Cavs 09-10 Season (official thread)

[buchtelgrad04]

Originally Posted by jlb1705

But when you add in the retail value of all that free IcyHot...

Ahhhhh...totally forgot about that, lol!!

On another note, on his twitter account, Shaq recently tweeted that he sold 80 million of his signature shoes since 1992 with $3 per pair coming to him.

[Ginn4Heisman20]

Originally Posted by OH10

I just find it impossible to interpret the latest statement by the Lebron camp as anything other than a strong sign that he's gone.

Impossible? I have to disagree my man. It makes no business sense to confirm any plans one way or the other. This whole thing is about leverage and any tipping of the hand by Lebron's camp would be a bad move. The only sign I take from it is that his people know what they are doing.

[Piney]

Originally Posted by buchtelgrad04

I don't think if you put Bron and Bosh on the team right now, they'd be able to get very far. I think the management is so inept, that a lineup of Magic, Jordan, Bron, Duncan, & Chamberlain couldn't do much at this time. Especially with D'Antoni as the coach. Brooklyn/NJ Nets won't be much better.

Actually the Nets have built themselves a nice young team that is really only missing one piece... LeBron. Then throw in Jay Z. Really if their Brooklyn move wasn't such a mess I would really worry about him going there.

And I agree with the Knicks, that team is such a cluster [censored] I really don't worry about him going there. Plus with the cap not moving up and potentially going down, they won't even be able to offer two max contracts next year anyway.

[OH10]

Originally Posted by Ginn4Heisman20

Impossible? I have to disagree my man. It makes no business sense to confirm any plans one way or the other. This whole thing is about leverage and any tipping of the hand by Lebron's camp would be a bad move. The only sign I take from it is that his people know what they are doing.

Leverage? He's going to get a max deal from any team he wants. He doesn't need leverage unless he trying to give management an incentive to overreact and overpay for one of the leftover free agents.

[OH10]

Originally Posted by itownbuckeye

So you think there's a strong possibility that both LBJ & Bosh accept less money to go to a team with not much talent on the current roster?

Strip Lebron from the Cavs and how much talent is on that roster? That is not a 20-win ballclub without the King and Shaq, the latter of which will definately be gone come 2010.

[Flocka]

Originally Posted by buchtelgrad04

I don't think if you put Bron and Bosh on the team right now, they'd be able to get very far. I think the management is so inept, that a lineup of Magic, Jordan, Bron, Duncan, & Chamberlain couldn't do much at this time. Especially with D'Antoni as the coach. Brooklyn/NJ Nets won't be much better.

The Nets are shaping up to look real nice for 2010.

[aurorabuckeye13]

Originally Posted by OH10

Leverage? He's going to get a max deal from any team he wants. He doesn't need leverage unless he trying to give management an incentive to overreact and overpay for one of the leftover free agents.

Leverage to improve the team in as many ways possible. This would keep the pressure on the Cavs to explore trades to make them better up until the trade deadline. Ferry will not overpay for free agents because he likes to maintain flexibility. He's worked hard on getting that flexibility especially for 2010 and he is not going to let go of it unless its a very good player.

[itownbuckeye]

Originally Posted by OH10

Strip Lebron from the Cavs and how much talent is on that roster? That is not a 20-win ballclub without the King and Shaq, the latter of which will definately be gone come 2010.

So you think the Knicks would have won 66 games last year if they had Lebron? I don't.

[OH10]

Originally Posted by itownbuckeye

So you think the Knicks would have won 66 games last year if they had Lebron? I don't.

Impossible to say. He's the best player in the league for a reason though.

[OState29]

Originally Posted by OH10

Strip Lebron from the Cavs and how much talent is on that roster? That is not a 20-win ballclub without the King and Shaq, the latter of which will definately be gone come 2010.

The thing is if they win it all next year they will bring Shaq back. They will have a two headed monster at center for the next 2-3 years. This 20-win claim is BS. Mo is a top 10 PG in the league, Z is a top 10 center, Shaq is still on this team so I don't know how you can just dismiss this for the sake of your argument and he is the best center in the legue with Yao out. If someone wants to argue that Howard is a better center than Shaq, bring it.

Danny Green was possibly the steal of the 2nd round and would likely be a 6th man on most other teams however it's possible he won't crack the rotation. Now I'm not arguing that we have the same top tier talent of the elite teams in the league, because they simply don't (hence looking to add 2 FAs through the BAE and MLE or make another trade this offseason), but they have depth. This is clearly shown by their regular season success of 66 wins. However, in the playoffs when depth becomes largely a non-factor as benches are shortened to 8-9 players, the Cavs top 8-9 did not match up with the elite teams last year.

Starter w/o LeBron 2009-10 season:
Williams
West
Szczerbiak
Varejao
Shaq

Bench:
Z
Green
Smith
Darnell
JJ

While this lineup could stuggle just to make the playoffs it's nowhere near a 20 win team. Probably more of a 35-40 win team. With this team although you have no superstar I think Shaq could be an alright option. The rest of the rotation is solid until you get down to JJ.

Originally Posted by jlb1705

The Kobe comparison isn't exactly fair. LeBron hasn't been charged with rape. Regardless of the outcome or location, that cost Kobe a lot of money - and not just what he spent on his wife after it came out.

I think the larger point about LeBron's earning power stands though.

You could point to Dwayne's earnings of $12 million in 2007, and this is a better example than Kobe's because they are around the same age and came into the league the same year. The thing with Wade is that ESPiN doesn't push him as much as they do LeBron and Kobe even though he is closer to being 1c than being #3 in the league.

[OState29]

Kuester to Pistons

Although he was said to be an offensive guru, I don't think that we'll miss him much as the plan unfortunately will continue to be "give LeBron the ball and everyone else enjoy the show". I think this was more so Mike Brown's fault than Kuester's, whoever the Cavs get to replace him will still unfortunately be controlled by Brown.

[NFBuck]

Originally Posted by OState29

Kuester to Pistons

Although he was said to be an offensive guru, I don't think that we'll miss him much as the plan unfortunately will continue to be "give LeBron the ball and everyone else enjoy the show". I think this was more so Mike Brown's fault than Kuester's, whoever the Cavs get to replace him will still unfortunately be controlled by Brown.

If they don't find somebody to handle the offense next year, then I expect a rather significant dropoff. "Give LeBron the ball" wasn't overly successful prior to this season as Mike Brown is to basketball offense what Maurice Carthon was to the Browns offense. It hurts...

[OH10]

Originally Posted by OState29

Starter w/o LeBron 2009-10 season:
Williams
West
Szczerbiak
Varejao
Shaq

Bench:
Z
Green
Smith
Darnell
JJ

The problem is that I said it was not a 20-win team "without Lebron and Shaq." Take Shaq away from that lineup and you can't tell me that team wins 20 games. No way.

[NFBuck]

Originally Posted by OH10

The problem is that I said it was not a 20-win team "without Lebron and Shaq." Take Shaq away from that lineup and you can't tell me that team wins 20 games. No way.

With Shaq, that's a 30-35 win team...tops. Shaq is a complimentary player at this point in his career, Wally is best suited as a 20 MPG guy and AV is best suited as an energy guy with a big scorer playing SF.

[OState29]

Originally Posted by OH10

The problem is that I said it was not a 20-win team "without Lebron and Shaq." Take Shaq away from that lineup and you can't tell me that team wins 20 games. No way.

The problem with this argument is that if you take away the top 2 players on any team in the league you're going to see a huge dropoff in performance. Teams are built around their top 2-3 players, the rest are complimentary players.