June 17, 2010
Izzo Didn't Want It All

I must say that these excerpts from Tom Izzo’s press conference yesterday are rather touching. They strike a chord with me personally, as I’ve had many of these kinds of conversations with myself, and with Tim, talking about home and family, ambition and adventure, the goals you set for yourself and the impact you might be able to have on others. There’s a point, I think, where all of those things converge, and you come to terms with where exactly that is and what means to the rest of your life, and the legacy you’ll leave behind when you pass away.

Sacrifice. There’s always sacrifice. Izzo gave up a dream, to coach in the NBA, but he gets to keep his home and the pride he no doubt feels for what he’s been able to do at Michigan State. He’ll continue to be a god in Michigan. He could have been a god in Ohio, or more, depending on what LeBron James does, given the depth of fans James has all over the world. But at some point, I suppose, you have to be okay with not getting more than what you already have. Otherwise you just keep chasing forever. 

Maybe James is facing a similar moment. He wants to win championships. He wants to be a movie star. He wants to be a billionaire. He wants to be a celebrity. He wants to be a family man. He wants to raise his kids in Akron. He wants to be the most liked guy in the room…

Remarkably, at the age of 25, maybe it’s time for Bron to get to the same place the 55-year-old Izzo just landed at, where you settle on one thing and stop dreaming and chasing and start obsessing over the one huge thing you want more than anything else, or the two or three smaller things you believe you can handle together. To know pursuit, but not to crave it above all else. To be accepting and embrace satisfaction.

Does it happen? I doubt it. The problem with ambitious people is that, by nature, it’s very difficult for them to believe they can’t have it all. That’s why ambitious people tend to leave child support payments, alimony, and used drug paraphernalia in their wake. 

For the Cavaliers, what does it all mean? No one can say for sure. But I do know that Izzo’s comments about Dan Gilbert should all make us sleep a little bit better tonight, now one week away from the NBA Draft. 

1:00am  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/707357930/izzo-didnt-want-it-all
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FILED UNDER: Tom Izzo Cavs Dan Gilbert 
June 16, 2010
Reptile in Chains(?)

In the Cavs’ front office tonight, one simple question sums up the past week and a half of work on their coaching search and their increasingly futile efforts (or so it seems) to re-sign LeBron.

“Now what?”

As everyone knows by now, Tom Izzo announced at a press conference on Tuesday evening that he has rejected Reptile’s “framework” offer of $30MM over 5 years, unlimited use of a private jet, “on demand” baths in liquid platinum, a swimming pool filled with gold coins a la Scrooge McDuck, and who knows what else, to coach the Cavs.

CBS Sports’s Ken Berger wrote earlier that LeBron has now effectively locked the entire franchise into a cryogenic chamber until at least July 1. He argues that no “name” coaching candidate (and potentially no coaching candidate period) will ink a deal with the team until James’s status is known. Furthermore, even the team’s attempts to get back into next Thursday’s draft are handcuffed by not knowing for sure which players should be traded away, given that the centerpiece of the team is a question mark.

This last notion is one that I want to focus on—the reason being that I don’t totally buy it. (Of course, this may be because I have the luxury of being a fan / observer with no consequences attached to my thinking, aside from occasionally embarrassing myself in print on this blog. But hear me out.)

Consider the Cavs’ current roster for next year for a moment. Done? Good. Here’s my question:  apart from Andy, should anyone on that list really be untouchable?

To me, the answer is a resounding “no.”

This is the cold truth that the organization has to face up to: the Cavs have to proceed as if they’re in a rebuilding mode, regardless of whether or not James comes back. Why? Because either way, it doesn’t change the fact that the current roster will still be deficient on a foundational level. Mo Williams will still be an undersized, streaky, score-first point guard who collapses in the playoffs. Antawn Jamison will still be a supposed stretch 4 who doesn’t shoot well from midrange or long range and acts as a complete sieve on D. Delonte West will be traded regardless of James’s final decision. Boobie Gibson will still be an awesome catch-and-shoot player who brings little else to the table. Glitch will still be, well, Glitch—although his continued flubs have me on the verge of upgrading him to something like Permanent Fatal Error.

The rest of the roster consists of two categories:  capable role players (Moon*, Parker, Powe) whose value from a productivity standpoint is high in relation to their salary, and a couple of young guys who *could* grow into starters or sixth men (Danny Green and Sebastian Telfair) if they continue to develop.

