While We’re Waiting… Dwyane Wade for MVP? Please.
March 11, 2009Dancin…Dancin…DANCIN! Cleveland State is Headed to the NCAA Tournament
March 11, 2009
Scott R. Galvin / AP
I was reading two articles at the Plain Dealer this morning talking about Danny Ferry’s career as an NBA executive thus far. Terry Pluto and Brian Windhorst cover a couple different angles. Windhorst dissects the trades and moves themselves, while Pluto talks about Ferry as a player and how he developed into the man he is today. It is amazing to look at all Ferry has accomplished, but one thing will forever hold true. Danny Ferry won’t be able to say he was able to build anything at all without Lebron James. That is, unless Lebron James leaves Cleveland.
Now, before everyone attacks me for speaking the unspeakable, this is not a prediction. I didn’t drink a gallon of New York Media Juice over the weekend and come out brainwashed. I am also, quite obviously, not rooting for Lebron to leave town. I hope we never have to find out what life is like without Lebron James. That said, I was left wondering after reading these articles if I thought Danny Ferry would be capable of building a winner in a post-Lebron era, should that era ever arrive. Of course there is no way to prove a point or win an argument on this, but I think I would have confidence in Danny Ferry given what I have seen so far.
You could say that Danny didn’t do all that well in signing his first round of free agents. Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, and my favorite punchline Larry Hughes don’t seem like good signings in hindsight. Consider the fact that the Cavs’ scoring before these acquisitions was primarily done by Lebron James, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden and Jeff McInnis. After the acquisitions of Jones, Marshall, and Hughes, the scoring load stayed much the same, except this time without Jeff McInnis. Larry Hughes played in only 36 games scoring 15.5 points. Marshall contributed 9.3 points per game, but shot only 32.4% from three. Damon Jones shot almost 38% from three but he only contributed 6.7 points in 25.5 minutes per game.
While these free agent signings didn’t necessarily work out to the maximum of the Cavs’ expectations, they were good enough, as Windhorst points out in his article, to get Lebron James through his first contract extension. Combine the acquisition of Flip Murray in the middle of the season that year with Ferry’s willingness to be patient and loyal to Mike Brown and you end up with a positive year for Ferry as the Cavs make their first trip to the playoffs in 7 long years.
That was the first milestone. Danny sat on this team and bet that it would be even better the next year when healthy. He might have been right as the Cavs rode Lebron James all the way to the NBA finals where they got plastered by the Spurs. This is where Danny Ferry deserves credit. He didn’t blame the players for failing to deliver on the ultimate stage. He took that as a sign that his team wasn’t nearly as far along as it needed to be. He saw the writing on the wall that he was really just riding Lebron James and that they weren’t ready to go up against a fully functioning team. He took responsibility. He never said it, but his actions reflect it.
And how many times have we seen this play out in the NBA? A team is good, but not good enough to get over the top, but they stick with all the pieces that got them the Bronze or Silver medal. I think of the New York Knicks in the Patrick Ewing era. I think of the current Washington Wizards that decided to go back to work this year with Arenas, Butler, and Jamison. Not Danny Ferry. He works his tail off and makes the bold deal that remade the Cavs by trading with a division opponent.
And through it all, these are the reasons that I think Danny Ferry could remake the Cavs if he was forced to do so without Lebron James. He may not be right all the time, but you can tell that his targets are always moving and he is willing to constantly react to try and hit them. He has a larger over-riding theme whenever he makes a move and that theme is consistent between his coach, his owner, and him at all times. And if it comes to pass, heaven forbid, that Lebron James leaves the Cavs, I would expect Danny Ferry to make more bold moves, whether it is acquiring a mix of draft picks and free agents or trading for talents that need new homes. Based on his performance so far, he has earned that benefit of the doubt.
Now let’s hope we never have to build without Lebron.
24 Comments
This is the article I was posting when our site got obliterated.
I admit, I thought Ferry was completely wrong about Mo Williams. I went to a Bucks game last year and they looked completely dysfunctional, with Mo seemingly a gunner who never saw a 3-point shot he didn’t like.
Flip Murray deal is criminally underrated. Made a huge difference to the team.
I think so too, Craig. And by “building without Lebron”, you mean not having to do it for the next 10-15 years, correct?
He would need to turn it around quick if the Unspeakable did happen. As much buzz as this team is getting now, if he wasn’t here a lot of the support and revenue would dry up quick. If Ferry could quickly put some big free agents in place the franchise might survive, put the question is would the money be there to do so?
Ferry may be able to build a competetive functional team without Lebron, something like we had back in the 80’s, but there is no way in hell he could build a team like we have now without having Lebron gift wrapped for him. Big time NBA stars don’t just come to Cleveland through free agency, because
A. the legue wouldn’t allow it .
and
B. the league wouldn’t allow it.
Just hope Bron has enough loyalty to stick around and have his Bronze statue outside the Arena one day, but if not he’s still the greatest in our history!
The only problem with the 80s cavs was Michael Jordan. Otherwise they’re in the finals 2-3 times.
