Cavs shuffle the deck chairs

cheech13

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Hood/Hill/Lebron/Love/Thompson

with a bench of:

Clarkson/Korver/Green/Nance/Zizic

plus Osman and Smith as deep options. That's not a bad team, right?
 

amfox1

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Cavs day so far:

IT, Frye and 2018 CLE 1st to LAL for Clarkson and Nance
Wade to MIA for nothing (heavily protected 2nd)
Shumpert, Rose, Crowder and 2020 MIA 2nd to SAC/UTA for Hill and Hood

6 players and 2 draft picks out, 4 players in
 

cheech13

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Cavs day so far:

IT, Frye and CLE 1st to LAL for Clarkson and Nance
Wade to MIA for nothing (heavily protected 2nd)
Shumpert, Rose and Crowder to SAC/UTA for Hill and Hood

6 players and draft pick out, 4 players in
So two open roster spots, right? They'll probably be in the buyout market. Who's going to be out there? Joe Johnson?
 

Sam Ray Not

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Hood/Hill/Lebron/Love/Thompson

with a bench of:

Clarkson/Korver/Green/Nance/Zizic

plus Osman and Smith as deep options. That's not a bad team, right?
Not at all. Got younger, bigger more athletic and significantly better, without losing the BKN pick, which seemed like their only desirable asset. And Hood and Hill may have some synergy from their time together in Utah, too. Well played, Koby Altman. (Goddammit).
 

cheech13

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Even if Lebron leaves Hood, Clarkson, Nance, the Brooklyn pick and whatever you get in a Love trade isn't that bad of a foundation. So much for the quotes yesterday that Altman was in over his head and unable to get any deals done to improve the team.
 

JakeRae

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Even if Lebron leaves Hood, Clarkson, Nance, the Brooklyn pick and whatever you get in a Love trade isn't that bad of a foundation. So much for the quotes yesterday that Altman was in over his head and unable to get any deals done to improve the team.
It is when you can't afford to sign anyone else because you are capped out.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Even if Lebron leaves Hood, Clarkson, Nance, the Brooklyn pick and whatever you get in a Love trade isn't that bad of a foundation. So much for the quotes yesterday that Altman was in over his head and unable to get any deals done to improve the team.
It is an excellent foundation for a bottom 5 overpaid roster with several players no longer on rookie contracts.

The thing that makes things a bit easier for Cleveland in terms of making deals is that as long as they have Lebron, this year is the only one that matters. They can overpay guys like Smith or Thompson, or take on Hill's contract, because if they don't let it ride Lebron could walk. And if Lebron walks, it doesn't matter who's left anyway.

Ainge doesn't have the benefit of a Lebron on the roster, but he also is allowed to think ahead.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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I'll believe they're good when I see it. Lue has a lot of work to do and they still didn't add any impact players on the defensive end.
 

Reardon's Beard

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I'd be happy for Perk to be back in the NBA. Even happier for the Celtics to run rings around him if he ever sees the floor.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Perk plays for the Cavs G League team. He has been ok for them. The NBA that Perk was effective in doesn't exist anymore. I wonder how many minutes per game he can actually play for Cleveland without killing their spacing.
 

cheech13

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Perk plays for the Cavs G League team. He has been ok for them. The NBA that Perk was effective in doesn't exist anymore. I wonder how many minutes per game he can actually play for Cleveland without killing their spacing.
If they sign him I doubt he ever sees the floor. He's there for locker room support and some garbage minutes here and there. They'll save that other roster spot for someone that is moderately productive.
 

Manzivino

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I guess I don't view Crowder as much value anymore. A late first I guess? I know Cleveland doesn't have one anymore, but that other teams do. Market must not have borne that out.
It's been reported for days that multiple teams were shopping RFAs and nobody was willing to give up a first rounder, all of the offers were second rounders or young players. With the cap flat no GM wants to give up the dream of 4 years of a rotation player at $2M/year.
 

nighthob

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It's been reported for days that multiple teams were shopping RFAs and nobody was willing to give up a first rounder, all of the offers were second rounders or young players. With the cap flat no GM wants to give up the dream of 4 years of a rotation player at $2M/year.
This is the reality, GMs have spent the last three summers spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave in a Hong Kong whorehouse. There are a lot f teams with a lot of bad contracts on the books and the value of low paid roleplayers has never been higher (seen in Utah's preference for Crowder's salary over Hood's probable re-signing for at least MLE money).

