WFNY Stats & Info: Looking at the Indians’ quality starts
June 4, 2013NFL News: Browns Ray Ventrone joins San Francisco 49ers
June 4, 2013I tracked down Dennis Manoloff to talk about some injuries. That was Asdrubal Cabrera, Trent Richardson and the 2013 NBA draft. That morphed into a conversation at the end about LeBron James, of course.
-
Asdrubal Cabrera’s injury and just how bad it is
-
Cabrera’s toughness and wanting to power through the injury
-
Is the sense of panic lessened by Terry Francona?
-
Inconsistent offense, a scuffling bullpen and a rotation without an ace
-
This is a different club than the ones of the last two years
-
Can the Tribe hang with the Tigers for the whole season?
-
Baseball isn’t a plug and play statistics league
-
The rainout and whether or not everyone handled it well
-
The philosophy of MLB to want to play games at that hour of the morning
-
Trent Richardson and how much of a concern it is
-
Richardson has never been healthy as a Cleveland Browns player
-
Will Norv Turner mitigate the risks of Trent Richardson with utilization of other backs?
-
Should the Cavs trade the pick or which players are exciting out there?
-
Ben McLemore and how exciting he is to watch
-
Being attractive to LeBron James
-
Setting yourself up with cap space to be a player in 2014 regardless
- LeBron needs to win three rings to set up Cavs return
5 Comments
Meatloaf I mean Man-o-loff floated the LBJ return idea on MS&LL yesterday too. Seems kinda far fetched given everything but in the end I wouldn’t mind it coming to fruition. More importantly he smelled what the Rock was thinkin’ in trading the #1 overall pick. TWO PITCHERS UP D-Man!
I actually disagree with D-Man’s take on LBJ. For those hoping that he comes back to Cleveland in 2014, I think the odds are better if he loses the next two finals with Miami. If he wins the championship both years, what’s the incentive to break up the party? If he loses both years, then it seems like he would have to go elsewhere to win another championship as that team in Miami isn’t going to get any younger. Actually, I think it’ll be interesting to see what Miami does to keep LeBron from leaving… they have to get some young, high-level talent to entice him, which means trading away either Wade or Bosh or both before the summer of 2014.
If that is the case, they’d almost have to give up on Bosh first…because you aren’t getting much back for Wade as things stand right now. If they do manage to give up Bosh, they’ll need a big to replace him…because they’re already weak on the interior. They’ve put themselves in a place where I don’t think they imagined they’d be for at least another 3-4 years.
I love national writers. These guys are awesome. Everyone is assuming that LBJ will use his opt-out in 2014. Outside of Lebron, who in the class of 2014 is really a “must grab” player?
Tony Parker – possibly…though why the Spurs would give up his contract, I’m not sure.
Vince Carter? Dwyane Wade (with his super creaky knees) assuming he opts out? Kobe? Thabo Sefalosha? Does Jason Richardson use his Player Option?
Lebron and Rudy Gay both have player options (though only one guy is really worth pursuing.) Luol Deng is free. He’s a very good role player to have on the team. Granger and an aging Caron Butler are both free. Do you really think Melo is going to opt out?
Kris Humphries comes free….and Kevin Garnett has a non-guaranteed contract. Drik is technically a free agent, but he’s already gone on record and said he’d take a huge pay cut. Does anyone believe that Z-Bo is going to utilize his player option? Pau Gasol could be a nice piece…but who’s overpaying him…and he will likely get overpaid. Amar’e probably won’t opt out…and I’m guessing Tim Duncan doesn’t leave San Antonio except via the retirement route. Amir Johnson has a non-guaranteed contract (there’s a gem!) LOL
Of course Chris Bosh is on the same ETO as Lebron and Wade. Andrew Bogut is legit free…but if he is still a free agent in 2014…is it because Golden State doesn’t want to continue paying him? Jordan Hill, Marcin Gortat and Spencer Hawes are all free agents too. Big names.
Ultimately, the only way that the 2014 free agent class is anything special is if Lebron, Bosh and Wade opt out early. Otherwise (realistically) it’s actually a pretty weak free agent class.
Luol Deng might be the best guaranteed free agent. Chicago is notorious for not paying the luxury tax…and they have a bit of trouble on their hands in terms of salary cap. Almost every other potential free agent has a team option (and if the team gives up on them, what are they really worth) or non-guaranteed contracts that are cheap enough to make them viable to keep through to the 2014/2015 season trade deadline.
Agreed… I don’t think Wade has nearly as much value on the open market as Bosh, which would have been pretty ridiculous to say if we said it 2 years ago.