AllforOne
... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
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One other point: if the Cavs do let JR go, instead of trading him, then they're going to cause some bad blood between the team and the players.
The Cavs could have just cut JR during the season. They could have paid him the rest of his salary (or negotiated a buyout), and then JR would have been free to resume his career with another team. (I'm not 100% sure he would have found one, but at least he would have had the chance.) That would have been the right thing to do by JR, and it would have allowed the team to move on as well.
Instead, they've kept JR in limbo for six-plus months. They wouldn't let him around the team, but they refused to cut him, with the justification that his contract would be a valuable trade chip. Which is fine -- they shouldn't have tossed away that asset for nothing.
But keeping him hanging on for over six months, only to end up cutting him anyways ... that would be shitty. They could have cut him in November, and he would have had a chance to latch on elsewhere.
While it would be shitty, the Cavs would be well within their rights. So I'm not sure they'd face any discipline. (I could see a grievance from the players' union; probably not one that JR would win, but it would still be a nuisance to the Cavs.) But players notice when a team does a player wrong. And they could very well think that JR has been done wrong here.
The Cavs could have just cut JR during the season. They could have paid him the rest of his salary (or negotiated a buyout), and then JR would have been free to resume his career with another team. (I'm not 100% sure he would have found one, but at least he would have had the chance.) That would have been the right thing to do by JR, and it would have allowed the team to move on as well.
Instead, they've kept JR in limbo for six-plus months. They wouldn't let him around the team, but they refused to cut him, with the justification that his contract would be a valuable trade chip. Which is fine -- they shouldn't have tossed away that asset for nothing.
But keeping him hanging on for over six months, only to end up cutting him anyways ... that would be shitty. They could have cut him in November, and he would have had a chance to latch on elsewhere.
While it would be shitty, the Cavs would be well within their rights. So I'm not sure they'd face any discipline. (I could see a grievance from the players' union; probably not one that JR would win, but it would still be a nuisance to the Cavs.) But players notice when a team does a player wrong. And they could very well think that JR has been done wrong here.