Cavs not seriously interested in Nicolas Batum

[FiveThous]

The Wizards have a decent starting five of Wall/Beal/Ariza/Okafor/Nene now. That's helluva lot better than what ours will be. If Varejao is moved, they'll definitely be better than us.

even if he isnt thats still a playoff starting 5 in the east

 

[The Process God]

These 8 teams could be worse than the Cavs

Raptors (lowry, jv and ross aren't going to help them improve much - no doubt imo)

Rockets (with all the crazy moves they made, do they even have a pg)

Mavs (they have Dirk and....some old people, 3 rookies`and an undersized 2 guard who won't start)

Kings (do we really have to go over why they have been bad since the end of C-Web's era again)

Hornets (davis/rivers aren't going to make them that much better this soon, they are bad - no doubt imo)

Philly (williams leaving, brand cut, keeping iggy is what decides this)

Magic (after they move howard they could be worse than the bobcats on paper - no doubt after howards gone imo)

Suns (depends on gordon but if the big moves for them are dragic and beasly lmfao if they are better than the Cavs - no doubt with out gordon)

For next season, Rockets/Mavs/Hornets/Philly/Magic/Suns>Cavs=Raptors>Kings. The Rockets will be in the middle. The Mavs, even after losing players, will be a low playoff team again most likely. The Hornets played well below their standard last season with Gordon being injured all season. We saw them pick up as soon as he came back. With Davis and Rivers, they should be better this year. Philly still has a slew of good players and should be a low playoff seed. The Magic still have a decent amount of talent on their team, and, with trades, they could receive some good players in the return that could even keep them in the playoffs. The Suns are a big question mark with Steve Nash leaving and bringing in new players. We'll see how they turn out. The Raptors are bringing in a decent amount of rookie talent and have cap space to boot, so they could be equal or better than us next season. I see the Kings probably being worse than us next season.

If we move Varejao, we're going to be in for a shit-ton of suck next season. We'll have a decent starting five, but our bench will be absolutely horrible. Our inexperience will also make us suck next season as well if Varejao is moved.

 

[metalman213]

The Wizards have a decent starting five of Wall/Beal/Ariza/Okafor/Nene now. That's helluva lot better than what ours will be. If Varejao is moved, they'll definitely be better than us.

Ariza and Okafor were both starters on the 3rd worst team in the league last year, Beal is a rookie, Wall is decent, and so is Nene (was injured too for some games).

IDK, their lineup is overrated a lot, and I really doubt they will sniff the playoffs.

 

[Snarly]

I do not know about now Yet somehow Irving/Waiters/..../Thompson/Zeller Sounds better than The what the Wizards Got going so far. Wall/Beal/Ariza/Okafor/Nene? Looks like we got a team and they got mishmash of something? Also does Wall and Beal give them that Inside outside punch? Yet the Cavs got that Inside outside Punch In both they Irving and Waiters. Basically this Is Rose/Allen Vs CP3/Wade based off styles, comparisons , and Idiotic assumption by myself. Even without knowing our Staring SF I think this Cavs team has the best potential moving forward In the east. It s funny to see these Past three Drafts Last/This/Next.. Will shape the future superstars and stars. The core built so far Is great and To add Batum would put them In hyper mode. Not going to happen would be nice. However we need A young Big to step forward and be that compliment to Irving and hopefully waiters. Who or when will that be?

 

[tsteele316]

For next season, Rockets/Mavs/Hornets/Philly/Magic/Suns>Cavs=Raptors>Kings. The Rockets will be in the middle. The Mavs, even after losing players, will be a low playoff team again most likely. The Hornets played well below their standard last season with Gordon being injured all season. We saw them pick up as soon as he came back. With Davis and Rivers, they should be better this year. Philly still has a slew of good players and should be a low playoff seed. The Magic still have a decent amount of talent on their team, and, with trades, they could receive some good players in the return that could even keep them in the playoffs. The Suns are a big question mark with Steve Nash leaving and bringing in new players. We'll see how they turn out. The Raptors are bringing in a decent amount of rookie talent and have cap space to boot, so they could be equal or better than us next season. I see the Kings probably being worse than us next season.

