Pro Football Focus chart rates Browns’ starters
February 11, 2014While We’re Waiting… Mostly positive reactions to latest Berea upheaval
February 12, 2014Literally minutes after the Cavaliers sealed a rare three-game winning streak on Tuesday night, Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski decided to rain on Cleveland’s parade and release an article about what he’d dug on a seemingly dysfunctional Chris Grant regime.
Wojnarowski is the most well connected NBA writer out there and he tends to be the one to break most of the major news that hits The Association. It’s not often though that he decides to expound further on NBA events beyond dropping #WojBombs on Twitter. So when such a well informed writer decides to go more in-depth about your favorite franchise, it’s hard not to pay close attention.
Some of the most interesting claims he makes in the article are:
- Despite the league-wide acclaim for interim GM David Griffin, owner Dan Gilbert is going to search far and wide for a replacement this summer. That doesn’t mean Griffin is out of the running though.
- There was belief among the Cavs organization that Grant had not scouted Jonas Valancinunas well enough before the 2011 draft. Though most of the Cavs personnel department wanted Valanciunas, Grant used the fact that the player’s agent, Leon Rose, would not negotiate a buyout agreement with his European club before they knew where he would be drafted. Thus, that was his justification to select the player he wanted in Tristan Thompson.
- Grant passed on Andre Drummond in the 2012 draft over concerns that a Tristan Thompson-Andre Drummond frontcourt would not be offensively compatible.
- Kyrie Irving pushed hard to have his “close friend” Harrison Barnes drafted by the Cavs in 2012.
- Grant had been attempting to trade Dion Waiters before he was fired.
- Klay Thompson was discussed for the No. 4 pick in the 2011 draft by the Cavs, but Grant believed he could move back into the lottery and snag him later.
- The No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft was between Ben McLemore and Anthony Bennett.
- If Bennett had not been selected by the Cavs, then he would have fallen somewhere around the No. 10 spot in the lottery.
- Bennett loved making late-night pizza runs at UNLV which was a contributing factor to his weight problem.
I take qualms with some of the opinions expressed in the article such as Victor Oladipo being the “perfect two-way player to complement Kyrie” and that Anthony Bennett is a “colossal failure” considering no one in this draft class has colored themselves in glory. Plus, Bennett hasn’t been given a ton of opportunities. Nonetheless, the sourced information is fascinating and a must-read for any Cavs fan.
[Related: David Griffin: Next Man Up]
—
Photo: Joshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer
30 Comments
the only new nugget in the above is the Jonas scouting and that there was a big disconnect in the overall feelings on him.
other than that, we have heard all the others at some point or another (well, McLemore would have also been a surprise at #1).
also, not so sure Bennett would have lasted until 10, but all the top guys were pretty evenly packed and we have seen the results thus far. nothing special (though MCW has shown the capability of being special).
odd that comes right after Bennett has his best game of the season (accumulating stats in non-garbage time!).
He’s a little late, we knew all of this already. And after a 3 game winning streak he decides to post this? Strange.
So THAT’S what the note in front of Haslam meant. “Fire GM = no more losing”. I think he is confusing correlation and causation with the Cavs’ win streak.
Bennett showing a pulse is encouraging.
But, other than that, I got nothin’.
I’m all Browns’d out from yesterday.
I’m not going to go overboard because Anthony Bennett finally had an excellent game for the Cavs, but the way Woj and everyone else is burying him as a bust already seems ridiculous. Can we wait a couple years before deciding who the Cavs should have taken instead of him, if anybody? As Joe inferred in the article, pretty much the entire 2013 draft has been a crap sandwich up to this point.
It’s nice that a national writer who knows his stuff is weighing in but the article is underwhelming. He started with the conclusion that Grant did a bad job and the article labors to point it out. The truth is that the players Grant missed out on are at best, marginally better than what he got.
Also, the thing about asking for the moon is slanted to the point where it almost seems deliberate. (I seem to remember people saying the same thing about Ferry, too). First he talks about how Bynum wasn’t a good move and the Cavs overestimated its importance. Then he talks about how Grant overestimates his assets. Then he talks about how they paid a steep price for Deng. But which is it? If Bynum was NBD, then why not trade him for Deng? Everyone in Cleveland knew that Bynum was a gamble, and Grant was smart enough to set it up so that if the gamble lost, it would still pay off. That’s a smashing success, not a failure. The reason why Grant comes across as asking too much is because he places a particular value on his players. He has done nothing to show that his valuation is illegitimate – how many Cavs fans wanted Asik for Waiters?
I see the Cavs and Grant completely differently. We hope they’re an up and coming team, but they might be a failed rebuild. Despite the fact all young teams lose before they win, losing hurts and threatens to snowball. Firing Grant was an attempt to send a message, and was more sensible than any other moves of that magnitude they could have made. So far, it’s worked; I hope it continues.
I maintain that Woj is one of the best—if not the best—when it comes to monumental news in the NBA. When he writes opinion-based columns, however, he loses a lot in the way of credibility. A shame.
Re: The one-sided trade accusation, I just went back and looked at some old rumors on Hoopshype. They were discussing Bynum and Waiters for Gasol (rental). Another proposal was Waiters and a 1st rounder for Deng. Which Cavs fan would want that? Looking back at the actual trade, was Grant holding out for too much?
last 8 games for Bennett:
44%FG, 50%3pt, 65%FT, 21MPG, 5rb, 9pts (~0.5 on ast, stl, blk)
It’s not great, but it’s a start and it’s much more encouraging than everything before this stretch.
That draft was such garbage that only Oladipo was sure to go early. Everyone else could have fallen, and players like McLemore and Noel did.