(*Note: As we’ve stated over and over again, Moon’s advanced stats really suggest that he should be a starter, or should play starter’s minutes. But I’m lumping him in the ‘role player’ category because that’s the perception of him around the league, as far as I can tell.)

In fact, it’s arguable that the team’s most flawed players happen to double as their worst contracts. I would contend that Jamison has more value from a production standpoint than Mo, but I’m not concerned about comparisons. Antawn’s absolute value is somewhere far south of $28.4MM over the next 2 years, and that’s the issue. In either case, the player in question should still have value to other teams in the league. Dealing either (or preferably both) of them for some mixture of cap relief, draft picks, or younger players should really be a no-brainer.

This leads me to the other part of the equation: with or without James, the only sound solution for the Cavs is to get younger. Regardless of whether he was hamstrung from above or below, the Danny Ferry era proved conclusively that as executed, the “win now with veterans” strategy did not work. Repeating it would be disastrous. Finding lower-level veterans to fill in around your young assets never appears to be that difficult, and the difference in marginal value between a “really good” veteran versus an “average” or “decent” veteran is much smaller than the gulf between having a promising young core versus, well, not. 

Finally, because of LeBron’s ability to play multiple positions, it’s pretty hard to argue that the Cavs wouldn’t be able to figure out where to upgrade. Although his ability to switch between playing 3 and 4 leaves the forward spots open to some potential redundancy if the Cavs were to try to upgrade there, both guard spots are gaping holes, and finding a legitimate center—i.e. one capable of guarding Da-Wight, which Andy can’t do—would also be a pretty clear victory.

Look, even though I now think he’s an asshole, a liar, and a complete prima donna, LeBron James is really, really good at basketball. More to the point, he’s both extremely versatile and phenomenal at elevating the play of his teammates. If Chris Grant and Reptile do the reconstruction right, it’s entirely plausible that the Cavs would still be a playoff team next season and a contender again another year or two after that. LeBron’s own play and The James Effect on his teammates are that huge.

So if they’re thinking about things clearly, the front office has to recognize:

1) The Cavs can’t win a championship with Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison as key components of their core

2) Assuming the right moves are made, trading those players now lowers the team’s ceiling for the next season or two but raises it dramatically after that

3) While some of the other players on the team are a good or great value for the money, it’s bad business to hold onto them if it kills a deal for a potential young star (even if it’s in the form of a high draft pick)

4) There are at least 3 positions (1, 2, and 5) where the Cavs could use a serious upgrade

5) All of the above are true with or without LeBron

Clearly, I’m simplifying here. There are other considerations, such as which type of players will be benefited by the new coach’s system. But Berger is right: it’s now a foregone conclusion that the coaching search won’t be concluded until July. With the draft now 8 days away, it’s potentially disastrous for the front office to freeze on trades until that same period. (Realistically, a good coach will figure out how to best utilize the abilities of the roster he’s given anyway. He can then work with the front office in the future to refine it.)

Reptile and Chris Grant may not have a clear view of LeBron’s plans, but there is enough else on their roster that’s definite enough to construct a strategy. Whether or not they choose to be imprisoned by James’s chess game is ultimately on them.

-T 

12:32am  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/703790627/reptile-in-chains
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FILED UNDER: NBA Cavs LeBron 2010 Free Agency Izzo Tom Izzo Dan Gilbert 
June 15, 2010
The Mounting Evidence Against Winning

Unfortunately, today, we saw LeBron James add more evidence to the mounting pile that this entire journey towards, and eventually into - god let it please come soon - free agency is NOT all about winning. 

The latest news of course was that although James respects Tom Izzo as a coach, he has no interest in talking to him about the Cavaliers coaching vacancy. Presumably, this is because James doesn’t want to “tip his hand” as to what his plans might be come July 1st and also because he doesn’t want to be seen as a meddler, who influences personnel and management decisions. 

Here’s my problem with LeBron’s approach in this situation. For one, if James is truly concerned first and foremost with winning multiple championships then “tipping his hand” shouldn’t have any bearing on his decision making process. Neither should quieting even a gram of speculation on where he might end up by suggesting that he cares who the Cavaliers coach is. But that’s the trouble with LeBron. Nearly every choice he’s made since he signed a 3-year deal in 2007 has been about leaving his options open and creating hype. 