The death blow, that would be dealt by LeBron leaving, would be the cloud that would never leave. All anyone outside of Cleveland would talk about is how it’s LeBron’s “old” team. They would have to win a title to get any recognition beyond “how much better they would be if he was still around”.
Having just said that it makes me think we would not get another big FA. And if we did he would crumple under the pressure.
the difference between mo on the bucks and mo on the cavs is this: on the bucks, without Redd, Mo was clearly the best player and tried to play like it. he felt like he had to take over the game to win. they really had no alternative options. sure sessions was good and charlie v was there, but they were both still young and learning. now on the cavs, mo is clearly #2. his role is set. he accepts that and i think embraces it. he plays within the system and does what he needs to do since he knows he doesnt have to be the #1 guy for the team to win. thats the impression i got from watching him last year.
Hectorakacd, I’ll disagree with a few of your comments. First of all big time NBA starts don’t go anywhere in free agency. Since the advent of the salary cap, there has only been one max free agent that has walked. Shaq from Orlando. And if by chance you are referring to that next tier of NBA star (the guys who think they are max players but aren’t), don’t forget Shawn Kemp did come to Cleveland.
Second, Lebron wasn’t gift wrapped for Ferry. Lebron was the result of the complete incompetence of Jim Paxon who systematically traded away draft picks (no 1st rounders in 2005 and 2007), drafted poorly (Luke Jackson to start…), let our best talent walk (Boozer) for nothing, and signed junk to long term contracts (Snow, Newble). Unfortunately, even though Paxon’s efforts did net us Lebron, it left the proverbial cupboard bear and we had no other young talent and few draft picks to even attempt a trade to bring in the ‘Pipen’ type player so many fans have screamed for. What Ferry has done since taking the helm (with the exception of Hughes, nice recovery though) is pretty amazing. As for Lebron staying, I don’t think loyalty will factor much into the decision. I think based on the direction of this organization, staying in Cleveland will be the smart move for him to make.
The extra year/tens of millions of dollars won’t hurt, either!
This article needed to be written! While as fans I don’t think we should fret over LeBron, in the business world, anything can happen, so you have to prepare for anything. I hope Danny Ferry has a contingency plan in his head in case LeBron does leave.
Why address this since Lebron ain’t going anywhere? Yes Danny is fully capable of keeping the club competitive…….but let’s get off this mentality that LeBron is leaving.
He’s got $30M more in salary, a $20M facility built for him ten miles from home, a $30M home, all the global and NY/LA media ads he wants already, et al. He’s also a stats guy and knows his place and his chase of the historical records, regardless of his rhetoric-on a big market team he won’t be in total control of everything as he is in Cleveland and he knows it. Sure he loves NY and the Garden and that would be his alternative; he’s smart enough to know what the score is. He loves Mike Brown, Dan Gilbert and all the total freedom he’s got here. Family, friends, support system-blood is thicker than water.
I’ll focus on how we’re gonna add the stud power forward during or after 2010 to put this all to rest.
See, that’s why I like you, Randy–always focused on the positive side of things
B-bo, where there’s positive I’ll point it out. Where there’s incompetence, I’ll point it out. I’ll leave the kool-aid drinking to others.
See, you had me, THEN YOU LOST ME. ARRGGHHH!!!
DP……..good enough for me!
And I haven’t even mentioned (nor have you guys written about) the wonderful (positive, see?) batch of 30 year old career backup NY Jets signed to fortify the Browns future.
Ah, not that’s more like it. All is again right with the world.
sorry, that was “now”, instead of “not”
Of course, he could “build” the Cavs, because he appears to be a competent general manager. But whether he would build them into just a perennial playoff team or a championship contender would depend on whether he could obtain another dominating player. That might take equal doses of good judgment and good luck (like a ping pong ball). As I said yesterday, what I like about Ferry is his bravery. He seems to have a vision of what he is looking for and he tries to get it. And if he’s wrong, he tries again. One of those PD articles may be right: maybe a lifetime of public scrutiny maybe made him somewhat immune to public criticism.
Well whether or not Lebron stays in 2010, the Cavs will eventually have to deal with a franchise that no longer boasts him as a player. He will have to retire some time. I do hope when that day comes (whether in two or ten years) that Ferry is still our GM as I have every confidence that he could build a team without the long middling period the post-Jordan bulls have had to deal with.
BB,
Let’s be real, The NBA wants Bron in NY. Period that’s all there is to it. I do believe he will stay in Cleveland because he already has a championship caliber team and all the amenities and he already said he wants his kids raised in Akron.
I fail to see the relevance of post #16. (In the words of Stephen A Smith) HOWEVAAAAA,
Ferry has managed to learn from his early signing mistakes, and even turned them into much better players (although I’m still unsure about Ben Wallace).
Ben Wallace > Larry Hughes?
Here’s a tidbit. No NBA team since SEATTLE has won the title without a top-3 pick. In the NBA you need one of those elite talents if you aim to win a title. So Ferry could get it done…. but