January 6, 2011
Cavaliers Offer Job to Ex-Con With Radio Ready Voice

Since the Cavaliers can’t even keep a game against the 24th best team in the NBA to within single digits, I am instead going to write about the second biggest joke of the day: the Cavaliers PR department’s decision to stage a publicity stunt.

As if this woeful season full of deeply terrible defense and a new allegedly fast breaking offense that can’t run past the first half wasn’t already bad enough, now someone in the offices at Quicken Loans Arena thought it would be a good idea to try to capitalize on internet sensation Ted Williams, as one of our nemeses, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, reports here.

Williams is a homeless man who apparently panhandles in Columbus using a golden age radio ready voice.

Some time after news of the Cavaliers desire to offer Williams a job broke early this morning, The Smoking Gun did a background check, and it was revealed that Williams has been in some trouble with the law. 

Generally speaking, I could not care less that Williams has a criminal history. I do not feel that it should preclude him from being able to work. And I definitely wouldn’t refer to Williams derogatorily as a “golden voiced bum” - then again, I wouldn’t use a racist logo as the image in the header of my website either - but I do believe that the Cavaliers a) turning to YouTube for inspiration and b) doing so without really doing their homework is a bad sign for the future of this franchise. 

I understand that the team is flailing on the court right now. I understand that they believe fundamentally in an expansive game operations department. Hell, they even developed a second mascot out of nowhere this season. I understand that they probably think their best chance to sell tickets is to utilize gimmicks.

I get all of that.

But it wreaks of desperation. It feels like second rate reality TV casting. It reminds me of investigative journalism stunts during sweeps week. Added together with some questionable behavior surrounding LeBron James’s decision to sign with the Miami Heat - namely, the eradication of organizational structure with the firing of Mike Brown and the choice to not resign Danny Ferry, as well as a firey unprofessional letter by the owner that was written to inspire the fan base to keep buying tickets … so they could watch the Cavs lose to Minnesota, Sacramento, and Toronto - the pursuit of Ted Williams implies something dark about the Cleveland Cavaliers:

And that is that this is not a first rate organization. 

Simply put, this publicity stunt is not the kind of thing the San Antonio Spurs or Boston Celtics would do. It is not the sort of action the New England Patriots or the Pittsburgh Steelers would take. Instead, this is the kind of gimmick that is typically reserved for minor league hockey or Arena League football. 

Yet, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a professional basketball team.

Or at least that is what the NBA tells us.

5:00am  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/2622704531/cavaliers-offer-job-to-ex-con-with-radio-ready-voice
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FILED UNDER: Ted Williams Cleveland Cavaliers Mike Brown Danny Ferry Minnesota Timberwolves Toronto Rapotrs Sacramento Kings 
August 5, 2010
Lance Blanks & A Very Special Cavs Mystery

If you follow front office moves, you already know that today Cavs exec Lance  Blanks was hired away by Phoenix to be their new general manager. Blanks worked under Danny Ferry during his entire tenure as Cavs’ GM, along with the brief stint under Chris Grant after Ferry’s contract expired earlier this summer.

As someone who has staunchly defended the Cavs’ executives for the past several years, I find this to be an interesting moment. We all know that among most NBA fans and pundits, the perception of the franchise’s front office has been less than favorable for a long time. Ferry is still routinely blamed by the usual talking heads for hastening LeBron’s exit by trying to build a team with veteran rentals rather than young players. Practically every trade made or rumored trade NOT made has been another bullet for the critics. The consensus among the people with microphones—as well as the fans who listen to them without thinking on their own—is simple: the Cavs’ front office was a disaster. This has become Gospel.

And yet…other franchises keep offering jobs to Cavs execs!

After years as Assistant GM, Blanks—whose name only surfaced as a contender for the job last week—has now been hired away by a well-respected organization in the Suns. Danny Ferry was Paul Allen’s first choice to take over as GM of the Trailblazers about a month ago. Ferry declined, reportedly due to Allen’s similarities to Dan Gilbert in terms of the level of meddling he was capable of.  And lest we forget, Atlanta tried to hire current Cavs GM Chris Grant to be their General Manager back in 2008.  Grant declined the offer in order to stay with the Cavs as Assistant GM and VP of Basketball Operations.

Why on Earth would this happen? Well, there are three possibilities:

1) Danny Ferry secretly spent the past five years compiling a vast photo archive of owners around the league in compromising positions

2) Key decision-makers in other franchises are all complete morons who somehow managed to miss the Cavs’ execs’ obvious laundry list of bad decisions, dysfunction, and general instability that people like Bill Simmons and Chad Ford have been trumpeting for years, or…

3) Contrary to what those same scions of public opinion seem to believe, people who know basketball can see past the crap and have realized that the Cavs’ front office has consistently been pretty fucking good for a long time.

