from Chad Ford (espn insider) today

[cdt]

Gilbert needs to go over, we can't neglect the pf or pg spots. he coined himself as cuban esque now it's time to man up. cmon billion aire go over cap to provide us with what we need to win.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

And if we offer equivalent to the MLE, our starting PG will be Eric Snow with Stepp/Gilcrhist/Lucas backing him up. Meaning not so good news. Not bad, but not so good.

Unless we can package Drew Gooden in a trade (possible sign and trade on thier end if a FA) for a PG of our liking. I think Drew is around 4.2 mil - we can match that up with some PGs (or we can throw in one of our wing guys to match up numbers).

Hopefully Ferry has the diligence to make sure one deal is in the bag before making the second...

 

[cdt]

I'm really confused we are going to spend 5 mill and neglect our pg situation? we cant put pf over pg pf needs work but the pg spot is lifeless right now..

 

[TruBuckeye22]

i think if it came down to either Evans or Swift i would go with Swift because there is still upside there. Evans is a solid rebounder but i just don't see him being that good of man defender. not that Swift is a great defender either but his athletic ability can make up for some of that.

 

[Pioneer10]

Chad Ford is an idiot. I love the fact that the Draftexpresses wrote that no one had seen Ford during the Vegas Summer League. This comes as a real surprise as Ford has had a column a day it seems at who's performing well at the League the whole past week!

 

[LyXo]

Gilbert needs to go over, we can't neglect the pf or pg spots. he coined himself as cuban esque now it's time to man up. cmon billion aire go over cap to provide us with what we need to win.

I'm sure he would if he could. Too bad you can only go over the cap to sign your own players. Meaning we'd have quite the pool to choose from:

Here's my "scouting" report:

Jeff McInnis: Great penetration, has a neat little floater. Decent three point shot. Good passing skills. Struggles defensively against quicker guards. Requires a starting position.

DeSagana Diop: Very large body. Good shot blocking skills. Has shown flashes of athleticism. Poor rebounder for size. Hasn't accomplished much or shown good work ethic, but is still very young.

Robert Traylor: Large body allows him to bang with the best of them. Soft hands. Nice touch from 18 feet. A bit slow footed.

Dajuan Wagner: Undersized shooting guard. Poor shot selection. Not enough handling skills nor passing skills to be a point in the NBA. Career has been plagued with freak injuries. Never really got a clean chance, but showed potential to be a combo guard with his scoring capabilities and quick first step.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Jeff McInnis:

Requires a starting position.

I don't know why, but that made me LMAO.

PG can be addressed with the trade of Gooden. We are limited to ONLY 6 to 7 mil (roughly/generously - the public won't know until signings are official, Ferry and Gilbert have a grasp). If Swift takes up 5.5 mil, we have a few mil left - If we package Drew to a team for a PG, we are set at both positions. We still have some spots to fill, mainly backup C - time to woo Tractor.

From here, someone help me, we can go over the cap with Veteran Minimums (correct?) or re-signing players from our roster last year???? The above scenario may leave us with 1.5 mil, but we are 3 bodies short (I think) of the team minimum....does that small amount of money get divied up between 3 names (probably guys from summer league, etc...)???

 

[LyXo]

From here, someone help me, we can go over the cap with Veteran Minimums (correct?) or re-signing players from our roster last year???? The above scenario may leave us with 1.5 mil, but we are 3 bodies short (I think) of the team minimum....does that small amount of money get divied up between 3 names (probably guys from summer league, etc...)???

We probably renounced rights to all our FAs, so too bad my reports are to naught. So we can't go over the cap to sign them.

We have no MLE.
We have no million dollar exception: we used it last season with Tractor.
We have only the vet exception I think, or the minimum to sign players with.

 

[Style]

someone help me, we can go over the cap with Veteran Minimums (correct?) or re-signing players from our roster last year????

Correct that you can go over the cap with players signed to the veteran minimum. There is no danger that we could end up in a spot where we can't even fill out our 14 man roster b/c we're already over the cap.

