Posted by Marv:

all right, here's my dealio: gotta re-sign nate. let zach play through his contract. only re-sign lee if you can hold down the price; otherwise let him go. hold onto craw through his current contract, because i think MDA is gonna get the best from him. keep eddy on the bench and let him decide if he wants to opt out of his contract when he can.

the 2010 roster will be chandler, gallo, nate and zach as its core. craw will be back if he’s earned it. same with dlee and duhon. and our up-coming #1. i'd then let the chips fall where they may regarding a FA signing or a sign-and-trade.

ur fruity drink sir... i made it extra sweet with a flower just the way u likes it.

Posted by crzymdups:

it's not about "winning now" or "tanking until 2010" ... that's over simplifying. it's about developing a core with a style of play and making smart contract decisions, and yes some smart trade decisions until 2010. i'm okay with not using major cap room in 2010 if it's a result of smart management.

Posted by Pharzeone:

2010 is fools gold. The last NBA superstar or player that I am aware that left a better team to play for a worse team is Shaq. Normally superstars do not leave their teams, they are traded. A rising star may leave his team because their is already an established superstar on their current team much like Tracy McGrady who left Vince Carter to make a name for himself and didn't like Tornoto. Look at Nash who wasn't viewed as a superstar but also didn't have intentions on leaving. He left because his team didn't believe he was worth it.


However, it's a piece by another one of the ABJ's sports columnists, Patrick McManamon, that should have Cavs and Cleveland fans thinking progressively and about a bright future instead of being consumed in doom and gloom.


McManamon wrote a column in this past Sunday's edition of the Beacon Journal detailing the Cavs' salary cap position and how the day when GM Danny Ferry adds a second superstar alongside LeBron James might be drawing ever so closer. You know that we here at CA appreciate and support writers who back up their brash talk and predictions with factual presentations, and McManamon does not disappoint in his well-researched editorial:

It's time to change our thinking about the future of LeBron James, time to turn the viewpoint that James will leave Cleveland on its ear for good reason.
Because the Cavs seem to have something very slick and important up their sleeve. And that is to keep James and give him a superstar-caliber cohort as a teammate.
The vision - and it's not a pipe dream - has James staying and playing on the same team as Dwyane Wade. Or Chris Bosh. Or Josh Howard. Or Amare Stoudamire. Or any of the other big-name NBA guys who can become a free agent in the summer of 2010...
There is only one NBA team positioned to sign two superstars in 2010, and that's the Cavaliers.
That's because there's only one team with a superstar and the cap room to sign another.
Everyone has been focusing on the cap space of the New Jersey Nets or the New York Knicks or Athens, Greece, but the Cavs quietly have manipulated themselves to the point that they have more salary-cap room than anyone for that offseason...
Another team might want to add James, of course. But no other team will be able to add James and another max contract. To do so, a team would need $40 million or so in cap room. The cap is projected to be $60 million in 2010, which means a team would have two guys with max deals and a bunch of other ''guys'' who would average, at the most, $2 million a year.
Which means it would be a bunch of Developmental League guys and two stars.
The myth of NBA free agency is that a standout will leave his team willingly.
The reality is that it doesn't happen that often. The perception grows because it is a huge story when someone like Steve Nash or Shaquille O'Neal changes teams. Most of the time, a player stays where he can make the most money for the longest number of years...
Enough with the angst already.
As the Cavs no doubt are thinking (and if they're not thinking this way, they're nuts), it's not about James leaving Cleveland in 2010. It's about what superstar will join him in Cleveland.
After the way the infamous "Offseason of 2005" went and the way the league has played out over the past decade of so, one thing is for certain: Free agency and blowing hoards of salary cap space is absolutely, positively no way to get better.

Nobody has gotten better through free agency over the last 10 years save one team: The 2004-05 Phoenix Suns, who used the stupidity of Mark Cuban to scoop Steve Nash from Dallas and ride him to two MVP awards and a couple of Western Conference Finals berths.

Teams get better through trades (like both of this past year's NBA Finalists, the Lakers and Celtics), drafts (Trail Blazers, Bulls, Hornets, Spurs), or a combination of both. It has been shown over and over again. With the Cavs not planning to draft in the lottery any time soon, an impact player will have to come through a major trade.

When studying the anatomy of a blockbuster trade, such as the ones that involved Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, and Ron Artest over the past couple of years, it seems like the Cavs already have what a team on the other end of one of these deals would want.

