The Cleveland Cavaliers, known for arguably one of the greatest sporting comebacks in recent times, a comeback from 3-1 down over the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Final, now risk falling into irrelevance for the next decade.
The organisation has started the beginning of their rebuild; firing head coach Tyronn Lue and re-signing Kevin Love to a 4-year $120 million extension.
The Cavaliers have also offloaded Kyle Korver to the Utah Jazz for Alec Burks and two second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 draft. This trade doesn’t improve their current roster, however, it gets the Cavaliers assets for their rebuild, and a step further along the journey ahead.
Cleveland have also been shopping around JR Smith, who had recently come out publicly with his desire to leave the organisation.
However the two-year $30.4 million price tag makes it difficult to move him off. After his mistake in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals against Golden State, teams can hardly be blamed for not making offers for his services.
These kinds of brain-snaps, along with the price tag, make it very difficult to find a suitor for his services.
If the Cavaliers can free themselves of Smith, it would be a major win for the organisation. However, unless a team is willing to take him, it would appear that the Cavaliers may have to release him and pay the price; just as the Houston Rockets did with Carmelo Anthony.
Looking further into the roster, they require more depth in the small forward and power forward positions. They have an abundance of centres, some of whom can play as power forward, however it still leaves the small forward position lacking.
The shooting guards can also help fill this void, but it does spread the roster rather thin.
The addition of Matthew Dellavedova has reinvigorated an otherwise sluggish offence, however it requires more than just a motivated point guard to lift the Cavaliers.
The best course of action for the Cavaliers is to tank. I’m not saying they should tank like Philadelphia did, but if the Cavaliers can land the number one draft spot for the upcoming draft, they might not need to tank again.
Let’s take a look at the loaded 2019 draft class. Players such as Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish, Ja Morant, and Kevin Porter Jr are up for grabs and, if Cleveland can land just one of these players, they may not need to tank again.
Look at the Dallas Mavericks this season. Luka Doncic has been unreal for them and, although they sit at 20-24, the franchise looks as though they’ve got all the right pieces to move upwards.
Draft picks, salary cap space, and free agents are the ingredients the Cavaliers need to hasten the rebuilding process. All they can do now is gather assets, clear cap space, keep an eye on upcoming free agents, and tank. The alternative is they stay in the void LeBron James created when he left, and sink to mediocrity and irrelevance for the next decade.
Jerry
Guest
The Rockets didn't have to pay Carmelo much at all, the Hawks took on his big contract & released him. Houston signed him for the minimum.
Shaun
Guest
It's a long way back for the Cavs, despite Double T proclaiming "the east still runs through us" I can't see the Cavs getting any notable free agents, without LeBron, no one wants to be in Ohio. Dan Gilbert is up there as possibly the worst owner in basketball and the rookie GM is yet to prove himself. Maybe they'll get lucky and snag 3 number 1 picks in 5 years again? But seeing as how the draft odds have changed, it's unlikely. Sorry Cleveland fans, it's going to be a sad decade for this team. Hey, you still have the Browns...
Sam
Guest
With the amount of 'injuries' or injuries (depending on how cynical you are) the Cavs are losing rather successfully. They need a consistent scorer more than anything - outside of Kevin Love (who is streaky from 3 point at the best of times), the likes of Sexton, Hood and Burks rarely have back-to-back-to-back high-scoring games. I would like to thank the Cavs for bringing Korver back to my Jazz though!