Shaquille O’Neal as The Big Poker Hand
The Cavaliers did it. They pulled the trigger. Unlike last season where they went into it hoping to be able to unload Wally Szczerbiak’s expiring deal, they didn’t allow the temptation of standing pat to even enter their brain. And now for the small price of Ben Wallace’s creaky body and Sasha Pavlovic’s incessant inconsistency the Cavaliers now get the twilight of one of the greatest centers in NBA history. Like so many other things in sports I liken this to a poker hand and the Cavs have just pushed all in.
Imagine you are sitting at the World Series of Poker. You have been playing for a while now. You have had some great hands.
You went all in with ace/jack and your opponent had ace/king, but you got lucky when the river came up jack. (Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals)
You pushed all in again with ace/jack and hoped for another miracle, but your opponent had bullets / two aces and then paired them on the board to send you home. (Spurs sweeping Cavs out of NBA Finals)
Then you had a decent run at the tournament, but you just couldn’t get enough playable hands to put you over the top. (Celtics over Cavs)
Finally, you were the tournament chip leader. You were at the final table with just a few opponents left. Some internet poker sensation who had never played in a live tournament before kept going all in against you. You made some good calls but the cards just kept punishing you. (Magic over Cavs)
And that brings us to Shaquille O’Neal arriving in Cleveland. It is early in the poker tournament (2009.) Nobody can be crowned a winner this early. You are sitting at your first table and you have made a bit of a move on the field and you have a decent chip stack. Still there are so many other tables out there that you can’t see, so you can’t quite figure out how much money you are going to be up against when you start play tomorrow. Still it might be good that you made a play early. Then again, you don’t know if these moves are enough to carry you to the final table with a chip lead of any substance.
Are you ready to push all in with this new version of the Cavs? It seems kind of sad that in exchange for Dan Gilbert’s $20 million that I don’t feel 100% confident yet. Who knows though. Maybe this is just one tournament. Maybe Danny Ferry, Dan Gilbert and LeBron have all talked that this is just one tournament. Maybe they are still just practicing for the tourney in 2010 and wanted to make sure that they had enough money to “buy in” with someone like Bosh or Wade in addition to LeBron James.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:18 am
ship me the shaqtastic imo
June 26th, 2009 at 10:21 am
After last night’s draft, I think we can be assured how seriously the Cavs are taking 2010. Shaq will be off the books. Our 30th pick will never be on the books. Etc.
We’ve still got the pieces to make a push this year, and I imagine we’ll add 1 more piece before its said and done.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:25 am
If we don’t win the title next year, LeBron is gone. Book it!
June 26th, 2009 at 10:35 am
How much does <1mill on the books for the #30 pick matter in 2010? I can’t see that affecting any decision.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I would wet myself if they bring in DWade.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
@3 Don’t be so negative. You think Ferry, Gilbert, and anyone else wouldnt have run this idea by LBJ before making it. LBJ is a smart dude and has more control over the team than any player ever has. And my guess is he loves playing GM, which is why this deal is perfect. If you actually look at the cap space for next year, the cavs are going to have a TON of money to spend on free agents, even after they sign AV long term. That allows LBJ and Ferry to go out and get the guys they need to build their dynasty.
I have also heard everyone saying how stupid this trade was because we gave up our two best assets and didnt get anything past this year. But what other team is going to give away a good young signed for awhile guy for two useless pieces? The fact is that the Wallace and Sasha werent great assets right now. If the Cavs wanted to wait until the deadline then maybe they would have gone up in value, but deadline deals arent always guaranteed (look at last year with Wally). Fact is, Ferry got a big piece for a pile of garbage, and if Shaq doesnt work out, hes still an expiring contract that can be traded for something else at the deadline.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:41 am
yes, the draft pick sucked…but I think the Shaq move makes us a better team. He at least can go one on one against the better bigs in the league, and as for that wing defender, something tells me that LBJ will be focused on that this off-season. Add a healthy backcourt and a signed AV, and the wine and gold will be right there again this year.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am
I don’t know if the Shaq deal puts us “all-in” yet, but I would say that in poker parlance that we’re now definitely “pot committed.”
