Mission Accomplished…For Now
Cleveland Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry puts finishing touch on Cavaliers’ 2008-09 roster by coming to terms with restricted free agent guard Delonte West.
Sometimes timing is everything when breaking a story. When it comes to the Cavaliers, we all know Brian Windhorst is the man, but I’ve been giving props to Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer this summer as I think she has done an admirable job stepping in to the PD’s vacant Cavaliers beat writer slot (aka, the Dream Job for any Cavs blogger). Mary Schmitt Boyer got her story on the re-signing of West on the PD’s site at 2:34 this afternoon. Once again, though, it was Windhorst sneaking in with the scoop, getting his story on the ABJ’s site at 2:33 pm.
Regardless of who got the scoop on this, though, that’s not really what’s important here. What’s important is that the Cavaliers were able to get a guy signed to a team friendly contract that once again give the Cavaliers the flexibility in the length of the contract. Windhorst writes,
“West has agreed to a two-year contract with a team option for the 2011-12 season. According to league sources, the deal is worth between $4 million and $5 million per season.”
This should pretty much fill up the Cavs roster for this season now. The question will be where West finds his minutes on this roster. Is he a backup PG for Mo Williams? Well, what about Daniel Gibson? Is West a backup for Szcerbiak at SG? What about Terance Kinsey and Sasha Pavlovic? Perhaps Delonte will be the starting SG for this team. He’s always been a bit of a tweener, somewhere between PG and SG. The real trick will be for Mike Brown to figure out a rotation that works for Williams, Gibson, West, Szczerbiak, Kinsey, and Pavlovic (although I personally wouldn’t mind seeing Pavlovic be the odd man out….but that’s another post for another time). Depending on what Kinsey can bring to the table, this has a chance to be a quality backcourt with some nice depth. Suddenly the Cavaliers and Mike Brown find themselves with some lineups that might be able to create shots and score when LeBron James is on the bench.
I said in a recent podcast that I felt that no news was good news in the negotiations because I felt like that showed that both sides were still interested in a longer term deal rather than the one year qualifying offer. That appears to have been exactly what happened. Mary Schmitt Boyer was able to get a quote from Delonte on the re-signing, and he said,
“This is the first time since I was offered a scholarship at St. Joes that I feel like I am valued as a person and a player. Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers have shown me that they value me as a person and a player and that was the most important thing to me.
In that sense, this was not about a specific dollar amount. You can’t really put a dollar value on a person – their skills you can, but not their heart and what kind of person they are. My family is blessed and I feel a great relief to be able to concentrate on basketball now.”
And that quote is vintage Delonte West and part of the reason why I love having this guy on the team so much. Delonte West sounds happy to be here, and obviously Danny Ferry was serious when he said the Cavs still wanted Delonte to be in their long term plans despite the trade for Mo Williams earlier this summer.
Now, as the Cavaliers head into training camp in less than a month, they will have a full roster on time and ready to begin the process of figuring out how to mold these parts into one coherent team. Compared to the tumultuous training camp and holdouts last fall, this is a welcomed relief. Who knows what kind of offensive “system” Mike Brown will try to come up with this year, but it’s certainly clear that this backcourt is a lot stronger and has more weapons in it than the one that went to training camp last year. Only time will tell how Mike Brown ultimately chooses to use some of these parts.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
[...] I’ll follow up with more later as it develops. Be sure to catch Dan Labbe’s write-up here. Mary Schmitt Boyer also reported on the story, however her story didn’t yet include terms. It’s still worth a read as it has some nice quotes from Ferry in it. And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention WFNY, where RockKing has again done an excellent piece. [...]
September 12th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I absolutely refuse to even THINK about being happy regarding this news. My first thought upon finishing my reading was, “How long until the injuries start for THIS Cleveland team?” 2008 has managed to take my natural inclination toward “cautious optimism” and totally remove the “optimism” part. Bad times.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I’m happy.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Last season was the cavaliers injury season. I refuse to think they will be injury prone this year also
September 12th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
The bottom line now is that LeBron is going to be playing the 4 often. With such a thin frontcourt, and a backcourt featuring 3 guys that can start on most teams Boobie/Delonte/Mo there SHOULD be times where Delonte is running the offense – Boobie is spotted up, Mo Wil is coming off screens, and LeBron is receiving in the high post.
