Cavs Finish Second Deal Under the Wire
February 24, 2011Killer Loss Puts CSU Vikings Behind Eight-Ball
February 25, 2011While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Interesting take on the Davis trade- “Clearly, the Cavaliers’ motivation was adding a pick that currently would be eighth entering the lottery. The Clippers could move a fair bit in either direction depending on how well they play with Mo Williams and how quickly Eric Gordon returns, but eighth is a reasonable guess at the pick Cleveland is getting. So what is that pick worth? According to the research I did last year as part of the Summer 2010 Preview series, an eighth pick can be expected to produce about $25 million of value in wins on average during his rookie contract. Over the same period, based on the current CBA, he’d be paid $10 million. That implies a value of $15 million for the eighth pick, were teams able to pay that much for it in actual cash.” [Pelton/Basketball Prospectus]
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A different take on the Davis/Williams trade- “This deal works to some degree for both teams, but the Clippers, to me, are easily the bigger winners here. In the short term, they’ll miss Davis’ playmaking. He has been engaged for about two months now, leading fast breaks, thinking pass first and attacking overmatched defenders in the post and off the dribble only when the situation calls for it. Williams is a much better shooter than Davis, but not nearly the orchestrator, meaning Eric Bledsoe and Gordon (when he comes back from a wrist injury) will assume more of the ball-handling duties. That’s fine. Let Bledsoe develop now, without the pressure of a playoff push.” [The Point Forward]
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Wow. And Cleveland is supposed to just ‘get over it’. Axe to grind anyone?- “Cleveland gets its pick, and apparently the price to pay for having what will be about the eighth pick in the draft is $12 million and the pain of having Baron Davis run the show for your terrible team. The man who couldn’t get up to play alongside Blake Griffin will now get to run the show alongside J.J. Hickson, three time zones away from his hometown, so that the Cleveland Cavaliers can have a chance at Donatas Motiejunas. Because Dan Gilbert, we’re convinced, hates Ohio. Maybe building another casino will help, Dan. Another bit of community development, y’know?” [Dwyer/Ball Don’t Lie]
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Meanwhile, the Tribe was in action- “The Indians played some baseball today. At 10:45 local time, Jeanmar Gomez let loose a strike against Jason Donald for the first unofficial pitch of the 2011 season. The Tribe held its first intrasquad game of the spring and played under blue skies and the Arizona sun for four innings. Gomez got the starting nod for Smitty’s American Racers (coached by third base coach Steve Smith) and Justin Masterson took the ball for Sarby’s Sour-Balls (coached by Triple-A manager Mike Sarbaugh). The Racers won, 3-2, with Donald leading the way with a single, triple and one run scored, plus a nice barehanded play at third base. “We’re undefeated,” Indians manager Manny Acta declared. “Actually, you’re 1-1,” I quickly corrected.” [Bastian/Major League Bastian]
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Number 13 on Walker’s list of top AFC North players: Hillis- “Analysis: It’s scary to think where Cleveland’s struggling offense would be without Hillis, who was acquired last offseason in a trade with the Denver Broncos for quarterback Brady Quinn. Hillis was the Browns’ leading rusher and second-leading receiver. The team only won five games, but Hillis probably accounted for three or four of the wins. The bruising running back punished defenders and often got stronger as the game wore on. But his style also results in injury, and Hillis played hurt late in the year. Cleveland needs to get Hillis more help so he be effective for 16 games. Hillis also has to prove that his career year in 2010 wasn’t a fluke.” [Walker/AFC North Blog]
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18 Comments
That ball dont lie article was pure trash…the writer has had it out for Gilbert ever since his letter to the fans following the decision.
It’s funny that people say we lost on the trade b/c the draft is going to blow. It may lack the star power, but when the worst team in the league can get 2 top 10 draft picks, how is that ever bad?
Should we have kept Mo, and continued to suck until some draft “experts” decided it was a good year, and then trade him for a 1st round pick?
and Dwyer is trash. He claims we should’ve moved Mo and others during the offseason. What team would’ve gave us a lottery pick for him during the summer? Epescially after he almost retired. He’s not even worth that pick now, but thankfully we dealt with the Clippers. To blindly bash the Cavs at every turn b/c you hate Gilbert is not professional journalism.
I used to respect Kelly Dwyer as a basketball writer. Ever since the summer though he has gone out of his way to hurl trash and vitriol towards the Cavaliers organization and towards Gilbert in particular. I get it, you dislike his comic sans tirade. I can certainly agree that it was innapropriate for an owner to go off the handle like that. Nonethless, Gilbert has in all other aspects been an excellent owner, one who has continually spent to win, one who has done everything to ensure that the Q and the game experience are worth the price of admission.
Dwyer sees all Cavalier moves now through these tainted rose colored glasses. He bashed them for not immediately dealing everything not nailed down, he then bashed them for grabbing a lottery pick because it came with the Baron Davis tax, focusing on Davis as if he were the main reason for the trade.
I tried to comment on Ball Don’t Lie yesterday, but something froze so y’all get to read my wisdom here.