(For those non-poker aficionados, a poker player is considered “pot committed” when they make a bet during a hand that represents most of their chips, thus placing them in a position where they basically have to bet the rest of their chips during the hand no matter what action their opponent takes in response to their bet.)
That’s what makes the 30th pick last night so disappointing to me. Would bringing Sam Young in for $900k for two years (or Mills from St. Mary’s) really have disrupted or salary numbers so much that we had to completely flush the pick down the toilet?
How can you have a press conference in the afternoon claiming that the Shaq deal was necessitated by the fact that the Cavs weren’t willing to be patient about winning a title and then turn around that night and use your first round pick on a guy who, at best, helps you 2-3 years down the road (but more likely will never help), and then justify the pick on the grounds that we have to be patient?
June 26th, 2009 at 10:49 am
i would smoke all of you in poker
just sayin
June 26th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Exactly AMC. There were a ton of guys that the Cavs could have gotten at 30 (Blair, Young, Browns, Mills, etc.) that could give them some help in the season and be rotation guys in the playoffs. Tell me Blair and Shaq grabbing boards would not have been NASTY!
I don’t know what they plan on doing now, but they need someone else on this team, or they will not win a championship.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I tend to agree both that LeBron and his posse get consulted plenty – probably has at least veto power- and that he enjoys it. Gilbert is shrewd. He paid a whopping $350M to buy the team because it had one guy, and what will it be worth without that guy?
Call me naive, but that’s one of the reasons I think he’s staying in 2010, ring or not. The NBA league stars are tighter than in other sports, probably from being teammates in the summers. LeBron talks to them, he knows his unique power to affect his organization. Where else will he get the combination of that power in a well-run organization and in a location where he is very comfortable? Kobe may be closest, but even he’s had his spats and been overruled before in L.A.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:56 am
WFNY weigh in on the Carter trade please.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Ok, you guys realize that Ferry probably didn’t want this pick, right? $843k ( I believe this is the salary for the 30th pick ) turns into approximately $1.69 mil with the luxury tax, for a guy ( no matter who they draft ) most likely won’t crack the rotation next year, or if they do, not contribute significantly. I’m fairly certain this was a calculated move by Ferry so that (a) he didnt end up on the hook for this cap hit, and (b) he didn’t trade it because he didn’t want to lose flexibility with next year’s 1st rd pick ( stepien rule ).
Call me crazy, but I think Ferry may know what he’s doing.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:32 am
I’m ok with what Ferry did, I’m afraid we just don’t have enough talent around LeBron to make him want to stay. And no free agent is going to come to Cleveland when he could go to Miami, New York, etc.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
“Maybe they are still just practicing for the tourney in 2010 and wanted to make sure that they had enough money to “buy in” with someone like Bosh or Wade in addition to LeBron James.”
Bad news on the Bosh/Wade front. The Cavs have about $35 mill committed to next season as it is w/out LeBron’s raise. Add in Andy at $7 mill/year and they’re sitting on around $42 mill or so for 7 players on a cap that’s shrinking. (Would you be surprised if it was at $55-56 mill next summer?) Where is the money going to come from to give Bosh or Wade the max contract they’ll demand.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I agree completely. If this team were a poker hand, I would not go all-in. I’d be making some pretty large bets, though.
We need to make a move in free agency, and I hope we’re not restricted to aging superstars (no offence to shaq). I would love to see turkoglu (even though I know we haven’t a shot in hell), or some consistent 3 point shooter who can step it up in the big games come over. With that triple threat, the cavs could be virtually unstoppable.
That said, even if we get that, we need to start thinking about replacing Shaq. He can only be a temporary fix to get us in to the 2010 off season where we can afford to get some young talent. Sure, we can give him a 2 year contract after that if he helps us win it all this year, but he won’t be around the league for much longer.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
nice metaphor with the poker hand, well written
June 26th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
poker metaphors
June 26th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
“WFNY weigh in on the Carter trade please.”
So we can take a beating in the comments like yesterday? Perhaps next week…