Wow, I literally JUST put together those stats a couple minutes ago and was going to post them. Insane. Yeah, those numbers get even better if you look only at games where he got a good chunk of minutes… 20 or more, say.
Someone had to post them 🙂
I don’t think it’s fair to only post games with 20+ min as he has had issues with foul trouble and Mike Brown is more likely to leave him sitting on days where he was struggling. That being said, that he’s averaged 21 minutes/game over the last 8 games is a positive sign in itself.
Last night was, of course, the first game where he didn’t accumulate most of his scoring points in garbage time, but I’ll still take the overall positive trend.
Yeah I waffled on whether to mention the “over 20 minutes” thing… the reason I went with it is because we just don’t know what happens if Mike Brown comes back to him… he may have rewarded him, but it didn’t happen. Against Memphis AB was in foul trouble in the first half and only got 6 minutes, but he didn’t get any minutes in the 2nd half or OT even though Brown certainly could have given them… he didn’t sit out that half because of foul trouble, it was just the coach’s decision.
“While league officials loathed dealing with Grant and his non-starter, one-sided offers…”
Most likely the opinions of teams who had no leverage, or no other choices. Boo hoo.
Grant may have had many talent evaluating-related deficiencies, but he knew which teams he had the upper hand on, and could gouge for good deals.
That Kings pick probably will never be a 1st rounder, so they gave up 3 seconds and a switch of 1st rounders for Deng. Even if he doesn’t resign, it was still worth it.
Agreed completely. The structure of his articles are often weird.
Breaking News!
Unsupported Conclusory Opinions!
More Breaking News!
Another Opinion Without Much Support!
I don’t much like either. In both cases, you are giving up a scorer you control (granted he doesn’t mesh very well on the team) for a better scorer you don’t control and will lose to FA b/c it’s Cleveland.
IMO the Bynum deal was about as good as you could get, and I’m not sure why Woj was so down on it.
Yeah it definitely ruffles my feathers when I hear people in the media talk about that pick as “a future 1st round pick” when that’s not at all set in stone. Given the players Sacramento has decided to build around, it’s easy to see how they would never become good enough to make that pick a first rounder. If the Kings could somehow land a great defensive center and move Cousins to power forward, then that team might have something going. The defensive deficiencies of Cousins (as a center) and Isaiah Thomas are both pretty glaring right now in spite of how good those guys are offensively.
It’s true there isn’t a ton of new information, but so many rumors are floated in the NBA, especially about the draft, that at least Woj acts as a confirmation to some of it here.
Given that Sacramento plays in the Western Conference
fixed it for you 🙂
That too 🙂
This article is complete opinion, nothing more. Anthony Bennett very well may be the best player from his draft in 3 years. At the time of their respective drafts, JV and Drummond weren’t exactly “can’t miss” prospects. People were wondering if Drummond could even polish is skills enough to be a consistent starter. And the comments about other teams not wanting to deal with Christ Grant because he overvalues his talent. Uhhh… I would much rather have Grant “overvalue” his talent than do the opposite and trade players for pennies in return. Also, mentioning Bynum and Deng in an article dragging CG through the mud is kind of dumb… that trade was incredible.
Maybe he’s secretly a Sacramento Kings ticket holder and thinks they are due to jump into the playoffs next year? 🙂
Yeah, I think he was down on it because he started out writing to rip the Cavs, then Grant got fired and became the focal point. It looks worse because they’ve won three in a row.
It’s similar to Peter King criticizing Banner for being against Schiano, or for having opinions about football that he brought up in interviews with “real” football people. Of course Banner was right about Schiano and had to have opinions about football, but he’s gone and he’s a relatively safe conduit to criticizing the Browns.
I’m pretty sure if Haslam thought firing the GM would generate 3 game winning-streaks, he’d have a new GM every 2.
“Letting Deng walk would be too embarrassing, considering how steep a price they paid to acquire him.”
He lost all his credibility with that line. Grant gave up his extra, top-12 protected first rounder, two future second rounders and the rotting carcass of Bynum. Which will probably end up being just two second rounders, meaning guys with only outside chances of making any NBA roster. So paying that for renting an all-star for a year who might positively influence your youngsters is so “steep” as to be “embarrassing”? That statement is what’s embarrassing. This piece reads like a conclusion in search of supporting facts.
Nuance regarding the “future 1st round pick” weakens someone’s argument so they’ll ignore it. That, or they’re ignorant to all of the restrictions on the pick vesting. Either way, forget logic when it gets in the way of making a point!
He also ignored the fact that we could trade him before the deadline (must be alone though, no combining salaries) or that we could pull off a sign-n-trade deal in July to his preferred team (let’s him play the market w/o worrying about which teams have cap room).
Klay Thompson is a nice role player. It’s a stretch to say “he’s become one of the best two-way shooting guards in the NBA.”
Already been pointed out – that the “first round picks” is false. They didn’t give up that much for Deng.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/thompkl01.html
My initial reaction to your post was that I think Klay has some limitations, but he might still be one of the best 2way SGs in the NBA (see his WS split evenly between offense/defense above) and that it was more an indictment on the status of SG in the league.
But, digging further and really looking at some of the top SG in the league (including Butler, Curry who play like SG though mostly from PG/SF positions), I think you are correct. He is more in the role player.
WS/48
Curry .224 (technically PG, but he’s really a SG)
Harden .185
Stephenson .158
DeRozan .142
Wade .141
Jeremy Lamb .134 (limited min, but one of my faves)
Kevin Martin .128
Kyle Korver .123
Afflalo .115
Jimmy Butler .112
Klay .104
Terrence Ross .091 (another limited min, but fave of mine)
Monta .089
JoeJ .081 (yeah, real allstar this one)
Beal .062 (just adding for some context)