While We’re Waiting… The Breaking News that Josh Cribbs Will Skip Minicamp
Written By: Scott | Category: Best of the Web | Comments: 24While We’re Waiting aims to be the round-up of the recent WFNY-esque information for your morning viewing. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email in the sidebar.
A little change of pace this morning with the recently broken news by John Taylor of The OBR. As many have anticipated over the past few months, Josh Cribbs was going to be one of the first players to receive a contract renegotiation as we head in to 2009. But unfortunately, while the team has addressed the desire to do so, things are not going as quickly as Cribbs and his agent (JR Rickert) would like.
Alas, the team’s most explosive and dynamic player will not be present when they take the field for the voluntary minicamp.
The “voluntary” minicamp begins on Tuesday of this week, and there is “virtually no chance” Cribbs will be taking the field with the club. [...]
a source familiar with the situation tells The OBR that talks between the two sides on a new deal “have gone nowhere. Absolutely nowhere.” The last time the Browns spoke to Rickert regarding Cribbs’ contract was a week ago.
One Browns source stated that “the team is having a hard time figuring out a value to place on what Josh brings to the team. He’s obviously a tremendous football player, a tremendous asset to the team and to the city, but we all just have to find some type of way to gauge financially what is acceptable in relation to what he does and to the [salary] cap.”
At this time last season, Cribbs was relatively unhappy with his recently signed six-year, $6 million deal. We touched on it briefly, but both sides appeared to come to terms with playing out 2008 and seeing where the road led. Alas, the road led to the GM/Head coach tandem that had originally signed Cribbs getting fired shortly after the multi-faceted player took an even more extended role with the team.
The Bills’ Roscoe Parrish signed a three-year, $12 million deal. Chicago’s Devin Hester nabbed a four-year, $40 million with $15 million guaranteed.
At no point in the next four years is Cribbs in line to make more than $1 million. And given what Josh has done for this team on both special teams as well as his brief stints on offense (and possibly defense this upcoming season) I think most can agree that he’s a tad underpaid.
As The OBR reports, Cribbs isn’t looking for a deal to be signed today. He just wants progress; a discussion of any type that would show the team’s understanding of his situation. And as hinted above, the new regime is not necessarily looking to make up for any promises that were made before they came to town. But in respect to Cribbs, this might be one that they have to look at very carefully.
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And with that said, on to some quick NBA thoughts:
“Too many shots rolled out. Too many missed rotations on the defensive end. Too many and too timely threes from Magic shooters. Too many injuries. While deep down we all probably thought this result was inevitable at some point in the post-season, that it has happened is still a huge disappointment.” [Celtics Blog]
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“The Eastern Conference Finals begin this Wednesday in Cleveland against the well-rested Cavaliers, who swept their first 8 playoff games, winning each by double-digits. Passing them won’t be easy. Then again, that’s what most people said about defeating the Celtics in a Game 7 in Boston.” [Third Quarter Collapse]
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“If anyone’s wondering why Ray Allens’ wearing a monocle tomorrow, it’s because the Orlando Magic ended up nailing about ten threes in his eye. He had his fair share, but it seems like everytime Ray’s sprang out to close, the shooter connected.” [Matt Moore/Hardwood Paroxysm]
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“This team just wasn’t deep enough to overcome the injuries to KG and Leon Powe. I’ll put the blame squarely on Danny Ainge. He never replaced James Posey and his answer to PJ Brown was Mikki Moore.” [Reds Army]
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And a much-deserved RIP to Wayman Tisdale. While I never got to really appreciate his game (or his music for what it’s worth), he’ll always be the guy who was Mitch Richmond’s teammate in NBA Jam. And THAT, my friends, will live forever.
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 1701 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
The 3rd quarter collapse link is broken.
I like Cribbs and what he brings to the team, but come on, he is upset about the contract that HE SIGNED. Give me a break, that measly contract is still more than I will make in my entire life, not to mention the multitude of people that can’t find a job that pays less than 1% of what Cribbs will make this year.
I know little about his professional careers, but Tisdale seemed like a great guy. To lose a battle so well fought at the age of 44 is too brutal a thing to comprehend.
Links fixed – thanks Swig.
a comment from that celtics blog link:
“The Magic are playing 5 against 9. They have to play the primadonna’s team, the officials, and Stern.
They have no chance whatsoever. Zero. Neither does anybody else.”
comments like that always amaze me (ESPECIALLY coming from a town like boston)
Mendy – they can’t handle that they lost, and find the need to bring down others. That IS Boston; should not amaze anyone.
They can’t accept the fact that LeBron is one of the best players in the league, so they resort to name-calling.
Wasn’t Cribbs talking about watching the Cavs and trying to bring that same kind of team chemistry to the Browns? Wasn’t only like a few weeks ago? Now this? If he wants to take a cue from the Cavs look what happened to them last year when Sasha and Andy held out. Thank God the Cavs are winning and I can delay banging my head into a wall while considering the Browns season to be.
I’m sure everyone has already heard that Barkley has picked the Magic over the Cavs, but did anyone else catch him saying that the Magic’s bench is far better than that of the Cavs? I don’t know if Charles has been sipping too much of the Magic Kool-Aid or eating to much of Yao’s live shrimp, but I was under the impression that the Cavs had the best bench (along with the Lakers) in the league. No way that guys like Gortat, Redick or Lee, Johnson, and Pietrus even compare to guys like Szczerbiak, Wallace, Boobie, JoeBeast, and Sasha, but that may just be my opinion.
I can’t wait until Wednesday!!!
I understand Cribbs wants to be paid like similar players, but just because they signed a better deal doesn’t mean we need to restructure. I do agree that he is worth more to this team than 1 mill, but he’s the one who signed that contract.
