Cavs not seriously interested in Nicolas Batum

[Omar The Horse]

Irving/Sloan
Waiters/Gibson
Casspi/Gee
Thompson/ Samuels/ Jones
Varejao/Zeller

We will be in the bottom 3.

Andy, Boobie, and Casspi will be our most experienced players.

 

[rabman_gold]

I don't get why this is being discussed in the Batum thread though... Shouldn't it be moved to a new thread for "How will we do against our rivals"?

Anyways, I'll comment on both.

Batum is done and over with, let the Cavs surprise us with who they fill the roster with now. They have Irving, Dion, Tristan, Zeller, Andy, Walton, Casspi, Kelenna, and Harangody as the guarantees. Gee is likely. Jones and Gibson would make 12. That just leaves three spots:

C	PF	SF	SG	PG
Tyler Zeller	Tristan Thompson	??	Dion Waiters	Kyrie Irving
Anderson Varejao	Kevin Jones	Omri Casspi	Alonzo Gee	??
??	Luke Harangody	Luke Walton	Kelenna Azubuike	Daniel Gibson

<tbody>
</tbody>

Clearly, still need to figure out our swingman and combo guard... But at least Gibson and Kelenna/Walton can fill it worst case scenario. That's probably 6 guys in the regular rotation with 13+ PER. If we get 2 more, I'm sure that we'll be closer to a playoff spot.

For the East:
Miami: The best, but not improved by much. Ray's older so it will be a lesser burden, but so is Wade, his main counter-point. The others are getting older too. You can't just win without good role players. They only got one so far.
Boston: I expect them to be close, but now with more help (Terry). Still, losing Allen will hurt.
Indiana: None yet. Same core. May get Kaman.
Chicago: Might get Hinrich back. Hopefully Rose recovers. Still a playoff team regardless.
New York: Looks to be a playoff team again.
Philadelphia: Might be worse, but may stay the same.

Atlanta: Likely heading for the down slope.
Orlando: Also might be going down, but the injury to Howard will hurt all the same.

Milwaukee: Well, at least they aren't worse for wear. They may get better.
Detroit: They may improve or just stay the same. Depends on their growth.
Toronto: Didn't really improve, but at least they have Jose.

Brooklyn: They look to be the new super team. Even without Howard, they have Brook.

Washington: They have a refurbished roster. That's a good thing. And a good new direction. It was desperate, but better than nothing.
Charlotte: Some changes were made. They'll work harder.

Barring injuries, there's 6 playoff teams assured. 2 teams are likely to fall out of the playoffs. That means there's 6 teams for 2 spots. I really doubt the Bobcats will make it unless they suddenly transform as a team. So that's 5. Is Cleveland better than Washington, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Toronto? When health is considered, I think our hustle and energy is not to be understated. It also depends on the impact of our new guys and improve of our sophomores.

 

[malus]

Toronto should be much better than us. They lost Bargnani most of last year and still finished 5 spots higher, and now they're adding JV, TRoss, Fields, and Lowry. The Raps and Sixers should round out the playoff lineup if the Hawks and Magic blow up, barring massive overachieving on our part.

Detroit, Milwaukee, and Washington will be much more interesting. I think they have the mediocre veteran talent to compete with us. Washington especially has a really complete starting 5 right now with Wall-Beal-Ariza-Nene-Okafor. Hard to imagine beating that next season.

 

[czvo]

There's a contingent of Cavs fans here that love Batum more than Blazers fans, which I didn't think was possible considering Blazers fans consider that kid the second coming of Michael Jordan.

Something tells me that most would hate signing Batum for the max once they watched him night in and night out.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

There's a contingent of Cavs fans here that love Batum more than Blazers fans, which I didn't think was possible considering Blazers fans consider that kid the second coming of Michael Jordan.

Something tells me that most would hate signing Batum for the max once they watched him night in and night out.

Except I don't recall anyone saying max. Front loaded would have been my preference, with an average of about 12mil per. Anyways, it doesn't matter anymore, just wanted to clarify facts.

 

[czvo]

Except I don't recall anyone saying max. Front loaded would have been my preference, with an average of about 12mil per. Anyways, it doesn't matter anymore, just wanted to clarify facts.

Several people were advocating the max.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Several people were advocating the max.

If you say so. I don't recall that, but I don't honestly care enough to call your facts out with legit quotes. What I remember is a shit ton of people saying he wasn't worth a max contract.

 

[NarlCavs]

Several people were advocating the max.

Even $11-12 million a year is badly overpaying. Just because other teams or making foolish decisions in handing out some of these contracts doesn't mean the Cavs should follow.
I wouldn't mind either Batum or Ilyasova at the right price but anything over $8 million a year doesn't make sense for players at their level.

 

[MD13]

There's a contingent of Cavs fans here that love Batum more than Blazers fans, which I didn't think was possible considering Blazers fans consider that kid the second coming of Michael Jordan.

Something tells me that most would hate signing Batum for the max once they watched him night in and night out.

I think people are more in love with the image of Nic Batum (athletic, good 3 pt shooter, long, good defender/shot blocker) than Nic Batum the actual player. If you've watched him a bunch, I don't know how people could advocate giving him the max or anything close to it. You don't hand out the max to role players, even if they're high-level role players.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Even $11-12 million a year is badly overpaying. Just because other teams or making foolish decisions in handing out some of these contracts doesn't mean the Cavs should follow.
I wouldn't mind either Batum or Ilyasova at the right price but anything over $8 million a year doesn't make sense for players at their level.

I agree guys like Lin are getting overpaid, but disagree on Batum. The 3-4mil difference in what you and I see as feasable for him would prohibit nothing in our development as a team. We'll be under the cap by more than that anyways. Oh well. I'll be watching Minny with peak interest these next few years.

 

[tristan+kyrie=$]

I would pay 8 mil for batum but nothing more

 

[Surge]

I was all for signing him, but not for the max.

It's not going to happen anyway so.... Moving on...