Instead of James worrying about how talking to Izzo might impact the way things play out in a couple of weeks, he should welcome the opportunity  to have a conversation with a man who could possibly coach him next year. Even if LeBron is fairly certain he wants to leave Cleveland, shouldn’t he at least chat with Izzo? No one’s expecting Izzo to give James an ultimatum. Izzo doesn’t have the power to do that. But James should want to investigate Izzo for his own sake. James has said over and over and over that his decision to stay in or leave Cleveland will be based on winning. Isn’t the coach an important piece of that puzzle?  If LeBron truly wants to explore all of the possibilities that free agency presents, then he should speak with every single person he can. Owner Dan Gilbert has brought Izzo into the fold. Izzo is now a cog in the free agency machine. It only makes sense for LeBron to sit down with Izzo, just like I’m sure he’ll sit down with Avery Johnson in Newark, Tom Thibodeau in Chicago, and Mike D’Antoni in New York. 

Secondly, LeBron can say he doesn’t want to influence personnel and management decisions, but the truth of the matter is, it’s impossible for him not to. As a two-time MVP, when he says nothing at all, he’s saying something. James, who’s fond of talking about the responsibility he has to his city and his family to be an upstanding young man when he leaves the safety of his compound in Bath, needs to accept the fact that he also has a responsibility to whatever organization he ends up playing for (let’s not forget that right now he is still a member of the Cavs). I’m not saying that the organization always should - or should always have to - react to James’s opinions and acquiesce to his demands, but he has an obligation to speak, and they have an obligation to listen. 

And if James is worried about the growing perception that he negatively influenced the Cavaliers organization while Danny Ferry was in charge - due to reports by Ric Bucher and Adrian Wojnarowski - really, what difference does it make? It’s not like every team in the NBA isn’t prepared to offer him a max deal. 

Perhaps that’s the most troubling thing about James’s behavior. Even if “the summer of money” was always about good business, what has its true financial impact been? The results, as far as I can tell, are all marketing-related. Has James made more money on this short term burst of hype than he would’ve made if the Cavaliers had won the title this season? The hype certainly isn’t going to have an effect on the amount of money he’ll make in his next contract. One thing, above all else, still remains very certain. The best business decision for James is to re-sign with the Cavaliers. They can, and always will be able to, offer the most money. I know he believes championships will dictate how much he makes in other areas, and he’s right, but this kind of charade … “Where will I play?! Who knows? Ahhh! It could be your team!” … didn’t contribute to the Cavs winning a title. It may have pushed Gilbert and Ferry towards an “all in” approach, but James’s lack of commitment also hamstrung them in other areas (like signing Trevor Ariza).

We all know how difficult it is for a team to win a championship. It’s never guaranteed. Even the team with the best record in the NBA usually goes in to the playoffs with less than a 20% chance of winning it all. And in fact, maybe that’s what James is doing. Hedging his bets. Maybe he’ll never win a title. Maybe that’s what he’s afraid of. And if he never does come away with a ring, then at least he’ll have the summer of money…

I suppose that, for a legacy, is better than nothing.

1:00am  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/700317632/againstwinning
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FILED UNDER: LeBron James Tom Izzo Cavs 
June 14, 2010
A Couple of Points About Izzo

As everyone who follows the Cavs already knows, Tom Izzo still hasn’t given ownership a thumbs up or thumbs down regarding the head coaching offer prepared by Reptile. Earlier today, Woj posted this article re: the source of the hold-up. In it, he makes a couple of points that I wanted to address briefly.

1) Izzo’s hesitation stems from his lack of certainty over who in the Cavs organization still has a relationship with LeBron

I just have this question: considering that Danny Ferry and Mike Brown were supposedly run out of the city by LeBron’s unspoken wishes, who in the organization EVER had a relationship with him? As far as I can tell, there are three potential answers here. First, some of the other players on the roster. The problem here is that this has nothing to do with the front office. It could also potentially be a landmine if Chris Grant and/or Reptile rule LeBron’s friendships on the roster out of the equation when making personnel moves this summer—which, for the record, I believe they should absolutely do. 

The second answer is LeBron’s pre-existing friends, i.e. the guys who were given jobs with the team because LeBron wanted them to have jobs with the team. Randy Mims, the renowned “player liaison,” is at the forefront of this group. But this answer doesn’t provide any comfort for Izzo (or fans clinging to James), since all of these jokers would just as easily be given the same jobs and perks at whatever new team LeBron decided he wanted to play for.

