What about Matt Barnes? There have been reports he has been contacted by the Cavs. Wouldn't cost much, probably just the BAE for a couple of years? He made the minimum last year for PHX. Or would he just be a redundancy? He did play as an undersized PF for GS in the past and can do some rebounding. Has some characteristics of a "stretch forward," and could play limited minutes as the 4 when we go small. Also, rumors are that Orlando is interested in him...
I think the disappointment with not signing Frye is that we were led to believe that the Cavs were going to be active and aggressive this FA season, and currently only have a 34 year old guard to show for it. Yes, our options salary wise were limited but it was, we were told, a buyer's market. And we did arguably get beat to the punch for Ariza. Hey, this is my first post and I am sitting here in Denver with absolutely no insider connections or special knowledge except what I can get via the Internet, so what do I know? But when your GM and head coach fly across the country to try to persuade a guy who has already given a verbal commitment, I can't help but ask, why didn't this meeting occur several days earlier?
Some have argued that the Cavs were just a couple of shots away from beating Orlando, but if you saw the series there was no doubt who was the better team. Orlando simply had too many weapons, especially on the perimeter. And we didn't have enough. When Mo was off, as he was most of the series, we didn't have any other viable options...Look at the numbers in the series for Orlando...If Lewis was off, Pietrus was on, or Lee, or especially Alston. Turkoglu was either good or very good throughout. When it became clear that we weren't going to add a marquee player like Artest or Ariza, we had to settle for serviceable role players that Mike Brown would actually use and who could hit open shots and not embarrass the team defensively.
I know, we should be patient...Ferry isn't going to let the team go into the season with Darnell Jackson as the backup PF. And it's possible, maybe likely, an economically distressed team will need to unload a minor star who the Cavs can snatch up either later this off season or before the trade deadline. But we we are fans, not front office types, and we want results now, or better yet yesterday.
FA options at the combo forward are now pretty slim, which is why I am suggesting Barnes...Kleiza is probably out of reach due to money, and Warrick probably is too. Warrick would probably end up playing very little anyway.
And another thing. We really need a true backup PG. Incredibly, the team really doesn't have what I would consider a PG. And not Jarret Jack, another SG who claims to play the point. Just someone who can run the offense and allow Delonte to take an occasional break, and can finish out blow out games without the starters having to return. This should be relatively cheap. Everyone saw how the team would often completely fall apart if LBJ, Mo, and Delonte were all out of the game.
