While We’re Waiting… Shaq’s Impact, Jamison Over Amare, and the Future
May 14, 2010Where Do The Cavaliers Go From Here?
May 14, 2010It has been several months since LeBron James has answered questions regarding free agency. He took a pledge to avoid all discussions during the season, owing it to his teammates, coaching staff and fans alike. But with the season coming to a sooner-than-anticipated end on Thursday night, James could no longer avoid the elephant in the room.
“First of all I want to win – that’s my only thing; that’s my only concern,” said James following the 94-85 loss to the Boston Celtics. “I’ve always prided myself on becoming a better basketball [player] individually and then taking it to, onto the court. I mean, it’s all about winning for me and I think the Cavs is committed to do that, but at the same time I’ll give myself options to this point. And like I said before, me and my team, we have game plan that we’re going to execute, and we’ll see where we’ll be at.”
To assume that James has gone through the entire 2009-10 season without thinking about his future would be unrealistic. Few players before James have had a fraction of his talent coupled with his business acumen. We have all heard about James’ “brand” and his desire to be a global icon. And while he has built quite a brand to this point, the latter is very reliant upon the future. This is obviously where the abovementioned “game plan” comes into play.
What that game plan entails remains to be seen. James obviously has plenty of people in his ear. He referenced his “team” multiple times throughout the evening’s media session. And as much as many want to hope his team consists of guys like Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, James was referencing his team at LRMR Marketing – the firm that claims responsiblity in managing the world’s foremost talent.
Will this plan deviate from one of James’ biggest comparables in Kevin Garnett? Coming out of high school, Garnett showed a lot of loyalty to his Minnesota Timberwolves. Loyalty which he now allegedly regrets.
“Loyalty is something that hurts you at times because you can’t get youth back,” said Garnett. “I can honestly say that if I can go back and do my situation over, knowing what I know now with this organization, I’d of done it a little sooner.
But in Garnett’s situation, he had a front office that was not nearly as dedicated to winning as James has had in Cleveland with Dan Gilbert and Danny Ferry. But as the saying goes, the past is not an indication of the future. Ferry has made three large waves of moves over the last four seasons, all in effort to get James his second star. Standing here today, we now know that Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones, Larry Hughes, Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal have not been enough to take the Cavaliers to the next level. Regular season wins aside, the core unit of James, Anderson Varejao, Daniel Gibson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas along with their various teammates that arrived via trade has simply been outplayed by more formidable teams come postseason.
In terms of the global brand, James will obviously have many decisions to make. Michael Jordan’s “Be Like Mike” campaign did not start to penetrate markets across the world until Jordan started winning championships. Things like weather, market size and “having more to do” mean next to nothing in the grand scheme of things. James has had zero struggles in obtaining exposure while in Cleveland and Nike has already signed him to a contract extension. CNBC’s Darren Rovell has gone on record to say that the only way James can make more money – aside from signing a maximum deal with the Cavaliers – is to sell more shoes, something that can only be maximized in China. And like James, China wants winners.
Where this winning can be done remains to be seen. Try as they might, will James give Cleveland yet another chance to build a winner around him? Simply being “dedicated to winning” does not make one a winner. Retooling a roster year in and year out does not provide much of a core – as seen above by the four (of 15) players being the only group here since the NBA Finals run in 2007.
All of this said, Cleveland’s No. 23 becomes a free agent in exactly 47 days. Needless to say, it will be a very long stretch of time.
“Just like I said I’m gonna approach this summer with the right mindset,” said James. “Me and my team is gonna figure out what’s the best possibility for me. I love the city of Cleveland of course. The city, the fans. It was a disappointing season to say the least but at the same time we have a great time together. We’ll see what happens.”
64 Comments
I got a suggestion: http://www.fireclevelandsports.com
@11 — No, because Cleveland is a joke nationally. I would see them saying, “Well, he COULD goto Cleveland which is where he grew-up… BWAHAHAHAH!!!! Yeah, right, who would voluntarily move TO Cleveland?!?”
It all irritates me less and less as I grow older. This is my home and I love it. I’ve been to NYC. It’s dirty and smells, too.
Question: is there any evidence at all backing up all the speculation people have here? To pick the example which requires scrolling up the least (Matt#2):
“I get the impression there was a lot of whispering that drained the stuff of champions from the Cavs. I think they had it, knew what it felt like, and felt it go away when they (some or all) were whispering. The fault for the whispering is on the whole organization and every member who whispered, who sat by and watched it, or who wasn’t paying attention.”
Do you have any evidence of this? Or is it just a rationalization for explaining the team’s performance? I know it’s the internet, but I’m disinclined to put credence with rumors that sure seem to have started from nothing.