GM Danny Ferry has tons of cap room to offer with enormous expiring contracts (Wally Szczerbiak's $13 million off the books for next summer), young prospects (Daniel Gibson, J.J. Hickson), a combination of an expiring contract and a serviceable player (Anderson Varejao), and draft picks (Ferry has all his picks in tact for the foreseeable future).

So who could be available at the trading deadline this year? You have to look at several things: First, a team that could potentially struggle and underachieve compared to where they've been in the past and where they're looking to be this season. Second, does this team have a superstar with a big contract? And third, does this team feel that ridding themselves of this "big contract" and rebuilding would serve them better than continuing to tread water?

By the way other teams that will similar cap space for two superstars are Toronto, Miami and now Detroit.

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by 4949:

Lebron James has already made it clear that he intends to leave. This was the last chance the Cavs had to surround him with talent. I truly believe he wants to come to New York. He wants the lights. I was reading an article over on hhype and the whole article was about half the league getting ready for the big free agent market coming up in 2010. Lebron is the main focus and the main city mentioned with his name was New York. All signs are pointing to it.

They just can't directly talk about it right now, because he is under contract.

Every once in a while, when a big time star wants more than what a mediocre city can offer, they go to the big city. Shaq from Orlando to L.A.! Kareem from Milwaukee to L.A!. Garnette from Minn and Allan from Seattle to Boston! Dr. J from ABA to Philadelphia! Moses Malone from Houston to Philadelphia! Lebron James from Cleveland to NYC.

[Edited by - 4949 on 11-11-2008 12:05 AM]

You mean like Kobe back in 2004, when he was suppose to leave for the Suns, Chicago and oh yeah the Clippers. He made it real clear too. Since I already mentioned Shaq (btw, told NY that he wanted to come but back out because he said it snows too much) your post was funny since everyone that you mentioned besides Shaq was moved via trade not free agency. Way to make my point. Thanks.

Posted by GKFv2:

Pretty clear where I stand.

Posted by BlueSeats:

There's no "best way" to build a contender, all you can do is maximize your chances.

There are three ways acquire talent: draft, trades, free agency.

When you strive for mediocrity and squander draft picks, load up on bad contracts, and bloat your payroll, you significantly diminish your odds in each of those departments.

We don't have to go all-in with any given direction, but nor do we want to kill flexibility and hinder our odds in any given department.9

No secret formula here, but we still need franchise caliber talent here and we're in no situation to hinder our odds of obtaining such through any available means.

Sorry, I know that's all generic and obvious, but it is what it is. Right now we have low odds of obtaining a league altering stud. We have to maximize our odds in one of the three talent acquisition domains.

Short term, Steph's massive expiring contract is our best means to landing talent. But we need league altering talent, not B-grade support cast. If we can use it to get a top 5 player (we can't) you do it without thinking, otherwise let it drop and look to the draft or FA.

We've shot high as a means of success these last few years and it's backfired. We're bloated, mediocre and with low odds for success. To really win it you have to be shrewd and lucky, and lately we've been neither. The shrewdest thing we can do until we get the next Reed/King/Ewing is to keep flexible and maximize as many opportunities as we can.

Posted by 4949:

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by 4949:

Lebron James has already made it clear that he intends to leave. This was the last chance the Cavs had to surround him with talent. I truly believe he wants to come to New York. He wants the lights. I was reading an article over on hhype and the whole article was about half the league getting ready for the big free agent market coming up in 2010. Lebron is the main focus and the main city mentioned with his name was New York. All signs are pointing to it.

They just can't directly talk about it right now, because he is under contract.

Every once in a while, when a big time star wants more than what a mediocre city can offer, they go to the big city. Shaq from Orlando to L.A.! Kareem from Milwaukee to L.A!. Garnette from Minn and Allan from Seattle to Boston! Dr. J from ABA to Philadelphia! Moses Malone from Houston to Philadelphia! Lebron James from Cleveland to NYC.

[Edited by - 4949 on 11-11-2008 12:05 AM]

You mean like Kobe back in 2004, when he was suppose to leave for the Suns, Chicago and oh yeah the Clippers. He made it real clear too. Since I already mentioned Shaq (btw, told NY that he wanted to come but back out because he said it snows too much) your post was funny since everyone that you mentioned besides Shaq was moved via trade not free agency. Way to make my point. Thanks.

I didn't say any of these other guys made anything clear. I said Lebron made it clear. Besides, Kobe is still in L.A.

And I never made a point of how they moved. The point is 'they moved'!

Can't you just stick to what I was trying to say? You think it's funny and just brush it off with misinterpretations?