State of the Cavs: GM David Griffin on all things wine and gold

Things have quieted down a bit for the Cleveland Cavaliers now that the some of the biggest deals of the summer have been taken care of. LeBron James has re-signed. Kevin Love has re-signed. Mo Williams signed. Kyrie Irving is signed long-term, and Timofey Mozgov is in the fold for at least one more year. There’s still work to do, most notably reaching a deal with Tristan Thompson, but it’s already been a busy, productive summer for general manager David Griffin.

And yet, the work never stops. Griffin is in Las Vegas to check in on the Cavs’ summer league squad, and NEOMG’s Chris Haynes did the yeoman’s work of transcribing a lengthy interview with the Cavaliers master builder. Griffin touched on a little bit of everything: the ill-informed Kevin Love rumors, how Love’s role will grow and change next season, Mo Williams, Brendan Haywood, the value of roster flexibility, team needs, and more.

As far as Kevin Love staying in Cleveland goes, Griffin lent no credence to the rumblings connecting Love to Los Angeles, and had only good things to say about the re-signing process.

All of the media stuff that was out there about [Kevin Love] in L.A. was so asinine

All of the media stuff that was out there about him in L.A. and all these other things, it was so asinine. There was no truth to any of that. And nothing was ever written about him having eyes for some place else was never in conjunction to what was said to us. We had some great meetings with him. Our meeting postseason in his exit interview with him was fantastic. He was really forthcoming about the way he feels like he can do better, things we could have done better for him, but he was never even entertaining taking a visit anywhere. So from that standpoint, I’m grateful that he felt that way about our organization.

Griffin expressed interest in re-signing both J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova, but was fairly short in his comments and did not make it seem as though anything was imminent.

We’d like to bring both of them back if it all can be worked out. In Delly’s case, the restricted free agency is a totally different process. With J.R., I wouldn’t want to characterize the discussion or anything, but he’s a player I’d like to have back. We just have to find a way to make it work.

He was relatively brief with his comments about Tristan Thompson as well. Griffin sounded optimistic and willing to get a deal done, but it also sounded like the two sides might duke it out at the negotiating table for a little while longer.

I hope so. I don’t know about relatively soon, but I hope so. He’s restricted. We really like him. I think we’ll end up getting something done. I wouldn’t characterize it as frustrating in any way.

Speaking of moves the Cavs might make going forward, Griffin showed that he values roster flexibility. The Cavs cashed in on some of that flexibility last year in trading for Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and Timofey Mozgov, and their higher payroll will limit the moves they can make.

So at this point, unless you can go get a piece that you really think advances the cause, it’s not a function of if there’s a [payroll] ceiling, it’s what’s best for us as we go into a season. Last year we were really successful towards the end of the season because we had incredible flexibility in the middle of the season and our cap guys had found a way to create the trade exception that enabled us to get [Timofey] Mozgov. And if I can have a trade exception in January that enables us to identify a real need and based on where we’re at with health, I would love to have that. So you have to weigh every opportunity that’s presented to you and say is this better than being able to call our shot in the middle of the year.

As far as Brendan Haywood’s meaty nonguaranteed contract goes, Griffin wouldn’t rule anything out, but made it sound as though any player exchanged for Haywood would have to be worth giving up that roster malleability.

Again, if the names were such that we were willing to take them and not want the flexibility, we would. And right now, there hasn’t been a name that’s available that’s worth losing that flexibility for. And right now, there hasn’t been a name that’s available that’s worth losing that flexibility for…We can create a trade exception with it. That’s something we would look to do as well.

Now that Kevin Love has re-signed, Griffin spoke of how Love’s role can expand going forward. He said — albeit gently — that Love was underutilized last season, and it sounds like the Cavs will explore new ways to maximize his abilities.

I think we have the ability to put [Love] at the elbow and run offense through him more than we did

Kevin enables us to have someone else carry the load when LeBron sits down once in a while too. Kyrie, I think was in a situation where he was clearly the one who was taking over when LeBron was out and I think we probably didn’t utilize Kevin enough to make Kyrie’s job easier either. So I think we have the ability to put him at the elbow and run offense through him more than we did and do some of the things he did very well in Minnesota. And coach [David Blatt], and Ty Lue and those guys have already been looking at the things he did do well there and will focus on a lot of that because it does, it takes a big part of the burden off of LeBron and off of Kyrie and obviously as we head towards the end of the season, that’s important.

Griffin is high on Mo Williams’ shooting ability, and sees that as a greater asset than his playmaking off the dribble.

The beauty of Mo is more in his floor spacing-shooting than it is his play-creation. Now if we end up in a situation like we were in the Finals last year where we’re going to need the ability to break people down, but we already have three really ball-dominant special play-creator types. So I see him playing off the ball a great amount too and he enables us to do the same thing with Kyrie. Those interchangeable spots. Mo’s signing is a really good deal for us. It really gives us a level of versatility that I wish we had in the Finals.

Griffin said that backup small forward was still a position of some need, and that the team is looking at remaining — i.e. affordable — options to shore up that spot.

Even if we had J.R., we still need a three behind LeBron. Somebody that could consistently take some burden off of him. We’re watching Summer League to see if there’s the right piece there. We’re looking at the free agent pool and seeing if there’s a piece that makes sense for us there, as well. We’re obviously limited in the vehicles we have to sign anybody with

Last, Griffin was asked if he focuses on other teams are up to, or if he’s just focused on his team.

We have to do what’s right for us and build our team according to what we need in our locker room, but I pay a lot of attention to what teams, even in our conference are doing. The East got better. They got a lot better and that’s not necessarily good for us, but we can’t react to anything they are doing either…It doesn’t mean anything for us. It’s not going to change what we need or believe in, but we’re certainly cognizant of it.

[Related: David Blatt: Adjusting to the NBA tougher than I thought]