That was pre-surgery, correct?
Lil' Zeke didn't get surgery as hip reconstruction necessitated the loss of a full season. He went the physical rehab route.

That locker room really must have been toxic.
Think about this for a second, I'm in complete agreement with you that this was a "clear out the locker room and bring in better roleplayers" trade, and that when clearing the locker room of toxic personalities became the goal, Jeff Green survived. That locker room must have been hell on earth.
 

HurstSoGood

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When LeBron says he "owes it to his teammates NOT to waive his no trade clause," which teammates is he referring to?
K. Love? The water boy? The trainer? The Cavs just traded most of their team away.

I'm confused at his explanation. He has the right to the NTC, but it seems like a weird excuse to use. He should just say "I'm making sure my transition to LA next year goes off without problems..."
 

Grin&MartyBarret

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Well, I like Cleveland a lot more today than I did yesterday. For everybody in the East, it's basically just shuffling deck chairs anyhow, but if George Hill can be what he was pre-Sacramento, Rodney Hood improves by dint of a much lower usage rate/more open shots, and the team can develop some sort of chemistry I think they have as a good a chance of anybody to get out of the East.

Hill and Hood are really good compliments to LeBron and work 1000x better off the ball than IT/Rose/Wade and I actually like Clarkson and Nance, too. Add a lot of length and athleticism.
 

RedOctober3829

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Well, I like Cleveland a lot more today than I did yesterday. For everybody in the East, it's basically just shuffling deck chairs anyhow, but if George Hill can be what he was pre-Sacramento, Rodney Hood improves by dint of a much lower usage rate/more open shots, and the team can develop some sort of chemistry I think they have as a good a chance of anybody to get out of the East.

Hill and Hood are really good compliments to LeBron and work 1000x better off the ball than IT/Rose/Wade and I actually like Clarkson and Nance, too. Add a lot of length and athleticism.
Defensively, it figures to be much better. Hill has had a terrible defensive year in Sacramento but has a good reputation. I don't think he's the big difference maker as others may think but he'll help. Nance gives them a defensive upgrade as well.
 

Grin&MartyBarret

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Defensively, it figures to be much better. Hill has had a terrible defensive year in Sacramento but has a good reputation. I don't think he's the big difference maker as others may think but he'll help. Nance gives them a defensive upgrade as well.
Hill's going to look like Gary Payton on defense just because he's replacing IT, Rose, and Calderon.
 

HomeRunBaker

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If Perkins is there for his off court contributions, shouldn't they just hire him as a coach?
Players view players much differently than they view coaches. Perkins will be around the players in the locker room, lunch after morning shootarounds, doing community work, etc whereas the assistant coaches responsibilities are far different. Players hang with players not with assistant coaches.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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As far as the moves go, I agree the Cavs likely improved at the margin, especially by subtracting IT's offensive defense.

However, aside from Nance Jr. who is a good defender and rebounder and Hood, who can do a little bit of everything when not injured, I am not sure they improved that dramatically on defense. Its true that Hill will be an upgrade on Thomas but he appears to have lost a step - something that the more elite teams will exploit when he is on the court. And Clarkson can do a bit of everything that nobody really values in today's NBA. He tends to need the ball in his hands to be effective and, even then, he is a midrange/slasher type versus an outside threat.

In short, the Cavs got a bit better defensively but, in the process, their offense may have taken a hit. Despite all their moves today, their prospects aren't definitively better than they were yesterday imho.
 

HomeRunBaker

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As far as the moves go, I agree the Cavs likely improved at the margin, especially by subtracting IT's offensive defense.

However, aside from Nance Jr. who is a good defender and rebounder and Hood, who can do a little bit of everything when not injured, I am not sure they improved that dramatically on defense. Its true that Hill will be an upgrade on Thomas but he appears to have lost a step - something that the more elite teams will exploit when he is on the court. And Clarkson can do a bit of everything that nobody really values in today's NBA. He tends to need the ball in his hands to be effective and, even then, he is a midrange/slasher type versus an outside threat.

In short, the Cavs got a bit better defensively but, in the process, their offense may have taken a hit. Despite all their moves today, their prospects aren't definitively better than they were yesterday imho.
The Cavs got better defensively by taking Isaiah off the court.
The Cavs got better offensively by taking Isaiah off the court.

Swapping a few homogeneous role players has nothing on the impact it will have by moving on from Isaiah both on the floor and during the post-game interview.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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The Cavs got better defensively by taking Isaiah off the court.
The Cavs got better offensively by taking Isaiah off the court.