If we move Varejao, we're going to be in for a shit-ton of suck next season. We'll have a decent starting five, but our bench will be absolutely horrible. Our inexperience will also make us suck next season as well if Varejao is moved.

golden state, sactown, detroit, and the bobcats are all worse than cleveland no doubt. phx probably is as well. toronto doesn't impress anyone, and houston's collection of mid 1st round picks aren't scaring anyone. the wizards hodgepodge of pedestrian players aren't winning them games either. if cleveland even gets modest improvements from the young guys and the draft picks aren't total flops they will pick in the back half of the top 10.

 

[Douglar]

http://www.fearthesword.com/2012/7/...ers-making-all-the-right-moves-in-free-agency

Up to this point it's hard to argue that the Cavaliers haven't been making all of the right moves so far in free agency. And by all of the right moves, I mean none of the moves.

The Cavs entered this free agency period with a boatload of cap space. They also had three restricted free agents. Since July 1st, when the period officially began, the Cavs have simply extended qualifying offers to their restricted free agents and signed their drafted rookies. Luke Harangody accepted the qualifying offer. Semih Erden bolted for a better deal in Turkey. We're yet to hear about Alonzo Gee, but we'll have to wait on that one --even if there are some less than ideal reports out there. Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller have signed their contracts and that's it. Nothing else so far.

Why am I so excited about the Cavs' lack of activity? Well, look around the rest of the NBA and it's pretty easy to see. Landry Fields got an offer sheet for 3 years/$20 million. Jeremy Lin got an offer for 3 years/$30 million based on starting 25 games last season before having major knee surgery. Brandon Bass signed for 3 years/$20 million and Jeff Green might get 4 years/$40 million.

Get it now? I can continue.

The Clippers are looking to sign Jamal Crawford for 3 years/$15 million. Goran Dragic got 4 years/$34 million. Brandon Roy got 2 years/$10 million after missing last season due to retirement and having no meniscus in his knee.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are learning from mistakes of previous regimes and are sitting tight. They believe in their young players and are focused on making very minor moves to fill out the roster, like signing undrafted free agent, Kevin Jones. Jones was projected to go in the mid to early second round by many experts and scouts. There's no need to jump the gun and spend money just because we have it available. There is no urgency to get to the salary floor as Baron Davis' amnestied contract counts towards that figure. I refresh my Twitter feed in the afternoon and see mediocre NBA players getting enormous contracts from teams. Meanwhile, do a quick search for "Cavaliers" and you get next to nothing. We don't want to get into year 3 or 4 of this rebuild and say "crap, we can't do anything because we're paying a 32 year old Gerald Wallace $10 million!" We want to maintain flexibility and make the right moves at the right time.

Unlike the last time the Cavaliers were building their way out of the basement, we're not throwing wads of cash atLarry Hughes and Donyell Marshall. For now, the Cavs will make a few adjustments here and there. Add a couple of veterans, fill out the roster, and hold onto that cap space. With the way these other teams are spending, soon Cleveland may be the only team left with cap room. Then they can identify the right target and make their move. Until then, every time I see a free agent get overpaid by another team -- that's a win in my book.

 

[Bill Walton.]

http://www.fearthesword.com/2012/7/...ers-making-all-the-right-moves-in-free-agency

Reading this makes me happy. But I still wanted Batum

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

http://www.fearthesword.com/2012/7/...ers-making-all-the-right-moves-in-free-agency

Right. Except Batum isn't any one of Wallace, Hughes, or Donyell Marshall. And the difference between then and now is that team had next to nothing in first round draft choices, while this team may have more than any team in the league over the next 3 seasons. Laura Hughes got, what, a 5 year deal @ 70mil at the age of 26? Not to mention the proverbial round hole, square peg thing. 7 years later, batum would have been cheaper, younger, less years, and a much better fit.

I won't even get into Wallace and Marshall, as one would be a terrible signing and the other was a pedestrian role player nearing the end of his career. With a properly structured contract, Batum's deal fits perfectly in the rebuild/resigning of core guys. Ya, it's over now and it ain't gonna happen, but the principal of this thing still remains that it is a myth that the right guy shouldn't be scooped up now if he becomes available.

 

[TopGun]

golden state, sactown, detroit, and the bobcats are all worse than cleveland no doubt. phx probably is as well. toronto doesn't impress anyone, and houston's collection of mid 1st round picks aren't scaring anyone. the wizards hodgepodge of pedestrian players aren't winning them games either. if cleveland even gets modest improvements from the young guys and the draft picks aren't total flops they will pick in the back half of the top 10.