Skipping minicamp isn’t the way to go either. Especially with new regime coming in. Things probably won’t turn out too good from this.
Lee and Pietrus are solid, but Gortat is basically 6 extra fouls at this point compared to the Cavs’ reserve bigs, IMHO.
The Cavs definitely have a deeper rotation just from numbers than everyone else left in the playoffs. Which one is “better” is fairly subjective.
I hope Redick continues to start. Delonte will chew him up and spit him out.
In regard to the Cribbs issue. He was promised (by both Savage AND Lerner) that they would work on a new deal during this offseason. Savage is gone, but Lerner is obviously still here.
Mangini has a history of not standing up to promises regarding contracts (See Coles, Laveranues) and has apparently dragged his feet with this situation as well.
I don’t think its Cribbs pounding the table for a new deal as much as some respect in terms of standing up to what was said a year ago. He signed that deal as a kick returner. Now he is used on almost every side of the ball. I don’t know any one that would except a triple workload without wanting at least consideration for more compensation.
Barkley has had an ax to grind against the Cavs for a few years now. Webber hit the nail on the head when he told Chuck to compare both team’s basketball IQ.
It took the Magic 7 games to close out a series in which they should have won 5 or 6 of those games.
please, just give Cribbs a raise. Why is this regime so interpersonally inept? This issue should not snowball any further; Randy Lerner, show some leadership and honor your promise to Cribbs
Chuckles changes his opinion every time he opens his mouth. Last week, it was “no one beats the Cavs;” the week before that it was, “everyone beats the Pistons and Hawks (and so the Cavs actually suck for going 8-0).”
It’s not even worth wasting the keystrokes on that hollow mass of a former player.
#11, that’s what I was saying yesterday. I’ve seen some bad enough coaching by SVG, and enough choking away of leads to think that Orlando won’t win two games in Cleveland. I’m not writing Orlando off, but Cleveland’s interior defense (and overall defense) is better than Boston’s, and it took the Magic 7 games when it should have taken them 5.
Add in that LeBron is in “Playoff Beast On a Mission” Mode, and that tips the scales even more.
I think that Lee and Pietrus are good players off the bench, but their posts are weak, which is why I don’t think it’s even a comparison. The goal is to get Howard 2 early fouls because it’ll keep him off the floor and the lane open for Lebron to drive, not that Howard in there will completely stop that.
I agree DP, Redick did ok against Ray Allen, but he’s a jump shooter, so I envision him struggling with Delonte who can drive or shoot. Lee is a good defender, which is why I’m not sure why the don’t put him back in the starting lineup.
I think Kenny also said that on paper the Magic look good in comparison, which is true because their starting 5 looks real good that way, but the lack of basketball IQ and coaching b/c Ron Jeremy panics down the stretch. Our defense is too good to let them win a series by just shooting 3’s all game. It’s so hard for a team to win a series by just shooting jumpers, especially against a great defensive team. I can see them winning 2 games at the most.
Given how Mangini/Kokinis are trying to change the organization’s entitlement culture, but how important an explosive special teams guy is to the ball control team they apparently want to develop, the Browns better be very, very careful here. Cribbs is one of the few current players that might be considered a team leader. All the others who think they are also underpaid, and their agents, will be closely monitoring this one.
Two huge numbers:
Game 7, Orlando 3-pt FG%: 61.9% (13-21)
Game 4, Atlanta 3-pt FG%: 15.4% (2-13)
In other words, Orlando isn’t going to score from 3 like they did against Boston last night.
I think the key for the Cavs are if the outside shots are falling. Driving the lane against Howard will present a prime opportunity to kick out to the perimiter and bury some threes. If they can do that, I think it’s probably Cavs in 5.
Speaking of defending Orlando, Mike Brown has had days to figure out what to do – that’s like giving Belichik that much time when he was a defensive coordinator. Howard is physically dominant but his shooting range is about eighteen inches and our coaches will figure out what to do with that. I think Brown’s schemes and the Cavs defensive intensity will really stun Orlando, at least for the first few games. I’m guessing this series will go 5, with us closing out at home.
w/r Harv 21:
I feel a new poll at WFNY coming on strong… and one that closes before Game One gets underway.
@ Harv… I hope your’re right. In earlier games this year, we tried to double team Howard, and of course 3s ensued. It’s painfully obvious that Howard is a dunking Ben Wallace.
But as Brown has continually grown this year, I’m hoping he will come up with a gameplan to single team Howard and keep him from dunking. I think the biggest problem will be teaching Z to not help when someone drives. If Alston wants to shoot floaters, let him. I’d rather have that than Z helping and Howard getting easy dunks.
i don’t remember who on the tnt broadcast said it but someone please explain this to me:
“i agree chuck, the magic are a better team than the cavs. but the cavs will win”
??? if the magic are the better team, then the magic win… this isn’t a 1 game playoff, its a 7 game series.
so therefore, if you pick the cavs to win, you feel they are the better team.
Orlando was the worst-case draw for us, considering everyone in the playoff field in the East. I think we ultimately take it (we are just too good defensively to lose 4 of 7), but I believe it goes six for sure. Our Achilles’ is defending the perimeter shot (we are 3-8 against Orlando in our last 11 meetings), and when they are on, we will struggle to keep pace. But the point about basketball IQ is spot on–the Magic wasted numerous possessions trying to push the ball up the floor too quickly (note to “Skip to My Lou”: this isn’t the AND 1 Tour anymore), and their coach is inept at best. As long as we play our game and don’t get into a long-range contest with them (I’m looking at you, LBJ), we should be fine.
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