WFNY’s 12 Days of Christmas, 2014 Edition: Day Eight
December 17, 2014Photos: 12 LeBron 12s that will pay homage to local heroes
December 17, 2014Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year is an annual must-read. Sadly, that the national recognition rarely has anything to do with the teams or individuals whom we cover. In turn, WFNY will soon announce its choice for 2014’s Cleveland Sportsman of the Year. Here’s one of the nominations for that honor by an WFNY writer.
It’s easy to underestimate David Griffin. On the cover, he’s a boy amongst men; a diminutive, bespectacled redhead who is above 15 giants on the organizational chart, but at least a foot or two below them when standing flat-footed on similar ground. See him walking down the street, and he may give off of the appearance of an accountant, pleated pants and all. But turn those pages a few chapters in and the book reads something like a man who has a badass eye for talent in addition to being summa cum ninja in salary cap management. A guy who, despite being over a foot shorter than the man he replaced last winter, will eventually stand right up there with the biggest and best when the NBA names the Executive of the Year for the 2014-15.
The white board never said the name “LeBron James.” Within the confines of Cleveland Clinic Courts, names of various free agents were strewn about—Utah’s Gordon Hayward and Houston’s Chandler Parsons to name a few. But when referencing James, who decided to opt out of his contract with the Miami Heat, the former Cleveland Cavalier was simply “The guy.”
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Entering the 2013-14 season, thoughts were that the Cavaliers, despite having just won the NBA Draft Lottery and selecting a tweener forward in Anthony Bennett, were on the come-up and could—maybe, potentially—be in the mix for James if all of the stars aligned. The team added a bruising seven-footer in Andrew Bynum. They were chock full of young, talented players like Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson. They still had ties to James’ agent Rich Paul. But they would have to show progress—something the 2013-14 season was anything but.
Sure, they won more games than the previous year, but the team was a mess. They had suspended and traded Bynum to the Chicago Bulls for a few months of All-Star small forward Luol Deng. There were rumors of in-fighting between Irving and Waiters in addition to an apparent lack of respect for head Mike Brown. The bottom came when the team had its doors blown off by a short-handed Los Angeles Lakers team within the confines of Quicken Loans Arena. Grant was fired the next morning; Griffin was given the keys to the team he had quietly been a part of since Danny Ferry’s departure in the summer of 2010. Little did we know, he had long hit the automatic start, and this engine was warming up for months.
Griffin’s first move was to move two second-round draft picks and backup forwards Earl Clark and Henry Sims for a floor-spacing center in Spencer Hawes. The Cavs went 33-49 on the season, but 17-16 under Griffin, most of those games with Hawes in tow. While the center would not re-sign with the Cavaliers, they not only had some additional salary cap space to make moves in the offseason, but Griffin had an idea of just what his team could look like with a big man who could help space the floor.
Once the offseason arrived, with the Cavs failing to make the playoffs once again, it was Griffin who still had the interim tag slapped to his name with regard to the team’s front office. It was also Griffin who told the Cavaliers to interview as many people as they wish before naming their general manager of the future—if he was going to be their man, he wanted to be their man. “I’m not going to campaign. I’m not running for mayor,” he would say in a mid-April press conference. And it was Griffin who, after roughly one month of uncertainty, was ultimately named the team’s lead decision maker.
You know the rest of the story: The Cavaliers won the NBA Lottery—again; re-signed Kyrie Irving to a maximum contract extension; traded Tyler Zeller to Boston, the ridiculous contract of Jarrett Jack to Brooklyn; and Carrick Felix to Utah for cap space, landed LeBron James in free agency, acquired a handful of James’ friends on the cheap, and then sent Andrew Wiggins and Bennett to Minnesota in exchange for All-Star power forward Kevin Love, a player who Griffin had coveted for years despite being told that it would never happen. The two stars would join Irving in Cleveland as the newfangled “Big Three” who would be surrounded by a cast of veterans and still-young and talented draftees from seasons past. Together, they would revive basketball in the city of Cleveland, producing appointment television around the country in addition to that feeling of legitimate and realistic hope that it all ends with a parade down East 9th street.
Sure, Griff may have had a little luck (and geography) on his side, but none of that happens without the requisite space to make it possible.
The best part? Griffin, in what may be one of the most underrated trades of the offseason, sent small forward Alonzo Gee to the Charlotte Hornets for reserve center Brendan Haywood. Sure, Haywood hasn’t played much this season, and may not be a factor at all. Haywood has a 2015-16 salary on the books at $10.5 million, except it’s entirely non-guaranteed. What this means is the Cavs could waive it without paying him a cent or losing any 2015 cap space, or, far more importantly, use Haywood as walking trade exception—one they could use for the purposes of salary matching in a trade next summer, and the team acquiring him could waive him without paying a dime.
The Cavs aren’t done yet. Don’t underestimate the little guy; David Griffin is just getting started. He’s my Sportsman of 2014.
6 Comments
Solid choice, Scott.
BTW, remember all the angst many of us felt about trading Wiggins? Well, he hasn’t been doing much at all in Minnesota, and Bennett is doing practically nothing. Sure, it’s early, and Wigs has plenty of time to blossom into a star. But right now, this shotgun trade is seriously one-sided.
Thank you. Wiggins hast time, but look at what happened to Jabari Parker—just like that, the kid’s done for the year. These windows don’t stay open forever. Playing for the future is a huge roll of the dice.
Accepting the award for Sportsman of the Year on behalf of David Griffin: MR. LEBRON JAAAAAMES.
And ping pong balls.
Accepting on behalf of Ping Pong balls: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
When the Cavs drafted Wiggins, I thought there was way too much of a belief that he is a guaranteed star like LeBron was, even if people were willing to admit that he wasn’t going to be the next LeBron. In my own opinion, Wiggins has the chance to fall anywhere on the spectrum between Corey Brewer and Paul George.