That’s an uber-athletic team with 2 sharpshooters.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
In terms of raw talent – in this order:
LeBron
Mo Williams
Z
Boobie
Delonte
————-
rest of team
I don’t know how this team will work together, but these guys have the most talent on the roster.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Z has nothing raw wtf Lmao.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
the cavs are going to be awesome this year.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Z has no raw talent? He came back from a horrible foot injury, only to make an All-Star game and average around 14 points a game. For a guy his size (7′3″) he has a superb jumpshot, and can finish at the rim. His jumpshot makes him unique. That’s what I call raw talent
September 13th, 2008 at 12:11 am
In all seriousness, if we can limit injuries (which all teams try to do), develop an offensive strategy (no, that’s it….just an offensive strategy to replace to no-offensive strategy we have now), and develop the weaker players, we have a serious shot at winning the championship this year.
…however, those are big “ifs.”
But I am still happy.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Z is talented but he has 0 RAW talent. Raw talent is speed,athletcism among other things. Sasha has more raw talent and we dam sure know hickson has more. Z is 7′3 and can’t snag rebounds worth a dam. He only tips the ball on the offensive end.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:24 am
Rock-
Good piece, but I just don’t get Windy’s math on this one:
“West has agreed to a two-year contract with a team option for the 2011-12 season. According to league sources, the deal is worth between $4 million and $5 million per season.”
A two-year deal would be 2008-09 and 2009-10…team option for 2011-12? What happened to the 2010-11 season then? I’m hoping that it’s a three-year deal with an option for a fourth season of 2011-12.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:25 am
It’s a good signing, no doubt, and I am really liking the depth in the backcourt. I think that you start Mo and Wally/Sasha and bring Delonte and Boobie off the bench and you lose next to nothing offensively.
At some point this season, Wally has to be traded for a big. The backcourt is set.
September 13th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Haha, good point Amar….I didn’t even catch that. In his updated article, Windy said it was a 3 year deal with the third year being the team option, so I think he just initially reported the final year incorrectly.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I don’t think raw talent has to neccessarily be speed, athleticism, and stuff like that. And he can’t rebound???? He had 9.3 RPG last year, and has averaged around 8 for his career. I’m sorry but you’re wrong. I’m sure a lot can agree that Z continues to be a centerpiece of this team, and is our most dependable player behind LeBron
September 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
He’s 7′3 lol. He should be averaging bout 12 boards a game. They count all his offensive tips as rebounds and he still only averages 9 boards. Andy has more raw talent also. Dirk is raw talent 7ft who has a post and perimeter game. Brad miller is just like z so does he have raw talent also? Arvydas sabonis could shoot threes and he was 7ft so does that make him raw talented? No! Ya’ll need to find a definition or explanation what the word raw talent means cuz z is not even in the conversation. Z a good player and i’m glad we have him but he has no raw talent
September 13th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
He’s 7′3 lol. He should be averaging bout 12 boards a game. They count all his offensive tips as rebounds and he still only averages 9 boards. Andy has more raw talent also. Dirk is raw talent. A 7ft who has a post and perimeter game and can take you off the dribble. Brad miller is just like z so does he have raw talent also? Arvydas sabonis could shoot threes and he was 7ft so does that make him raw talented? No! Ya’ll need to find a definition or explanation what the word raw talent means cuz z is not even in the conversation. Z a good player and i’m glad we have him but he has no raw talent
September 13th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Number 17 is what ya’ll should read not 16. The device i’m using is trash
September 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Rock,
Why are you so down on Pavlovic?
When healthy, I think he’s a very good shooting guard. He was very instrumental in your 2007 Finals run.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I am wishy washy on Pavlovic… he will always have potential, but I don’t know that he will ever be anything more than a serviceable NBA player. He seems close to good on a given night but never strings anything truly impressive together.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am
If Lebron ends up playing more post at the 4 then Sasha will probably see time at small forward.
I’m glad we’ve got Delonte locked up for awhile. Certainly we should be able to package an AV/Wally combo if/when a team with a solid big man decides its time to rebuild. Until then heres to hoping Ben Wallace still has some left in the tank. Actually on that same note Ben Wallace at the 5 with Lebron at the 4 is a mean tandem (if Ben is healthy). Shot block city