From Hoops World:

Cavs Looking to Get LeBron Help: Don't fault the Cleveland Cavaliers for not trying to find LeBron James some help. There's a lot of names that the Cavs have been rumored to have contacted, including dynamic scorers Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis. The team has also looked into a possible deal with James Posey, who was born in Cleveland and played high school ball about 30 miles south of The Forest City. In addition to hoping to keep their own free agent point guard, Delonte West and Daniel Gibson, the Cavs have been rumored to be looking into a possible deal for Charlotte Bobcats' point guard Raymond Felton. A lot is going on with the Cavaliers as far as possible upgrades go and with an owner willing to pay the luxury tax, there are plenty of possibilities for Cleveland.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
From Hoops World:

Cavs Looking to Get LeBron Help: Don't fault the Cleveland Cavaliers for not trying to find LeBron James some help. There's a lot of names that the Cavs have been rumored to have contacted, including dynamic scorers Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis. The team has also looked into a possible deal with James Posey, who was born in Cleveland and played high school ball about 30 miles south of The Forest City. In addition to hoping to keep their own free agent point guard, Delonte West and Daniel Gibson, the Cavs have been rumored to be looking into a possible deal for Charlotte Bobcats' point guard Raymond Felton. A lot is going on with the Cavaliers as far as possible upgrades go and with an owner willing to pay the luxury tax, there are plenty of possibilities for Cleveland.

PLEASE get something done before the window slams shut! The loss of LeBron could be the death knell for this franchise..UNLESS..we win a championship before he goes.

DWJ

Looks like Posey is the target now. Man, Milwaukee and Philly have helped themselves a ton. Miami, too.

Ferry ****ed us over when he signed Hughes, Jones and Marshall. In that offseason, he might have sent LeBron to New York.

Philly was already a huge up and comer. Milwaukee is looking strong. Orlando will be back next year. Boston will be back.

And the Cavs will get 42 wins with their garbage team, and lose to one of them in the playoffs.

I really don't think Posey makes a huge difference.

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Originally posted by shepwrite:
Looks like Posey is the target now. Man, Milwaukee and Philly have helped themselves a ton. Miami, too.

And Toronto's backcourt now includes Bosh AND ONeal. Cleveland can publicly claim they are trying, but until they put some talent on the floor it's nothing but hot air. The ONLY team in the East that has improved their roster less than the Cavs is the Knicks. They could easily drop from the 4 seed to 6 and lose homecourt in the first round. Geez, they were only 2 games better than the Wiz last year, Miami should return to form, the Bulls could make a late run with a new PG, ATL will be a year older and wiser, Milwakee, Philly....Cleveland went from Conference champs to middle of the pack in 2 years. Ouch.

If I'm Lebron, I see a Cleveland team that either doesnt want to or doesnt know how to get me any help. And in NJ (Brooklyn) I see a team willing to pay me more than anyone else and spend years building a young roster for me to join. This is a no brainer. How the hell did Cleveland screw this up?

Before this topic turns into a tear jerker about LeBron leaving I want to point out that in 2010 the Cavs have about $50M of cap room.

This year we have about $30M in expiring contracts which could get us a great player at the deadline. In 09/10 we'll have another $30M in expiring contracts.

It's kind of amazing how everyone jumps on the "LeBron is gone we're a bunch of losers" bandwagon when he's under contract through at least 2010 and we have some really good trade bait leading up to then.



But anyway. Please, please don't sign James Posey. Everyone is going insane over him and someone is going to give way too much money to a guy averaging 9 points and 5 rebounds for his career. We have Wallace, we have Varejao, we don't need any more "intangible" players.

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Originally posted by We need Tom Tupa:
If I'm Lebron, I see a Cleveland team that either doesnt want to or doesnt know how to get me any help. And in NJ (Brooklyn) I see a team willing to pay me more than anyone else and spend years building a young roster for me to join. This is a no brainer. How the hell did Cleveland screw this up?

Yeah, my opinion on Lebron leaving is beginning to shift from "how dare he!" to "how could he not?"

Hopefully, the FO can engineer something that would change that.

ESPN has a good list of all the scheduled '09 and '10 FA's.

CIMO, Is there a player or two on the list that 1)the Cavs can afford, and 2)will make the Cavs so much better that Lebron will give up more money and fame to stay with the Cavs? Or is there someone specific that you're hoping the Cavs will trade for?

Again, fun fact: Every single team to EVER win an NBA championship did it without Lebron James.

I know. Amazing.

As of now....the only players under contract after 2009/10 are LeBron (player option) and JJ Hickson. So of course the front office can afford anyone.

Summer '10 will have Joe Johnson, McGrady, Rudy Gay, Wade, Ginobili, Bosh. Elite players. And I admit I don't even know what ETO means, but if you include that you have Nowitzki, Yao, Redd, Amare...

The eastcoast media loves talking about how the Nets and Knicks are freeing up room for LeBron in 2010....well the Cavs will have $40M in cap space! Throw a huge deal at any of those players, another max deal to LeBron, and sign a bunch of role players. The Cavs took the Celtics to wire and played the Spurs close despite getting swept the last two seasons. You don't think adding Dirk Nowitzki would make them that much better?

Not to mention if LeBron leaves it won't be for more money, the Cavs can offer him one more year and $20M more than any other team. Not to mention that LeBron has never once asked for a trade or said anything about wanting out. He wants the Cavs to get better.

Look at guys like Tim Duncan staying in one city. Kobe after demanding trades and calling out his front office every single season, still in LA. KG spent 12(?) years on a bad team (and a small market).