Now, the resigning players from our roster last year peice, that we don't have. We have to make that work within the salary cap. The only rule that would allow us to resign players from last year and go over the salary cap is the Larry bird rights, and that only works if you're planning on giving one of your players a large raise. That would be no one, to my knowledge. Not even Z.

EDIT: And lyXo is right, you have to keep the rights to your FAs in order to use the Larry Bird thingy anyway. To my knowledge, we relinquished all of those rights for maximum cap flexibility.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Thanks for the answers guys - still a bit confused. To play devil's advocate, let's say we fill 2 holes (a PG and a back-up C) to amounts that equal the space we have left under the cap. Therefore, we are short bodies that are needed to fill a roster, per NBA standards. Therefore, are we not allowed to spend the full 7 mil (assumed) on 2 players? Do we HAVE to spread that money out across 5 bodies in order to fill a squad???

 

[TheAdmin]

Thanks for the answers guys - still a bit confused. To play devil's advocate, let's say we fill 2 holes (a PG and a back-up C) to amounts that equal the space we have left under the cap. Therefore, we are short bodies that are needed to fill a roster, per NBA standards. Therefore, are we not allowed to spend the full 7 mil (assumed) on 2 players? Do we HAVE to spread that money out across 5 bodies in order to fill a squad???

No, the Cavs can spend whats left of their cap space on one or two players and then fill out the roster with minimum contract players.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Thanks Ben - does "minimum contract" players mean the same as veteran minimum? Meaning, that if we sign a PF and PG eating up our space, we can only sign Tractor for 1.5 mil (vet min last year I think), as well as Wags, Gilchrist, etc or any other FAs that aren't on a roster - they just have to agree to play for us for 1 year at the vet minimum rate? Therefore, that might be 4 players - or 6 million, give or take. Would we then be over the cap by 6 million dollars?

 

[TheAdmin]

Let me know what you guys think about that article from Hoopsworld.com ^^

I think whomever wrote that article is basing his arguement on flawed thinking. Gooden isn't consistant even though he had roughly 60 double doubles, but Swift who couldn't crack the starting rotation or stay healthy in any season he has been a pro is the answer?

His game resembles Kenyon Martin but his basketball IQ resembles Salami from the White Shadow. He is more athletic buy has never put up the numbers Gooden has. I'll take substance over flash in my starting PF.

 

[TheAdmin]

Thanks Ben - does "minimum contract" players mean the same as veteran minimum? Meaning, that if we sign a PF and PG eating up our space, we can only sign Tractor for 1.5 mil (vet min last year I think), as well as Wags, Gilchrist, etc or any other FAs that aren't on a roster - they just have to agree to play for us for 1 year at the vet minimum rate? Therefore, that might be 4 players - or 6 million, give or take. Would we then be over the cap by 6 million dollars?

Tractor was signed last year to the million dollar exception, which the Cavs will not have this year. He would have to take the minimum to play here if the Cavs do not have enough salary cap space to sign him outright.

Veterens minimum and minimum contract are indeed the same thing. The length of the contract can be up to 2 years and the amount of the contract depends on how long the player has been in the league.

 

[NarlCavs]

The veteran minimum depends on how many years a player has been in the league. It's higher for players with more years. At least that's how it worked with the old CBA. Not sure if the new one works the exact same way.
I believe Tractor got the veteran's exception last year not the veteran's minimum. This exception can only be used every other season at least according to the old rules.

This Ford story is the 1st I've seen of the Cavs supposed interest in Shareef. Don't know how accurate it is.

I'd be more in favor of keeping Gooden rather than overpaying for either Evans or Swift. I've stated before what a limited player Evans is. At the right price he'd be ok but at MLE level or near MLE level money than forget it.
I don't know how some people got the impression Swift was a great defensive player. He's not. That story earlier that's promoting Swift for the Cavs isn't that right about Swift's game. Gooden has more talent. Swift may be a better shotblocker but that's the only area where he's better than Gooden and it's not like Swift is a dominating shotblocker either.