The third answer is the assistant coaches who have been retained. Chris Jent, Mike Malone, Melvin Hunt. This seems like the most substantive and logical answer. Jent, of course, has been traveling and working with James year-round since at least this last summer, a kind of promotion from the heavy in-season work he was conducting with James in previous seasons. Keeping Jent and the others on staff was one of the savvier moves I’ve seen Reptile make in this whole chess game. Ultimately, it may not make much of a difference. Although I would guess that LeBron does in fact have a relationship and some loyalty to these coaches, I don’t think either is strong enough to prevent him from jumping ship on its own. This isn’t Manny Ramirez, who was reportedly so taken aback when he found out that he couldn’t take the Tribe’s trusted equipment manager with him after he signed with Boston (because, you know, the guy was still employed by the Indians) that he considered trying to rescind the contract.

But as our old friend B-Dub reports, at this point, it sounds like Izzo’s best bet in the guessing game of who has inroads to James may be to look in the mirror. But that’s still far from a guarantee that James will return.

2) One of the main reasons Izzo is seriously considering the jump to the NBA is his frustration with Michigan State’s inability to recruit elite talent

This is a huge red flag in my book. I really wish it wasn’t, but it is. The reason is that, as I’ve written before, it’s arguable that Cleveland is the least appealing NBA city in the league. Admittedly, I don’t think this is a fair assessment. Even without James, the Cavs have an owner willing to spend, world-class practice facilities, a (supposedly) highly regarded young GM in Chris Grant, and the minor name cache that has come with their continued regular season success the past several years. Compare that to, say, Detroit, where the team is being offered for sale, the GM has earned a well-deserved reputation as a complete bumbler, and the city itself is in even worse shape than Cleveland. I’d rather play for the Cavs, but perception is reality.

Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that even if the Cavs aren’t the least appealing franchise in the NBA, they’re nowhere near the top. Short of a complete transformation of the city’s economy, there’s very little that’s ever going to change that. We’ve all seen free agents pass over the Cavs to take equal money elsewhere (for recent entries, see: Artest, Ron and Ariza, Trevor). I maintain that LeBron’s unwillingness to give the team a long-term commitment has played a large part in their inability to recruit better. But when it comes to pitching the team to potential new players, the reality is that the Cavaliers are in an even worse bargaining position than Michigan State is in the NCAA. If this is really one of Izzo’s main frustrations with his current gig, he should think  long and hard about this particular alternative before he decides it’s really going to be any different.

Of course, if LeBron chooses to stay with the Cavs long-term, that changes the entire equation. But if Izzo’s being honest with himself, the above reasons make it less than difficult to imagine why Reptile’s lucrative offer continues to give him pause.

-T

12:43am  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/696746087/a-couple-of-points-about-izzo
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FILED UNDER: Cavaliers Cavs LeBron LeBron James Tom Izzo Coaching 
June 9, 2010
Future Fear

An experiment is in progress.

As fans, we’re in the worst possible segment of the Cavs off-season—a combined period of rampant speculation and undeniable transition. Not only does the franchise have the crippling uncertainty of LeBron James, but they’re also searching for a head coach and trying to smoothly transfer power to Chris Grant as GM.

Looming over all of it like a carnival float is Dan Gilbert, the man who wants to get back in the driver’s seat of the franchise he owns.

However, the experiment I’m referring to has nothing to do with any of this. And at the same time, it has everything to do with all of this.

I don’t fully understand my relationship to Cleveland pro sports some times. On a base level, I find it impossible to believe that I could ever completely not care about any of the franchises based in my home city. I have largely checked out of the game of baseball as a whole, but I know that the first time the Indians are on Sunday Night Baseball this year, I will watch that game. Football holds more interest for me in general, but even though the Browns haven’t even been close to the playoffs for the vast majority of their expansion existence, I’ve still gotten up early most Sundays in season to watch them play.

Last year, a big part of the intrigue for the Browns to me was Eric “Alpha Dog” Mangini. I found his shroud of secrecy and behavior both hilarious and entertaining, and part of me wanted to believe that his insane dedication to the game could lead to improvement for the Browns.

But the one sport I never even had to hesitate for was basketball.

To me (cue Jeff Van Gundy), basketball is the ultimate sport. I believe it’s the most compelling mixture of pure athletic prowess (strength, speed, agility), sport-specific skill (dribbling, pinpoint passing, shooting), and mental awareness (reading defenses to find seams, adapting to your opponent’s tendencies, figuring out how to attack them most effectively on both sides of the court). 

