I'll be disappointed and somewhat surprised if Ferry doesn't make a trade. I say this even though I know full well that Ferry doesn't do trades readily. However, a number of trends from around the league and on the Cavs' team point to it happening this year.
Who am I to say the Cavs can't win it all even if they don't make a move? But it would clearly defy history for the Cavs to win with one elite superstar, a marginal #2 option on offense, an aging superstar at center, a very solid defense, and a bunch of well-selected role players.
A year ago at this time, Ferry had 3 huge expiring contracts (Wally, Ben, Z), plus 2 smaller, though potentially valuable ones (Snow and Pavs). His team is well into the luxury tax, but it has the once in a lifetime money maker in LeBron James. He chose not to turn Wally into a long term salary commitment -- fine, there was no trade out there. He turned Ben and Pavs into Shaq, but that entailed no additional long-term salary commitment (it did cost the franchise some money this year though).
Ferry has only the Z chip left. For better or worse, Ferry has had to rely on expiring contracts and Cavs' comparative financial advantage to improve the team. The team really needs him to do so again, both for this year as well as next, even if it means taking on a bit more risk than he normally does. Anyway, that's my opinion.
Really, I'm not particularly worried. X has already assured us that a trade will happen.