As you may guess, I happen to stand firmly in the camp #3.

One side note: Blanks’s ascension to the top post in Phoenix cements the fact that long time Spurs’ GM R.C. Buford is the Bill Parcells of NBA executives. Like Parcells, Buford’s former assistant staffers are dispersing to the highest decision-making positions in franchises around the league. Danny Ferry worked under Buford in San Antonio before being hired by Gilbert in Cleveland. Ferry brought Blanks with him from San Antonio, then promptly hired Grant away from Atlanta. Blanks has assumed the GM post in Phoenix, Grant has taken over in Cleveland, and Ferry will undoubtedly have another shot as soon as he wants it. Sam Presti worked under Buford for several years before being hired to run the Sonics, who of course then become Oklahoma City. A few weeks ago, Presti’s assistant GM Rich Cho was hired by Portland to be their new GM—the job Ferry turned down after yet another former Buford staffer, Kevin Pritchard, was fired from the job on draft night. Finally, New Orleans hired Dell Demps, another Buford disciple, away from San Antonio to assume the GM job in New Orleans. So if you count Grant thanks to his association with Ferry, 1 out of every 6 NBA teams is currently being headed by someone who can be traced back to Buford, with two former staffers (Ferry and Pritchard) having already been GMs. Pretty impressive, especially for a guy who styles himself like this.

Back to the real point.

On the one hand, I am sad to see Blanks go. His departure symbolizes the end of the brigade (Ferry, Grant, Blanks) who I came to place a great deal of trust in over the past several years. I may not have agreed with every move they made, but I also have read enough to know that some of those moves were more or less forced on them by LeBron via Dan Gilbert. I will always wonder what the team would’ve looked like had that trio been allowed to operate without restrictions, but I guess none of us will ever know. Though you can bet your ass that if I ever run into Ferry or Blanks in an airport like I did with Derek Anderson, I will go out of my way to thank them and inquire.

On the other hand, I am also very pleased to see Blanks go. Not because I wouldn’t he rather have stayed with the Cavs, but because the more success he, Danny Ferry, and other Cavs’ alumni have as the top execs in other cities, the harder it will be for ignorant critics to continue the myth that the teams’ failures during the LeBron era were the fault of the front office.

Best of luck in Phoenix, Lance. Thanks for your efforts here in C-Town. Keep fighting the good fight.

-T

11:44pm  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/911543982/lance-blanks-a-very-special-cavs-mystery
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FILED UNDER: NBA Cavs Danny Ferry Lance Blanks Chris Grant Dan Gilbert Phoenix Suns Atlanta Hawks San Antonio Spurs Front Office Executive GM LeBron James 
June 6, 2010
Goodbye Danny Ferry, You Were Never Even Allowed to Overrule Your Own Player

As we all know by now, The Great Danny Ferry resigned his post as Cavs’ GM Friday morning. Dan Gilbert saw fit to promote Chris Grant to take over, and Lance Blanks will apparently stay on in an expanded role as well.

As I’ve pointed out previously (see the re-post a couple slots below), Ferry walked into the job in extremely unenviable circumstances. I would argue that the “championship or bust” mentality cultivated by Dan Gilbert over the course of the past few years raised the stakes even further.

In fact, this is one of the things that I believe makes it difficult for those of us on the outside to evaluate Ferry’s performance as GM. Despite that his contract supposedly granted him full power in all personnel decisions, we have to keep in mind that Gilbert was the one setting the tone. If the mandate from Ferry’s boss was “win now,” it’s hard for me to lay the mistakes made in the service of that goal completely at Ferry’s doorstep. Especially when sources have openly stated that LeBron had—and more importantly, exercised—veto power on personnel moves.

On top of that, Woj’s article yesterday made the case (via a friend of Ferry’s) that Ferry has been “miserable” in Cleveland the past two years. The root of the friction was LeBron’s influence—not just in the personnel department, but in the small areas. The pre-game skits. The hiring of James’s friends, such as Randy Mims as “player liaison.” In short, the culture of permissiveness enabled by Dan Gilbert. It ran counter in every manner to the “Spur Way” that Ferry believed in and tried to implement.

All of this raises the question: How do you evaluate the performance of a guy forced into a strategy he may not have agreed with when he didn’t even have complete autonomy to try to execute said strategy?

Frankly, I’m not sure.

As the Cavs move forward, the most interesting (and revealing) thing is one that fans will never really get a chance to see: the behind-the-scenes stability of the organization. We as fans didn’t see Gilbert passing notes to Paul Silas about substitutions (as Woj argues happened), or any number of other ways in which Gilbert tried to insert himself into the process. If Ferry was really responsible for putting a stop to these types of shenanigans, his absence will make a bigger difference than any of us will be able to see on a game-to-game basis.