GSW starting lineup of Curry/Thompson/Barnes/Lee/Bogut, is much better than ours. Not sure how you can say they are without a doubt worse than us. Sacto and Detroit both have much deeper rosters than the Cavs in terms of non-D-League players. Toronto will have three new players in their rotation without losing anyone from last year when they were a better team than us.

Meanwhile, the Cavs are trying to replace two veterans, one of which was the teams second leading scorer, with two rookies. Losing our stretch 4 means that two of TT/AV/TZ will be on the floor most of the time, which will not be good for floor spacing and will allow other teams' big men to cheat into the lane for help defense, which is not good when your two best players look to penetrate off the dribble.

I believe we will be around the 4-slot pre-lottery.

 

[CleveRocks]

Okafor will not start for the Wiz.

In other news, I don't think we will be playoff material unless we sign a decent three, but I don't think we are top four lottery either...

 

[Jon]

it's not really a matter of wanting to win now or not. it's a matter of the notion that everyone thinks that the cavs will so easily be able to acquire the "missing piece" more easily via the draft at the back end of the top 10, or through some ficticious trade of AV where some team will simply willingly give up a great young SF to Cleveland. this line of reasoning is simply setting up for disappointment.

I agree trading for Batum would not be to "win now" ... he's not that kind of a player, but best I can tell we'd still have cap space left to make other deals. Do we really want to take on $28m in bad contracts?

It's not like we're clamoring that the Cavs should have signed Joe Johnson.

 

[Jon]

Ariza and Okafor were both starters on the 3rd worst team in the league last year, Beal is a rookie, Wall is decent, and so is Nene (was injured too for some games).

IDK, their lineup is overrated a lot, and I really doubt they will sniff the playoffs.

In the case of both the Wizards and the Cavs, we're going to have to see how the teams come together. The Wiz have more experience and have tried hard to eliminate their culture problems. They should be better than the Cavs on paper, but that all depends on how much progress our guys can make this summer/fall.

 

[sailfish]

Okafor will not start for the Wiz.

In other news, I don't think we will be playoff material unless we sign a decent three, but I don't think we are top four lottery either...

What the Cavaliers showed last year is, although they were routinely outmanned, they play hard & with effort until the final whistle. Prior to the injuries to Varejao & Irving, the team was clearly overachieving for their level of talent. That's a credit to both the coaching staff & players, who clearly bought into their message. That said, I expect a number of other teams to take the Cavaliers lightly once again and we will catch them by surprise. Here's an early preview of how I see the worst teams in the NBA, not based on talent, but based on their eventual records:

30. Charlotte- will play harder with MKG, but they will be awful once again.
29. Detroit- Andre Drummond won't pay any huge dividends this year, but in 2-3 years watch out.
28. New Orleans-they're talent level has gone up, but their win total won't much, if at all.
27. Sacramento- the Kings are a lame duck team & historically they don't perform well.
26. Atlanta- Danny Ferry has started to tear the Hawks down and he dreams of acquiring Dwight Howard.
25. Houston- Daryl Morey has made some bold moves in making the Rockets younger, but they likely take a step back record-wide.
24. Cleveland-Cavaliers are young, athletic, & hungry; they will catch some teams by surprise this year.
23. Toronto- adding Valanciunas, Ross, & Lowry should help this team's win total; they could be a sleeper this year.
22. Dallas- no team has gone in the tank quicker than the Mavs, who have swung & missed this offseason.
21. Washington- adding Beal, Okafor, & Ariza helps, but they're still not quite good enough to make the playoffs.
20. Minnesota- not sure how much adding Budinger & Roy will help; they're still on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

 

[Douglar]

Where will Orlando up after Dwight leaves? Bottom 10 most likely.

New Orleans is going to move up quite a bit because they were playing without Gordon for most of last year.
T-rob might really help Sacramento pull things together.
Dallas doesn't end up in the bottom 10 while Dirk can still play.

 

[wuck]

I don't see the Pistons dropping to #29. They might not drop at all.

Loss of Ben Gordon won't make that much difference. They played .500 for the final 2/3 of last season. Lawrence Frank didn't have a training camp last year and will be starting his 2nd year, but first "real" year, with the club. They're not counting on Drummond to make a huge difference right away. Some teams might pass them in the process, but I think others will drop.