The other day, I leveled some doubt about the oft-expressed belief that the Cavs have extra money lying around that they are willing to spend in order to make the team better. I doubted this really only because we hadn’t seen the kinds of instances of extreme spending that hypothetically should have been taking place.
That started to change yesterday with the trade for Shaq, which could save the Suns about $10M if Ben is bought out and Sasha is cut, and therefore costs the Cavs just as much - plus the $500K in cash the team chipped in as part of the deal.
The NBA quickly seems to be separating itself into two groups - teams that are going to operate in or near the luxury tax and those that are going to try and manage themselves far below it. The middle ground is falling away, and I imagine the levels of competition will divide in a similar pattern.
We did, however, see a sign tonight that the Cavs are - like any good business - looking to save money when they can. Because 30th pick in the first round Christian Eyenga will, by all accounts, be stashed overseas for the next couple of years, the Cavs won’t have to pay him a two year guaranteed contract. Instead, as far as the ‘09-‘10 season goes, they’ll only have to negotiate a non-guaranteed contract with 2nd round pick Danny Green. Based on Tweets from Brian Windhorst, this should save the Cavs about $800K - which covers the money sent to Phoenix in the Shaq deal. Of course, later in the night, the team bought the rights to Emir Preldzic - from Phoenix - for undisclosed cash considerations, shifting this number somewhat.
Some people will debate whether the Cavs made a mistake by not drafting Sam Young or Dajuan Blair at #30. We’ll probably never know if it was a basketball decision or an economic one, but there is some evidence at least to suggest that the Cavs did what they did to save some of the money they spent on Shaq. But, at the same time, Blair didn’t really fill a need, he has no ACL’s, and maybe the Cavs felt Green at 46 was a better value than Young at 30. We are talking about the last pick in the first round of a weak draft.
Maybe it was simply the best basketball and economic decision possible - and it’s hard to fault an organization for that.