And in the end....LeBron doesn't need any more exposure. The man made $100M on a shoe deal before he even stepped on the court. And if he leaves....oh well. Look at Shep's last post. It's two years down the line and we're in just as good a postion to get him real help as the Nets are to get him at all.

quote:

Originally posted by CIMO:
As of now....the only players under contract after 2009/10 are LeBron (player option) and JJ Hickson. So of course the front office can afford anyone.

That should change once we take care of our in-house RFA's, but it's a fair point.

My focus was more on the '09 offseason. My thinking was that we've likely lost some ground this offseason, which should show up in the standings next season. If we end up regressing, the media hype about Lebron leaving will only get louder. There will be more talk about how the Cavs haven't built a championship team around him, which will make our FA signings all the more important.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the '09 FA class pales in comparison to the '10 class, especially when it comes to 2-guards. Other than Rip Hamilton - who has to lop off the last year of his contract to become an FA - there doesn't seem to be anyone available (maybe Jamal Crawford?).

There are some decent big men available, but is an aging Rasheed or an Al Harrington going to make the difference?

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Not to mention if LeBron leaves it won't be for more money, the Cavs can offer him one more year and $20M more than any other team. Not to mention that LeBron has never once asked for a trade or said anything about wanting out. He wants the Cavs to get better.

Look at guys like Tim Duncan staying in one city. Kobe after demanding trades and calling out his front office every single season, still in LA. KG spent 12(?) years on a bad team (and a small market).

And in the end....LeBron doesn't need any more exposure. The man made $100M on a shoe deal before he even stepped on the court. And if he leaves....oh well. Look at Shep's last post. It's two years down the line and we're in just as good a postion to get him real help as the Nets are to get him at all.

I don't doubt that the Cavs can give him a heftier contract than other teams. And of course Lebron wants the Cavs to get better: if they were making significant progress towards winning a title, I don't doubt that Lebron would stay.

But Lebron also likes hanging out with Warren Buffett, so he probably realizes the opportunity costs of staying in Cleveland. If he sticks with a small-market team that may never be good enough to win championships, he'll most certainly lose out on exposure and, ultimately, boatloads of money.

The examples you cite pretty much bear that out. In his prime, Duncan consistently won championships - he doesn't seem to care much about exposure anyway. Kobe plays in LA, so that's a no-brainer. And after going 1 and out for the umpteenth time in '03, Garnett signed a lifetime endorsement deal with Adidas for about $2M per year. You don't think he could have gotten more if he had been in Boston and/or winning titles? Even if Lebron's endorsement dollars are already high, couldn't they go even higher? And if the Cavs plummet, wouldn't they stagnate?

If Lebron goes into the '10 FA period with the Nets' nucleus looking even slightly better than the Cavs', does he really turn down the exposure of playing in NYC, being perceived as the city's savior, and playing with Yi Jianlian (see McGrady, Tracy) because we now have the money to put together the team we should have assembled years ago?

I hope he does, but I'm not too optimistic.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
Again, fun fact: Every single team to EVER win an NBA championship did it without Lebron James.

I know. Amazing.

Fun fact: The Cleveland Cavs are NOT one of those teams.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
From Hoops World:

Cavs Looking to Get LeBron Help: Don't fault the Cleveland Cavaliers for not trying to find LeBron James some help. There's a lot of names that the Cavs have been rumored to have contacted, including dynamic scorers Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis. The team has also looked into a possible deal with James Posey, who was born in Cleveland and played high school ball about 30 miles south of The Forest City. In addition to hoping to keep their own free agent point guard, Delonte West and Daniel Gibson, the Cavs have been rumored to be looking into a possible deal for Charlotte Bobcats' point guard Raymond Felton. A lot is going on with the Cavaliers as far as possible upgrades go and with an owner willing to pay the luxury tax, there are plenty of possibilities for Cleveland.

The collection of NBA articles at SI.com has Ellis starting for the Warriors next year and Posey deciding between Boston and New Orleans. With Maggette, Brand, and O'Neal (and just about everyone else but Josh Smith and Brent Barry) no longer an option. can we fault the Cavs now, or are there some more rumors they want to float to convince us they are trying?

I believe Cleveland has a lot of Plan B and Plan C moves they talk about just to keep interest up. The Plan A is resigning West and Gibson and dumping expiring contracts. If they make a move (Plan B or Plan C) it will be finding a 3rd team for a trade with Chicago that would bring Luol Deng or Kirk Hinrick to Cleveland for Andy, Wally's expiring contract and maybe another player (Pavlovic). A 3rd team is needed because Chicago doesn't Want Andy, they already have his clone.

You aren't going to see Posey in a Cavs uniform and you aren't going to see Felton in a Cavs uniform. LaBron has already made it known that he wants Boobie and West signed.

Gilbert didn't make his money throwing good money after bad, there is a limit and unless they can dump some expiring contracts, Cleveland doesn't make a big move until next season. Maybe they grab a veteran from a underperforming team in February and dump the expiring contracts then.

Get ready to sit back and watch LaBron dribble the clock out from the top of the key while everyone else stands around and watches.

Who plays the 2? Are West and Boobie expected to start together? Could Hinrich be a two? Deng is a 3, right... Lebron's position?

Seems like the hole is still at the 2.

The hole really is at the two. Well, one of the holes. Wally can be servicable and actually I believe Sasha can be too if given the oppurtunity to get comfortable on the floor.

But you don't win championships with 1 great player and a bunch of "serviceable" players in today's NBA.

I personally believe the NBA is blackballing the Cleveland Cavaliers while LeBron is here in order to get him out of this market and into the NY or LA market.

I know it sounds nuts, but I truly believe it. The NBA has proven to be shady in the past.