1.1 million.
Carter named Cleveland, New York, Golden State, Dallas and Charlotte as teams he has heard have interest in him. Orlando also is a possibility.”
As for Posey, Warren Blatt of The Sports Network wrote about all of the free agents in his free agency preview column, and had this to say about the Celtics’ guard,
“After winning a championship with the Celtics, Posey has decided to see if the grass is greener on the other side. He will be seeking the maximum out of a mid-level deal, and the highest bidder will get Posey’s services.
The swingman is a solid defender and can knock down the big shot in pressure situations. The 31-year-old Posey averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds during the regular season, and was a big contributor during Boston’s playoff run. He is the perfect role player for a team that is on the cusp of competing for the title.
The Cavaliers, Hornets, Mavericks, Pistons, and Lakers should all have Posey on their radar screens. His style of play would fit particularly well in Detroit.”
Who knows if Cleveland being his hometown will offer any leverage for the Cavaliers in getting Posey, but he certainly seems like a prime candidate for the Cavs to make some kind of offer for. Posey isn’t a guy who’s going to light the world on fire, but as we witnessed first hand in the playoffs this year, he’s a SOLID guy to bring off the bench who can give you good minutes playing tough-as-nails defense, energy, hustle, attitude, and an ability to hit the big shot when left open.
As always, we will continue to keep you informed whenever we hear anything, but as for right now, per usual, things are awfully quiet on the newsfront regarding the Cavaliers. There are some options out there, the question will remain whether or not Ferry can succeed in getting any of these teams to actually sit down and talk to him about trade options.
25 Comments
Im still set on that conspiracy theory someone mentioned yesterday about teams not willing to deal with the Cavs because of ESPN’s 2010 edition of the LeBron sweepstakes.
[Waives hand]
Great recap, Rock. I give the thumbs up on Ellis, but that’s about it out of that group.
To me, I think we already have a bunch of guys who would be great off of the bench. The only issue is, they’re starting. Adding other guys that are “great off of the bench” is only making things worse. Where was Ferry last season when Posey was up for grabs? Oh, that’s right…. offering overachieving offers to Sasha Pavlovic…
i agree with scott for the most part. Ellis would be a solid pickup, but i think that’s pretty obvious. but it really comes down to the cavs having only two legitimate starters (LBJ and Z) and an entire roster full of bench players. and this is exactly why every time Lebron and/or Z come out we fall behind. and Brown can switch those “starters” (wally, wallace, and west) all he wants with his “bench players”, but there’s never going to be any difference. he’s switching one bencher for another, and that’s not going to work. as far as overall on-the-court ability, there are going to be far more valleys than peaks with the Cavs, whereas with more balanced teams the valleys and peaks are about even throughout the game (spiking steadily in 1st and 4th qtrs). Now i think that an offseason with Lebron is going to help turn Delonte from a bench player in starter’s clothing to a legitimate starter. he showed some legitimate signs of brilliance at times, and i think with some more experience he could develop into a quality PG. I’m not saying he’d be an all-star, but he has the potential to be consistent. something we haven’t had at point since mark price.
Maggette is not coming here…
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA.070208.Spurs.EN.14978daf.html
Davis appears to be ready to become a Clipper.
What are you saying, Rick, people would rather play in San Antonio than in Cleveland??? 🙂
There is no chance of Ellis playing for Cleveland next year, the Warriors are going to make sure that they keep him long term
The FA class this year just doesn’t have anything to offer, especially when you only have the midlevel and biannual exceptions. Teams are not quite ready to do sign and trades for just expiring contracts either, not until the deadline. This is going to be a looong offseason
I’m trying to figure out this mid-level thing too. So even though we are $20+ million over the cap we can still sign someone to a roughly $5 million dollar deal? That doesn’t make much sense to me…
That’s correct Rick. The joys of a soft cap.
In fact, the Warriors could sign Ellis to a max deal and then trade him to us and it would be ok even though we’re $20 million over the cap because his Bird Rights would come with him. It’s pretty crazy.
And Ricky, you’re right about Ellis, I don’t see the Warriors moving him at all. I just found it interesting that a SF Chronicle writer even brought it up as a possibility. It made me wonder if Ferry had at least inquired about it, which would make sense why Finnan is writing about a sign-and-trade and the SF Chronicle is writing about Ellis going to Cleveland. Either that, or it’s all speculation and means nothing! 🙂
Danny Ferry is a turd…..he should have been wheeling and dealing prior to the draft….now is to late.