I’m not picking on you specifically. But this? And the thing with the locker room siding with Shaq after he confronted LeBron? Is there a reason people think these things, other than fan speculation/paranoia?
he’s going to re-sign for 1 year so we can go through this awesome process all over again. pretty sure espn will pay him to do that so they have something to beat to death again like they did allllllll this yea.r
As much as people want to blame the orginization for not bringing in players, I don’t fault them. Lebron has NEVER committed long term to this team. For basically 7 years the threat of him leaving was on the teams mind. We always had to get the best available at the time as apposed to waiting for something better. Hence larry hughes, who’s contract has handicapped this team. Without that threat we could have waited to the next off season and got someone else. But every off season we had to try and do something large. Ray allen and michael redd turned us down and we felt we had no choice because of lebrons threat. If he were to sign the max the pressure would come off. We could groom jj.sign someone big next off season.
Alex,
Nice call out.
My impression came from the Cavs’ lack of directly addressing what I think was a public and plainly bizarre stretch of non-game by the them. My experience is that it is contrary to human nature to, in the face of such a strange thing, avoid directly addressing it to any front. So, I think there was private chatter, or whispering, to individuals, to spouses, to girlfriends, to agents, even to the mirror. I think that such whispering, like nothing else can, bludgeons trust, which – as Lebron had said time and again during the season – is the most important factor for the team’s performance.
The performances got more and more uncool, particularly the team work.
Recap: A public spectacle was not directly addressed publicly. So I think there was whispering about it. That shot the trust. The team work suffered horribly.
I can’t say that’s not speculation. I am trying to learn from a situation that appears to have a lesson in it. Maybe it doesn’t.
I admit the validity of your criticism.
Matt, fair enough.
Yours was again the closest example. The more egregious was the person saying that Shaq had called LeBron out in the locker room after game 5, and the team (esp Mo) had sided with Shaq over LeBron. From what I could stand reading, that was largely due to a single timeout where Shaq and Mo didn’t look at LeBron. Silly.
I get that people are upset, since I’m also upset. I get that people want to find a reason to explain this series, which flew in the face of all expectations (both final result and the manner of it), since I do too. But with all the free agency-related speculation and rumor-mongering we all know is coming, do we really need to start some of our own that point to LeBron leaving?
Hate to break it to everyone but hes gone. 3 GM’s have all been saying he’s gone. His body language his talking about his “team” which is his “posse” and how they are going figure it out all out. He is all but gone. The more I see from LeBron the less i am starting to like him. Maybe this is his plan before he stabs the place he says he loves and leaves. Remember there is no loyalty in sports.
Typo, I hear ya. For his first 5 years or so, Lebron always had pen in hand to sign the max extensions to his contract that was offered to him by the Cavs. Then all of a sudden he comes out and says its always been about winning and thus starts the mass national media frenzy guessing when and where he’ll go. If it really was about winning, he would have sat down with management and put together a multi year long range game plan together to get the right players in place. But no, Lebron decided to wait until the Cavs were up against it in cap space then make his announcement.
what exactly is the plan? He wants to “win” and thats looking rough for his stay in Cleveland. UNDRCRWN actually created a hilarous t-shirt series to debate whether he’ll stay in Cleveland or go to NY- http://www.undrcrwn.com, share your thoughts. Will it not be either? will it be Chicago?
L.A. Fan here,talking ‘smack’. You won’t keep ‘King James’ by begging or crying on your websites. Get someone he respects.Offer Coach Jackson $15 mil. Offer Jamie(his girlfriend) the G.M.position.Think outside the box. Good luck Cleveland fans;I feel your pain.
@Ramon J Sanchez
Really? You feel our pain? It must be from all the losing that happens out there, right? That drought of championships in LA sure is a bummer, dude! Kiss our collective donkeys! You want to talk about being spoiled…if I were closer, I’d throw this plastic beer bottle at you…
Ramon feels out pain because Magic got AIDS, I mean HIV. Magic got HIV and all he got was a chain of 25 hour fitnesses, TGIFriday’s and Theatres in the Ghetter.
If ALS is Lou Gehrig’s Disease, then HIV/AIDS should be Ervin “Magic” Johnson’s disease.
“Standing here today, we now know that Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones, Larry Hughes, Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal have not been enough to take the Cavaliers to the next level.”
The fact that the GMs believed any of these players, with the exception of maybe Antawn Jamison, would take the Cavs to the next level is the reason why Danny Ferry should be done as GM of the Cavs. I understand that (in the case of Donyell, Damon, Larry) there haven’t been a lot of great free agents available, there’s also a thing called trading picks and cap space for players rather than signing Larry Hughes to a ridiculous deal.
With the way Ben Wallace played this season, he would’ve been more valuable to the Cavs than Shaq… Ferry felt the need to make a “splash” and Ben Wallace had a resurgent yet while the Suns are in the Conference Finals playing much better without Shaq.