In theory, this entire strategy has been geared toward keeping LeBron. But in the event that he bolts anyway, don’t we have to expect that this same policy will apply to any star player the Cavs try to sign or draft while Gilbert owns the team?

The irony in all of it is that up to now, Gilbert’s ownership style and performance has been praised as one of the primary reasons for the Cavs’ continued success and transformation into a “world class organization.” The more we find out about it, though, the more it begins to seem as if it may have been Ferry’s management style that prevented the Cavs from becoming a complete circus act.

With Chris Grant at the helm—in name, anyway—we may find out.

Buckle up, Cavs fans. It’s going to be a wild ride.

-T

8:00pm  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/671764034/goodbye-danny-ferry-you-were-never-even-allowed-to
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FILED UNDER: Danny Ferry LeBron Cavs NBA 
June 5, 2010
Cavs Trading With … Golden State or Sacramento?

I haven’t heard anyone mention this yet, but yesterday on Michael Reghi’s radio show, Brian Windhorst all but said the Cavaliers are looking to make a deal to with, presumably, either Golden State or Sacramento that would involve trading a starter, to get into the lottery on June 24.

Windhorst implied that this move is something outgoing GM Danny Ferry didn’t approve of, but that it was being demanded by majority owner Dan Gilbert. This, combined with the notion that Ferry may have had to cede some of his already diminishing power to a new coach, may have been what led to his decision to resign.

So what are the situations in Sacramento and Golden State like? Let’s start with draft picks. Sacramento picks #5 and Golden State picks #6. None of us here at Mesa watch college basketball, so we can’t offer much in the way of college scouting, but T.I.T. goon Chad Ford has Sacramento picking Al-Farouq Aminu at #5 and Golden State selecting DeMarcus Cousins at #6 in his last mock draft. 

Aminu is a 19-year-old 6’9” SF out of Wake Forest. Cousins is a 19-year-old 6’11” C out of Kentucky.

We have to assume that the Cavs - and every other team in the NBA - is trying to figure out the order in which players will be taken after John Wall goes #1 to Washington. And for the Cavs to been engaged in trade talks to move up that high in the draft, they have to believe that a player they very much want will be available at #5 or #6. 

You can see where this is going already, right? 

If we’re guessing, and really that’s all we can do right now since we can’t breakdown the Cavaliers performance in the NBA Finals, we have to assume that Golden State is the more likely trade partner, since we know the Cavs discussed Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette (and probably Anthony Randolph) with them earlier in the year, and that sometimes trade talks take any number of months to manifest in an actual deal (see: Shaq). We also know that teams look to cut salary before they’re sold, and that the Cavs do have some expiring contracts (Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Leon Powe, Sebastian Telfair, and Delonte West, whose contract is mostly unguaranteed). 

We also have to believe that if the Cavs could truly get Cousins, there is reason to think of it as a major move. By multiple metrics (John Hollinger’s Draft Rater and Dave Berri’s PAWS), Cousins was the most productive player in college basketball last season. 

He also, um, played for Kentucky. Which LeBron visited on multiple occasions. He was coached by the great vacater of wins, John Calipari, who, um, LeBron is reportedly very fond of (did you know the Cavs have a head coach opening?) Now if Gilbert can just deliver Cousins to LRMR…

Of course, no deal involving a draft pick is likely to be consummated until draft night when it becomes definitive that said player the Cavaliers want is truly available. But the strategy of attacking the building of the team through the draft is critical at this point in time for the Cavs, especially since they’re over the salary cap and could be losing James. 

I have little sense of which starter Golden State (or Sacramento) would want from the Cavs. Mo Williams is unlikely, unless the Cavs took Maggette back (he’s owed more money over the course of his deal than Mo). Antawn Jamison for Maggette wouldn’t save Golden State much cash. Monta Ellis’s contract is awful - $44M over the next 4 years - and so is Andre Biedrins - $36M over the next 4 years, so I assume both of those guys are probably in play. Obviously, taking on that kind of money would be very risky unless you were guaranteed of getting a star in the draft. And there are no guarantees in the draft. 

But a deal involving Ellis or Biedrins is exactly the kind of deal one has to imagine Ferry might not be crazy about…

At any rate, we can only speculate on all of this, but it will be interesting to see what, if anything, occurs on June 24th. I bet some kind of deal does go down.

You can listen to Windhorst’s whole interview via ESPN Cleveland. Also, congratulations Chris Grant, you’ve now been awarded your first tag on JMID. Perhaps a nickname is next. 

Finally, if you’re looking for more from JMID, follow us on Twitter.

2:08pm  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/667516559/cavs-trading-with-golden-state-or-sacramento
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FILED UNDER: Cavs Warriors Kings Danny Ferry Chris Grant Dan Gilbert