The Mid-Level exception (let’s call it the Eric Snow rule) makes sure that a team can go out and sign SOMEONE even if their roster is totally full of wasted salary dollars that pushes them over the cap.
The real crime is a player like Posey who is at the point of his career where he is chasing MLE’s every season while Brian Scalabrine wears street clothes during the playoffs making $3 Million guaranteed over the next three seasons.
As for Posey coming to the Cavs, it would be nice. I would consider it like a Flip Murray situation. Bring a guy in who isn’t necessarily a starter, but adds lots of value. If the Cavs could get a guy like James Posey and then also do a sign and trade for a Ron Artest, they would be significantly improved next season. Ron Artest is a name I wish I was reading in the rumor mills with regard to the Cavs.
A team is allowed to sign one player to a contract equal to the average NBA salary, even if the team is over the salary cap already, or if the signing would put them over the cap… totaling the amount of the average salary (likely around 6 or 7 mill)
I have to disagree with trying to bring Ron Artest here. Even putting the distractions and suspensions aside, from purely a basketball stand point I don’t think Ron Artest makes that much of a difference on this team.
yea…what FC said
Dude…Monta Ellis would be everything this team has been looking for to put next to LeBron. I run the risk of overpaying him severely and making his camp force the Dubs to send him to Cleveland. His status as a BYC player in such a scenario would make it easier to run a sign-and-trade with him, but under those circumstances, I’d easily offer him $10 million a year (making his BYC trade value about $5 million) and pony up Varejao and two unprotected first-rounders straight up. Hell, based on how badly this team needs a “Pippen” for LeBron (and Monta Ellis fits the bill in every sense), I might go ahead and offer him Laura Hughes money (Why not, Ferry? You gave it to a fucker who didn’t deserve a dime of it, so now give it to a cat who does), which is close to the max, and see how that stirs the pot with Chris Mullin.
If Ferry isn’t going hard after Ellis as we speak, I’m gonna bust his bald head wide open like a coconut.
I think maggette would work however I don’t necessarily believe the Cavs run the best offense to further their ability to get out and run.
http://www.collegefastbreak.com/
Stop with this Ellis talk – it’s not happening. You have to have young, tradeable talent, and AV doesn’t count. Expiring contracts are nice, but never enough on their own.
More likely is a guy like Anthony Carter or a Mikael Pietrus. Don’t expect much – at least until the deadline.
Vinsanity is a real possibility but that’s a tough one to swallow given his contract we’d take on and what we’d let the Nets out of (though another team could easily take him off their hands as well)
Wil, what trades could Ferry have made before the draft? The closest he came to getting anyone was Vince Carter, and now he won’t make a deal not because it is too late, actually it is the opposite, a lot of trades happen after the free agency period has ended, but rather because there is no one on the Cavs that teams want, minus Gibson, West, and Varejao, and we are going to keep Gibson and West.
I was doing some thinking today, thought that maybe Dallas won’t make the playoffs this year in the hotly contested West. They are starting to get old and their window is closing, maybe they will decide to start over, what if they decide to trade Dirk at the deadline? Unlikely, but just saying; at the deadline we don’t know what teams will be underachieving and what teams will decide to rebuild, therefore we don’t know what players will be available at that time and there might be a few people we haven’t thought of, like maybe Dirk…
You know if the player we are looking to grab is a solid 2 guard, then they can have Gibson. As far as I’m concerned the only player that is untouchable is LeBron, and that’s only because I don’t see anyone as an upgrade at that position. If we can give an expiring contract (Wally, Damon, AV) and they want Gibson they can have him. If they want the contract and Z they can have him if we get something better back. (That would be a much shorter list obviously.)
Ricky- I’m with you. I think Dirk, or a player like Dirk is the type that will be available come New Year’s day.
Dirk might be available, but we don’t have the pieces to get him. Dallas will obviously look for some young talent in return (a la Al Jefferson, and even that was a freak occurence), something we won’t have.
No way Dallas would trade him for expirings and our comibination of youth and draft picks.
However, Josh Howard perhaps could be had if the Mavs stumble next year. He’d fit pretty well here.
I don’t want to be too argumentative, but there is no reason in the world that Ron Artest wouldn’t be a hell of an answer for Cleveland.
He has kept his nose out of trouble for multiple years now. He puts up a deceptively high amount of points, plays way better than average defense and is competitive as hell. The chances that he would be too big a distraction are chances I am willing to take in order to have another 20 points per game on the team.
