“He Couldn’t Pitch For St. Ed’s Right Now”
June 10, 2008Indians Proudly Present: 70s Weekend, “Squiggy”
June 10, 2008With the NBA season in the rear view mirror, we now turn to a summer full of front office decision-making. As fans, we all have our feelings on what needs to be done to improve our Cavaliers team. Rock has laid the figurative cards on the table, but this is where we turn to you – the readers of WFNY.
The premise is simple. Assume all players are restricted free agents and that they’ll likely need at least a small raise from last year’s salary. Do you re-sign? Or do you release? Of course, we’ll leave LeBron James out of this scenario. And also, a little supporting argument always helps. Do Enjoy.
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Three guards up, three guards down. The Tribe has spoken regarding Delonte West, Daniel Gibson and Devin Brown. We’re going to deviate from the “D’s” a bit today and take on another guard in Sasha Pavlovic.
Last summer, we dealt with the back-and-forth negotiations with a guy who was a restricted free agent. Restricted! There was honestly a chance that he would have rather not played at all then to play for the salary at which he was being paid. Feel free to use the same logic of thinking as we decide whether or not to bring him back for yet another year. Also feel free to realize that we paid twice as much money last season for about 60 percent of the production.
2007-08 Salary: $4,250,000
2007-08 Statistics:
51 G; 23.3 Min; 7.4 Pts; 1.6 Ast; 2.5 Reb; 0.6 Stl; 36.2 FG%; 68.8 FT%
Unfortunately, the lengthy hold out that was quickly followed by a season of injuries and utter sub-par play may have left a bad taste in the mouths of most fans. Couple this with the fact that Sasha was completely worthless through most of the playoffs, allowing teams to leave him open to double-team LeBron obviously did not help his case.
What you have is a guy that flashes brilliance during some stages, but then fails to appear for games at a time. To me, I see a player that fails to do anything of impact on the court aside from the ocassional score. How many games did we see where Pavlovic would have, say, 14 points, one rebound and no assists? How does that help this team?
We desperately needed someone to hit open shots against the Celtics. Instead, Sasha went 4-for-14 in 55 minutes through games six and seven. He will be 25 year-old this November, so do you think there is room for growth?
However, I do not want to sway your opinion one way or another. Perhaps I’m missing the boat on this – so feel free to steer me in the right direction.
Re-Sign or Release: Delonte West (90 percent say Re-Sign)
Re-Sign or Release: Daniel Gibson (75 percent say Re-Sign)
Re-Sign or Release: Devin Brown (54 percent say Release)
8 Comments
What I wouldn’t give to be able to release Sasha. He’s perhaps my least favorite Cavalier. It’s like I always ask my friends when we discuss him…..what does he excel at? Is there one single thing on the basketball court that he is really good at and dependable at? I don’t see it. Release.
How the did the Cavs get stuck with the least talented Serb in the NBA?
When Gooden was traded, Sasha took the crown of Dumbest Cavalier. His stream-of-consciousness is best characterized by dead silence with the occasional “DRIBBLEDRIBBLEOOPS GETTHEBALL NOWSHOOT.”
If we move him, who takes the prize?
I think Ben Wallace getting blocked by the rim for the game-winner is a nomination…
I used to be a huge Sasha fan last year, he stepped up and played well in a few games when people were injured. However the contract hold out kind of pissed me off and being hurt alot didn’t help.
His offense has always been streaky and it was certainly in off mode during the playoffs, however he has been a solid defender (Mike Brown’s one redeeming quality was he got this guy to actually play D). However sometimes he just seems like he doesn’t want to play and I don’t get that.
He’ll probably be a good player somewhere but not in Cleveland it seems, I imagine he’ll have to find a system where his style (whatever it is) functions.
Hoy
I have honestly never seen anybody get stuffed at the rim as often as Sasha does. He absolutely CANNOT finish at the rim; it’s like he has a mental block about it. Count Pavlovic is so awful it makes me legitimately angry to see him on the court.
I’ve read back through some of the previous articles and comments, and one thing that stands out is people need to understand that money works into this too. When considering your votes, consider the salary. Below is a list of the team’s guards and what they made last season.
Wally Szczerbiak – $12 million
Eric Snow – $6.7 million
Sasha Pavlovic – $4.2 million
Damon Jones – 4.2 million
Delonte West – $1.9 million
Devin Brown – $1.1 million
Daniel Gibson – $0.7 million
Now, all things being equal, of course I’d want Sash more than Devin Brown. But considering the salaries involved, if everyone was a free agent you would sign, West, Brown and Gibson immediately, and then decide whether you wanted to keep Sasha or try to pick up a free agent to fill the fourth spot at guard. (Consider how the Celtics built this year. They have the three big names, but many thought they would lack depth. But they came up big with good, low-priced talent like James Posey – $3.2 million – and Eddie House – $1.5 million – to help round out the roster.) Obviously Jones has run his course with the team, Snow is essentially a player coach and Wally is grossly overpaid. When you look at the numbers, it all becomes pretty simple.
Thanks for the comment, Ray. Salary is a huge portion of this series!