What should the Browns do with Greg Little?
January 30, 2014Browns add Dowell Loggains to the offensive fold
January 30, 2014As it the case with many Chad Ford-related chats, one of the first questions out of the gate was surrounding the Cleveland Cavaliers. This time, the focus was on head coach Mike Brown and general manager Chris Grant in the wake of the team’s underwhelming first half. Buried in the middle of his response, Ford, ESPN.com’s NBA Draft analyst, says that Kyrie Irving, the team’s two-time NBA All-Star, is privately telling people that he wants out of Cleveland.
Virtually every GM in the league believes that Grant will be gone this summer if things don’t get turned around this season. He doesn’t have much time. The thinking is that there’s no way Dan Gilbert is going to let him make another lottery pick if that’s the direction the Cavs end up heading. Grant’s goal (via his owner) is to get this team competitive and into the playoffs. The Deng move was supposed to help. But so far … nothing. Chemistry is a major issue there and some of that is on Mike Brown. But more of it is on the collection of players in Cleveland at the moment. Something has to happen quick. Kyrie Irving has been telling people privately he wants out. Cleveland can’t afford to lose him and LeBron. They know the urgency. I expect them to be major players at the deadline.
Irving is in the third year of a four-year contract and could sign an extension this off-season. He is due $7.1 million in 2014-15 and has a qualifying offer of $9.2 million for 2015-16. Despite being under contract for at least the next two seasons, the Cavaliers will offer Irving a maximum contract extension that could keep him here beyond 2016. In 2012, in the wake of the Miami Heat winning their first title after the departure of LeBron James, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert stated that one lesson he learned is not allowing his team to fall victim to unrestricted free agency. “The big lesson was if a player is not willing to extend, no matter who they are, no matter where they are playing, no matter what kind of season you had, you can not risk going into a summer and having them leave in unrestricted free agency and get nothing back for it,” said Gilbert.
This past October, one year following the proclamation regarding free agency, Gilbert said that he was of the belief that the team’s relationship with Irving was healthy. “It’s still a little bit early, but we feel good about Kyrie being here for his entire career,” Gilbert said.
In response to Gilbert’s sentiments, the 21-year-old point guard publically stated that he has a great relationship with the team’s owner. “It’s still too early to be talking about that stuff, especially a contract extension, and all that,” Irving said. “But we have a great relationship, me and Dan.”
It’s also worth pointing out that the Cavaliers play in Madison Square Garden on Thursday evening. Kyrie Irving is from New Jersey. These types of stories, as they did prior to 2010 with LeBron James, have an odd way of popping up every time the Cavs head to a large market.
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(Image: Scott Sargent/WFNY)
59 Comments
I have a feeling that you’re wrong, but let’s see what happens.
lolllolo
I have a feeling about your feeling being different than my feeling.
#hurtfeelings
To be honest, I don’t think a Waiters-led offense is terrible (certainly no worse than the offense we see now). If Bennett turns out to be a 15-8 guy (like he did that one time), you have a couple of pieces to work with.
The unfulfilled expectations are based on the owner saying “we are done coming here [the lottery]” and “I would expect this to be our last one”, hence expect a playoff basketball team. This is not a playoff basketball team, therefore expectations are unfulfilled.
No one expects a three-peat this year, people expect an 8-seed.
And the whole we shouldn’t boo because we haven’t contended since LeBron seems exactly backwards to me. When should we boo? When we’re winning? Right, we should never boo, because we should be happy with the sub-mediocrity we have, because it could be worse.
Oh, come on, this is stuff and nonsense. I say they aren’t trying. The coach says it. Even the players have said they’re not giving enough effort. Not playing hard because you’re “frustrated” (an excuse you just invented) is still not playing hard.
Try this: imagine a team that really has quit, is just going through the motions. Imagine what that looks like (every Cleve fan has witnessed that at various times with all 3 teams). Now put it side by side with the recent Cavs games, including last night’s nationally televised blow out. Tell me the difference.
Again, fans are customers who owe the performers nothing. The duty of entertainment runs the other way. Cleveland fans only boo lack of effort and perceived betrayal. Cleveland has about the most slavish, milquetoast fans in the league. I personally don’t boo, I just stop paying and watching. But to say booing this team makes the customer a “whiner” implies you simply do not get that pro sports is an entertainment business.
the avatar returns!
Marty Schottenheimer won all the rings after leaving Cleveland.
the difference is that we are accustomed to those teams not so blatantly quitting until after the allstar break (or until November in football). before that point, it is usually futile effort trying to win. but that effort is there.
I agree this Cavs team doesn’t even have that minimal level of professionalism. It’s sad.