On top of that, compared to guys like Vince Carter he is a real bargain because he makes less money and averages almost as many points.
i would actually say no to both ellis and maggette. maggette is a lot like hughes in the he’s a slasher and not a shooter, and ellis is a guy who needs the ball in his hand and has to get into the lane to be effective. the lane is LeBron’s residence, and we don’t maggette/ellis clogging it up or kicking to LeBron for jumpers.
posey would be great for this team, though. give him sasha and devin brown’s minutes from this past season. guy who has won a lot and who is tough as hell. i like it.
no way to artest. he’s declining and is a complete joke of a person. how would LeBron like it when ron wants to take a month off to promote his next album? no thanks.
i’d also like to see wally stick around until the deadline. i really think he can help this team win some games when his shot starts to fall, which it will. that’s the type of player, although we need more youth and athleticism thank wally offers, that we need to put in place next to LeBron. a distance shooter who can create his own shot.
I think you guys are way off base on Artest’s attitude. He has had his act together for several years now. I think that’s the completely wrong reason to not want him. The real reason to not want him is because he’s a black hole on offense. Once he gets the ball in his hands, he rarely relinquishes it. He slows offenses down more than LeBron does.
I agree with Rock. NBA players aren’t angels by nature, and nobody is perfect. But he just isn’t a good offensive player. He averaged a lot of points because Kevin Martin missed a good amount of time with injury and because he demands the ball so much. Not the player we are looking for
I think a deal involving Gibson, Hickson, Wally, Varejao, and a first round pick would be a pretty good offer for Dirk and a bad contract they have, maybe a Stackhouse. but maybe not. Dirk was also just a name that came to mind, who knows what team will be underachieving and what players they will have to offer
who cares what we get ferry is a loser and should be kicked out the nba he couldnt get it dont as a high draft pick as a player and wont get it dotn as a gm, he already ruined our team with a bunch of bums were debating keeping booby or d-west and why? cause they both aint good outside of shooting the 3, we need a pg a 2 guard a 4 that can score and a center that has legs and aint 88 years old, and what does feery do with 2 years till Le Bron will defect to the greener grass of brooklyn, he drafts a college freshmen when we need to convince Le bron right now to stay cause we got the team to win it all, hes 4 or 5 years away from starting, wer done the world is coming to an end as we know it and Le bron will go to ny and the cavs with plummetting atendence with le Bron gone will soon be gone after that within 5-7 years so debating wether we should get maggette or ellis is pointless to even mention their both lrry hughes all over again, they cant shoot neither one and dont even come close to fitting our system im a huge fan of ellis just not in cleveland u guys do realize that Le Bron or our pg have the ball and they kick it to the open man with this rediculous offense that we have right now, so they kick it to the open man to ellis your sayin and he shoots to score right? HE CANT SHOOT HELLO! what are u talking about? hes a slasher in the lane guy, and alley oops, hes a western conference player, he wants to run and run, cavs dont run! we half court it all game and we dont have a offense. our plan is ok Le Bron will drive n shoot, or kick it out, period! and maggette is the same thing, except hes not like a ellis or hughes in that he doesnt need the ball in his hands at least half the time to succeed but still cant shoot and he wants to run all the time also and yea, we dont. he would never ever work either! as far as im concerned from the free agents that r left we can only add posey for a good addition but no ferry he will add more power forwards and more centers that we dont need and maybe 1 other player that is an awful fit. i live in connecticut now after moving and now that its written in stone that lebron will leave i thought maybe i would be happy cause i can see le bron more now but that would just rip my heart out, so im just gonna go from the biggest nba fan ever to none at all n just watch baseball, football and college basketball. everyday people say Le bron is leaving and he was asked by the ny media what is his top 5 favorite us cities and he said ny city #1 and cleveland did not make the top 5!!! what kinda ish is that? hiom n jay z r way to close le Bron wants to be with jay z n his boys not to mention l bron said half his friends now live in ny city oh and he was asked after his top 5 fav us cities by the ny media what is his favorite burrough of ny and he said brooklyn! omg wow! he is so wrong n disrespectfull, alot has to do with our mediocre team but half is cause he wants to be global and sell more Le bron stuff, sneakers n all that crap. and all these people in ohio worried about him leaving n he continues to throw up the rock sign for rocafella every time hes on tv, and then sayin all this??? wow! hes greedy yes and ruthless yes, but ferry and loser mike brown had a huge part in this. brown who cant coach or come up with any single good play out of a time out ever outside of le bron u drive n we’ll watch or u kick it out….in closing i would like to say n back to the topic nothing short of trading for a new team completely will keep Le bron in cleveland and thats all yall should be worried about rather than talkin this mumbo jumbo when it will really only matter for 2 years, because the king will leave the building, the end.