We should give KD credit, BTW, for predicting 12 wins – remember when we were 7-9 and everyone mocked him?
This article is silly, though. Nobody went into this under any delusions. The Cavs know they want the eighth pick. Gilbert is willing to pay for it. What’s to criticize? Worst case scenario for Davis, Grant and Scott need to have the balls to Marbury him if he becomes a bad influence.
Sportswriters should know more about the sports than their audience. Dwyer pretends that they traded for Baron Davis, which his readers know is untrue. But the Donatas Motiejunas thing is just ridiculous – he has a funny sounding name, and he’s from overseas, so let’s can mock the eight pick! They can also get Kemba Walker – fine American athlete with an African name. See? Great pick, that eighth one in the draft!
I feel like sports writers take their inadequacies out on the city of Cleveland. Honestly, maybe I’ve never noticed it before…but I don’t ever recall hearing so much bashing on this city in recent history for no apparent reason. Yes, all of our teams suck right now…does that automatically qualify us for three or four “at least they’re not cleveland” jokes a day on ESPN or that insane article from Ball dont lie? Maybe I’m crazy, but I feel like were being kicked when were down for everyone elses pleasure.
seriously, who would have given us a pile of beans this summer for Mo? I remember hearing about how he had 2 years and big dollars left on his contract and with the upcoming labor uncertainty yadda yadda yadda…
I didn’t reach much Dwyer before his 12 win prediction (which, in fairness, he was kind of on point there), but can anyone tell me if he was using his platform to speak out about how the Cavs were ruining everything by coddling #6 before the Debacle? Or is just writing revisionist history due to the fact that he doesn’t have enough talent to come up with progressive, forward thinking, insightful topics?
Rosie, I’ve said it before – I’ll give dwyer his due credit when I see where he predicted only 12 wins due to devastating injuries and being forced to give major minutes to guys who wouldn’t make most other roster in the league, as well as losing Shaq, Z, and Delonte. But I will not give credit to his simple equation of “last year’s team – Lebron (and ONLY minus Lebron) = 12 wins.”
@ #5- you still watch ESPN?
whats been hilarious to me lately is the prevailing theory that coming here is somehow worse than playing for Donald Sterling, one of the all-time worst owners (and people) in NBA history.
A world class organization with a deep-pocketed owner and brand new first rate facilities, or a first class scumbag racist slumlord cheapskate 20 year track record of failure?
We are apparently worse than the Clippers. Not due to recent history, or 20 years ago history, or the fact that most players in the NBA revile Sterling, or the fact that the Clippers have been historically the laughingstock of the NBA since Sterling took over…
Nope, the Cavs are worse than the Clippers in everyone’s mind right now because its Cleveland, and the Clippers are from LA. And everyone knows how horrible Cleveland is, especially on “Sportscenter, LA”. Naturally, you would rather live in LA, play for a crappy team and work for a dirtbag who belittles you DURING GAMES from his court side seats, rather that a passionate owner, who sometimes may let that passion boil over to the point of embarrassment, but still has shown a desire to win and a commitment to put his money where his mouth is.
Of course. ESPN says so
@8 – The bottom line is winning. Gilbert was one of the best owners in sports up till last year. Now the Clippers are up-and-coming, so Sterling’s general evil is in the past. Another, um, sterling example of this is the Steinbrenners. They’ve always been a bunch of egotistical blowhards, but since they have lots of revenue and twice the payroll of their nearest competitors, they’re going to be hall-of-famers.
@4,
Really, Dwyer predicted that the Cavs would go through injuries to Varejao, Williams, Parker, and Gibson, and that this would result in a 12-win season?
ESPN is garbage. Their site is garbage too. I recommend si.com although I think Rick put the link up already. They actually talk abotu both sides of the deal like journalists are supposed to do.
@10 DKH – He did not predict the injuries per se, no. He actually predicted it based on the Cavs trading the players they could away. This did not stop Cleveland fans from accusing him of saying that the Cavs had no players besides Lebron, and that Lebron would have won 60 games by himself with four high-schoolers on the team.
As it happens, they didn’t trade anyone away until the very end. But the logic behind his prediction still played a strong role – they had no margin for error, they had limited talent, and they had no interest in compiling as many wins as possible.
If nothing else, it looks like Baron can at least show the younger point guards to dress like a floor general.
@Harv – I was thinking he looked like some dictator of a banana republic. El Beardo, king of the missed 3.
anyone care to guess what’s going through baron davis’s mind as he looks out the window of wherever he is in Cleveland?
BARON DAVIS IS MOAMMAR GADHAFI. I JUST BLEW YOUR MINDIES.
Huh. His writings on the subject that I can find indicate that he thought Williams and Varejao would be significant pieces. Since they’ve missed 47 games total, and won’t see the court in a Cavs jersey for the rest of the season, I’m going to figure that Dwyer was guessing and got lucky in his hatred of Gilbert, rather than that he did any actual, repeatable analysis.
@ Mark: LOL