On top of that, I’ve felt a personal connection and pride in regard to the players. Most of this had to do with the types of “character” guys that Danny Ferry brought in. But some pre-dated him, such as Z, perhaps the most beloved player in the team’s history. This same feeling even extended to Mike Brown, who, despite his shortcomings, was someone I always found it easy to root for from a personal standpoint.

However, with Ferry gone and Gilbert aching to play puppet master, this could be the end of the Cavs as I know them.

Despite my inherent love of the game of basketball, despite my personal connection to any team that begins with the name ‘Cleveland,’ I’m beginning to wonder how easy it will be for me to actively root for the Cavs next season with Gilbert as the captain of the ship.

This has little to do with the team’s performance or chance of winning. Instead, it has everything to do with who the Cavaliers are—as individuals, as a team, as my representatives in the NBA.

Let me be frank: I straight up don’t like Dan Gilbert. Admittedly, if his casino project ends up acting as a blood transfusion for the city’s economy, I will ultimately give him a pass, because that’s the kind of thing that’s bigger than sports. But until that time, I’m standing pat on this. He comes across as a slimy guy who believes he’s a hilarious entertainer that we should all adore. If Woj and Windhorst are to be believed, he’s also been an enabler of all of LeBron’s most undesirable personality traits for the past several years. Worst of all, it seems as though he’s intent on buying LeBron’s love—and probably any other star—at the expense of what’s best for the team.

It’s for all these reasons that I’m test-driving the name Reptile for him.

Further along these lines, I’m underwhelmed by the prospect of the great Tom Izzo coaching the team. Apart from all of the logical questions raised by Mike earlier this week, Izzo seems to be a world-class prima donna in his own right. In that sense, he and LeBron and Reptile deserve one another. But the problem that sits at the forefront for me is the phenomenon of college coaches breaking their contracts midway through, bouncing on kids they recruited to specifically play for them, all for a paycheck and an ego boost. I give Izzo credit for at least being honest with his players about the fact that he’s seriously considering leaving, but that hardly eliminates the inherent sleaziness of the move. To me, the entire situation feels more like it’s just about Reptile bending someone to the dark side for the sake of flexing than it is about picking the best coach for the team. In that sense, I fear it’s emblematic of what we should come to expect in the post-Ferry era.

Which leads us to the roster.

Quite frankly, I have no idea what to expect. My feelings about LeBron have changed completely over the course of the past 6 weeks. He’s gone from being a player I staunchly defended and believed in to a guy who may have selfishly mailed in a complete playoff series that cost his team a shot at the title, not to mention costing his coach and GM their jobs. Delonte is going to be traded without a doubt. Z will either retire or sign elsewhere. Apart from Jamario Moon, it’s difficult for me to name another guy on the team who I genuinely feel some kind of affection for (please, let’s all avoid the obvious jokes).

Say what you will about their shortcomings in the playoffs, but the past several years, I’ve always felt that the Cavs were a team I could genuinely root for—not just because they represented my city, but because they seemed like good guys with the right goals and personalities to boot. There was undeniably a blueprint for what a Cavalier was under Danny Ferry. Now? It feels to me like that model has been jettisoned, and all bets are off as to what types of guys are going to make up the team’s locker room, because—barring some unforeseen level of political mastery from Chris Grant—this is now going to be a team made in Reptile’s image.

I just shivered.

I realize I’m running the risk of just being dramatic. In theory, the thing I should care most about is whether or not the team wins. Everything else should be immaterial. Reptile’s new vision could work. After all, it’s not as if Jerry Jones hasn’t used this blueprint to get some rings.

But at the same time, I also fear that the foundational principles that Reptile looks ready to burn are exactly what made me feel so connected to the team these past few years. I’m not advocating for a perpetual team of lovable losers. I want to see the franchise win. But I also believe that character plays a part in that quest.

For me, the experiment will be to see how my feelings about the team shift if they manage to win a title, but with an identity that matches their owner’s. I hope for all the long-suffering fans that it’s a problem we have the opportunity to confront. And at the same time, I hope it never happens.

-T

11:48pm  |   URL: http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/682823515/future-fear
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FILED UNDER: NBA Cavaliers Dan Gilbert Tom Izzo