Browns and Steelers: Fun with numbers
September 9, 2014Shawn Marion to Cleveland: “Done Deal”
September 9, 2014
LeBron James and Kevin Love are on short-term deals, but ESPN.com believes that the two All-Star forwards will be in Cleveland for a very long time. In their latest “Future Power Rankings”—forecasting NBA teams through the 2016-17 season, the four-letter network gives the Cavs the No. 2 slot (70.85) behind only the San Antonio Spurs (71.25).
The Cavs bring home the highest mark for “players” given the trio of James, Love and Kyrie Irving. They also have better marks than the Spurs when it comes to their market (!) and draft potential. But just because they had the best offseason in the history of anything, ESPN isn’t willing to give the Cavs’ front office all of the credit.
The Cavs’ market value also got a big bump. The team ranked No. 21 last year and moved all the way up to 11 this year. No, global warming has yet to take hold in Cleveland. But James himself is a destination and already has shown the muscle to lure free agents. (There was no way Love or Miller would have come to Cleveland without James.)
The team will actually have significant cap room for 2016-17, but we expect most of that will be used up re-signing James and Love. Still, there’s a willingness to spend and the Cavs will have some flexibility in two years. The Cavs also can swap picks with the Bulls and they own a future Grizzlies pick down the road, which brightens Cleveland’s fortunes a bit as far as the draft goes.
As for management, our panel wasn’t willing to give them full credit for James (that was the city of Cleveland’s doing), Love (that was LeBron’s doing) or dumb luck (that’s the NBA draft lottery’s doing). They got lucky, but hey, sometimes luck is the thing you need the most in the NBA.
Seems fair. David Griffin and company obviously had set some pretty high goals coming into the summer. It’s hard to see any way that these were not exceeded in every capacity. For their work (and luck) Chad Ford, who penned the entry, feels that Cleveland is in as good of a position as any team in the league to win “a title or two” over the next three seasons. Says Ford: “The Cavs look like a stronger edition of last year’s No. 1 team — the Heat.”
Is it October yet?
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(Photo: Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)
5 Comments
LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!
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It’s gonna be a fun season.
These “future” rankings never made much sense to me… Also Chicago has the right to swap picks, not the other way around. I doubt the Cavs end w/a worse record than the Bulls, but even if they somehow do, it won’t be far off, so that won’t hurt too bad.
The idea of having tangible cap space in the near future seems impossible. Three max players plus several young players to resign? Not sure where cap space comes from.
Their best shot at vastly improving likely comes from picks next year & trying to package assets+Haywood in a big sign & trade next summer. Plenty of Bigs potentially in free agency: Millsap, BroLo, Al Jeff, Chandler, Monroe, Hibbert, Jordan, MGasol, Thad Young, Asik, Aldridge. Take your pick!
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This obviously wasn’t written by Brian Windhorst, he has Lebron and Love leaving next offseason.