Either that or the Clippers are trying to blow up a roster, again.

 

James looks small in that magazine shot, lol.


And :woot: at not having to give up Hickson. And :woot: at getting Jameson.


Hope the Heat get Amare now.

 

This deal KILLS the Cavs cap space for next year and makes them NON-players in the summer of 2010 FA bonanza.

the rumors of going hard after Chris Bosh are officially dead now.

(Jamison expires in 2012. yikes)

This is one confident move. It is basically saying "yeah, this is our last bullet for a title."


MAYBE, the rumor I heard today about Lebron telling a Prominent NBA player that he will play in New York next year are true.

As it goes..it is like this...Lebron James has made it clear (to a prominent NBA player) that if the Knicks can clear enough cap space for TWO Max contracts (his being one)...he will go there.

and Hello, Heat - Knicks Rivalry II

so basically...if the Knicks dump their trash before the deadline...it means LEBRON and possibly another max. If they don't..the Knicks will suck forever.

 

If they got Lebron to stay I never expected them to get anyone else "big" to go to Cleveland in FA (it's just not a desirable place to live IMO). I preferred Amare, even if it meant giving up Hickson, but I never expected him [Amare] to be traded given the offer the Cavs were putting out there. I think Jamison is better than anyone else we have at the position and probably becomes the 2nd best player on the team which is why I am happy. I mean the only way the Cavs matter is if Lebron stays, so if this move gets him to stay (even if they don't win a title) I will be happy.

 

Yeah I don't think the Cavs are as eager to go after the two max FAs like so many other teams. They get a lot of flack for not having other All-Stars around LeBron but that team was BUILT for having LeBron. They have surrounded him with shooters and Shaq in the middle. They would love to have another All-Star, but I don't think they were as worried as Miami, New York, etc. about having two big names.

And I'm not so sure LeBron bolts. He has been an incredible amount of effort into his defensive game and knows how important that is - so why go play for New York. He also sees how a team with a few flaws can get taken down, so I don't see him being so arrogant as to think that he and Bosh or he and Wade would definitely win the championship when surrounded by scrubs.

Also, he has deals with McDonalds, Coca Cola, Gatorade, Nike and a slew of others. The Cavs recently entered a deal with a Chinese marketing company which opened up a lot of doors overseas. Not to mention the Cav's owner is one of the most wealthy in the league (flew LeBron and his family / friends in a chartered plane to the All-Star game, while the Suns GM was flying coach).

I don't think he needs NY as much as New Yorkers seem to believe.

 

They're already stuck. All efforts to find LeFraud's sidekick have failed. The Cavs have won nothing. This is pure desperation on their part. If they don't win a title this year, they're screwed for a decade.

 

actually...two years. They do miss the Carmelo Anthony window though.

 

I hesitate to leave open the possibility that they could come back as contenders down the road mainly because, in the scenario I'm talking about, every one of their moves to complement LeFraud will have totally failed. There will be no reason to suspect that Cleveland would suddenly learn to identify the best talent to surround their star player with in the span of time you're talking about.

If they haven't learned by now, they never will.

 

Wow - really surprised people are this down on the Cavs roster / FO moves. Having had the best record last year and currently this year (plus a solid record against the top teams this year) I have to question how people see them as being in a horrible place.

They turned Joe Smith, Damon Jones, Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace and Larry Hughes and a late 1st into

Mo Williams, Shaq, Jamison and Delonte West. Not to mention found a solid PF prospect in Hickson with the #19 pick.

The NBA will probably have a hard cap in the next 3-4 years - which will more or less handcuff anyone with two max FAs.

The Cavs aren't built to be sexy and outscore everyone - it is a team completely built around defense and opening up for LeBron (3 of top 10 3 pt shooters are on Cavs).

I guess where people look at a lot of bad contracts, I see a young core of Bron, Mo, Varejao, Hickson with an owner who is more than willing to spend where necessary to get the pieces in place.

 

Again - with the best record last year and the best record this year, I would argue that our young core must be pretty good.

I think Mo Williams is a core piece. You don't have to be a super-star to be a core piece, and a PG that gets 17 pts and 5 assists while being top 10 in 3-pt and FT % is a core player.

Varejao is incredibly undervalued outside of Cleveland but offers GREAT defense (which is what this team cares about more than offense). Delonte West is similar to Varejao in that he plays a few positions, offers good defense and energy.

Hickson isn't even 21 yet and has a long way to go, but seems to have all the tools to be a solid PF in this league.

What does NY (or Miami) have to offer after signing two max FAs? I'm not sure I see a better opportunity out there for LeBron.

 

Delonte is a stretch as a core player (if not for depression problems he would be a starter and his numbers last year, as a starter, look much better - so Cavs fans tend to overvalue him) - but Anderson, on OUR team, is definitely a core player. Hickson only starts to get him playing time between Shaq and Bron, Hickson only gets about 20 minutes per game, while Varejao plays closer to 30.

As fans we are obviously going to disagree - I see Hickson's potential as not being THAT far off from Beasleys. Adding in Mo and a whole bench of role players is a solid team.

No way to know till after this season and the FA flurry begins. I don't see as much movement as a lot of people are expecting.

 

First of all, they have Beasley to offer....

and second of all..they have a running mate in Wade to offer as well as YET ANOTHER near Max contract.

You didn;t ask that question seriously did you?

Lebron's choice if put to him would be to play in Cleveland with: Mo Williams, JJ Hickson, Jamison and Varejo as core pieces.

With Miami it would be to play with: Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, Udonis Haslem (just as good as Varejo, since you include him) and a junior Max that could be one of these: Amare, Johnson / Rudy Gay. Not to mention that Chris Bosh can take a little less and fit in for a couple years before extending with Bird Rights.

it is elementary.

of course..he is not the type to be a second banana in any city..so it won;t happen..IMO.

But to say that Hickson is not that far off from Beasley is ridiculous.

Michael Beasley just turned 21 and is averaging 17 and 7 already. he is headed to be a perennial 20 ppg scorer and all-star in this league.

JJ Hickson? His ceiling is a consistent 12/10 PF. Basically a Udonis Haslem on steroids.

 

Hickson isn't bad (IMO) and seems to be improving, but I wish he was like Beasley. Maybe he can get there, but he'd need a lot of work still. I disagree with Sec's ceiling on Hickson (in regards to pts), I think he could be a 15/10 guy eventually which is nothing to sneeze at (again IMO), but he's obviously not there yet (and might not ever be).



PS: I've always thought of Haslem as a core guy for the Heat.

 

Some Cavs fans are speculating that Riley by expressing a sudden interest in Amare thwarted the Cavs deal so that Amare would be available in the summer.

Interesting conspiracy theory.

 

By stalling the deal. Then the cavs put a deadline like they did and you continue to stall.

The Lions did that to us on Damien Woody a few years back...remember?

 

Jamison averaging 17 pts and 7.5 boards since trade. With Bron and Shaq hurt, Z not back yet and Mo shaking off the rust it was nice to see him step up against Milwaukee. Be interesting to see if this team will have enough time to get in sync during the playoffs.