Swapping a few homogeneous role players has nothing on the impact it will have by moving on from Isaiah both on the floor and during the post-game interview.
Nobody is denying the Cavs appear to have improved overall - I am not in agreement with you on the offensive end though - it remains to be seen. Clarkson isn't an improvement because he doesn't space the floor but Hood and Hill do so there's that.

As a side note, I am starting to get the feeling you sort of dislike Thomas' game. Its subtle but I detect it.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Nobody is denying the Cavs appear to have improved overall - I am not in agreement with you on the offensive end though - it remains to be seen. Clarkson isn't an improvement because he doesn't space the floor but Hood and Hill do so there's that.

As a side note, I am starting to get the feeling you sort of dislike Thomas' game. Its subtle but I detect it.
I LOVED Isaiah here. I was just not in denial that his injury wasn't essentially a career-ending one while many others, including apparently certain people in the Cavs organization, clearly were. It has been painful watching him this year.....I hope he doesn't report to the Lakers and finishes up his playing career overseas or something.
 

Reverend

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So, what is the overall purpose of the Cavs trade?

Like, ok, they’re better for now. Is this an attempt to keep LeBron? A confession to him leaving? Best of a bad?

Lots of pieces moving—would be cool to hear what people think the plan is.
 

Kliq

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I’m not ready to just write off IT as an NBA player. There is no denying he was abysmal in Cleveland, but he was coming off an injury and felt pressured to play. Plus, that was a crappy situation and almost everyone not named LeBron was playing poorly for Cleveland.

If he can come back healthy, find the right situation this offseason and keep his mouth shut; I think he can still be a quality NBA player.
 

Kliq

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So, what is the overall purpose of the Cavs trade?

Like, ok, they’re better for now. Is this an attempt to keep LeBron? A confession to him leaving? Best of a bad?

Lots of pieces moving—would be cool to hear what people think the plan is.
For starters I think the culture around that team was toxic in the more personalities they shuffled out, particularly IT, Rose and Wade, the better they were going to be. I think the are better defensively now and probably a little worse offensively. I think it is going to take some time to figure out how they are all going to play together though.

To me the plan was to placate LeBron, to show him the team was willing to make trades and do whatever they could to surround him with better talent. At the same time, they didn’t want to mortgage their future on this season so they didn’t trade the Brooklyn pick, which limited their ability to land a big name (so no DeAndre or Kemba).

I think Altman and company did the best they could given the circumstances to try and play both sides. I don’t think it moved the needle much for them.

There is also the little tidbit about the trade helping LA clear plenty of cap space to begin LeBron’s alleged SoCal strategy this summer.
 

ElUno20

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I’m not ready to just write off IT as an NBA player. There is no denying he was abysmal in Cleveland, but he was coming off an injury and felt pressured to play. Plus, that was a crappy situation and almost everyone not named LeBron was playing poorly for Cleveland.

If he can come back healthy, find the right situation this offseason and keep his mouth shut; I think he can still be a quality NBA player.
Edit: I misinterpreted. I think you meant IT felt pressured to play and prove himself. Huge miscalculation on his end. They were playing ok without him. He should have been aiming for after the AS break all along.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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So, what is the overall purpose of the Cavs trade?

Like, ok, they’re better for now. Is this an attempt to keep LeBron? A confession to him leaving? Best of a bad?

Lots of pieces moving—would be cool to hear what people think the plan is.
Cavs spent a LOT of $ to make one last run. They took on something like $67MM in future commitments. They are going to pay the repeater tax next year whether or not LBJ resigns.

That's on top of their $50MM tax bill this year.
 

mauf

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So, what is the overall purpose of the Cavs trade?

Like, ok, they’re better for now. Is this an attempt to keep LeBron? A confession to him leaving? Best of a bad?

Lots of pieces moving—would be cool to hear what people think the plan is.
Looks like they’re resigned to LeBron leaving and trying to maximize his last few months in town without stealing anything from the coming rebuild. (No material FAs would’ve signed with the post-LeBron Cavs anyway, so the future contractual commitments only cost money.)

Gilbert catches a lot of flak, and rightly so, but he’s spending a lot of money (in future salaries and luxury tax) to make relatively marginal improvements on the floor.
 

Eddie Jurak

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At least having some younger talent on board can work for them even after Lebron leaves.

BTW, do the Cavs have a weird game coming up tonight where they will have to run with Lebron and the 5 guys still on the roster before the trade reinforcements arrive?