Cavs get Ben Wallace, Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak and Joe Smith (and a 2009 second round pick- WKNR had their facts wrong).
Cavs give up Larry Hughes (Bulls), Drew Gooden (Bulls), Donyell Marshall (Sonics), Ira Newble (Sonics) and Cedric Simmons (Bulls) (Shannon Brown also goes to the Bulls... stupid WKNR). Seattle also gets Chris Duhon from Chicago (the Sonics actually get Adrian Griffin, WKNR lied to me).
I would imagine West, Wallace and Wally would all step into the starting lineup. I'd keep Varejao off the bench and let him bring the energy. Wallace could be used to guard KG, 'Sheed, Howard and (hopefully) Duncan come playoff time. West gives the Cavs an honest to god point guard and Szczerbiak is an upgrad over Pavlovic.
As for the future...
Smith is gone after this year ($5.2 million) and West has a qualifying offer ($2.7 million) which I expect the Cavs to pick up.
Szczerbiak is owed $13 million next season, which is his final year, so he could definitely be moved within the year.
Wallace... well, he's owed $14.5 million next year and $14.0 million the year after (he expires in 09/10, same time as Hughes).
The Cavs are taking on a lot of money, but they didn't give up any picks (thank God!) and they still have some flexibility. Szczerbiak, Snow ($7 million) and Damon Jones ($4.5 million) all become expiring this summer, so the Cavs still have pieces to trade for a Michael Redd type player.
I think the trade improves the Cavs a bit. All of these guys (even Smith) should contribute to the team right away. But it also opens up some holes... like who the hell is going to guard Chauncy Billups?
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I think West is a decent defender and could do a decent job defending Chauncey. In fact, I think West is the lynchpin of this deal, in that if he can provide steady play and get the playmaker(s) involved a la Rando, he can be a nice acquisition by the Cavs. I'm not sure I understand the need to bring in Ben Wallace, though. That one has me baffled.
Wallace for Hughes is just swapping headaches. Plus, maybe they think Big Ben could get some spring back in his steps if he's playing for a winner.
The big thing with Wallace is that he gives the Cavs a toughness they lacked. Wanna smack LeBron in the face? Come deal with Big Ben. Plus, I think he and Z could do very well defensively. The front court defense should be awesome.
I'm not going to miss Gooden at all; he's always going to be a good player on a bad team.
You're right, West could be the key to all of this.
(and let's not look past the fact that Wally expires next year. They'll have $20 million to deal with him, Snow and Jones)
Couple thoughs
- They may both be headaches, but Hughes' problem is we need shooters. At least Wallace can give us a defensive presence, but....
- I'm a bit worried about Big Ben's attitude. He seems to get unnecessarily into it with coaches, and he's got strong personality. We'll see what kind of leader LeBro is.
- Wally could resurrect himself here, or he could really suck (and he's injury prone)
- One great thing is we're not giving up our flexibility. We're gonna have a lot of money to work with next year and the year after. Wally's expiring and Wallace's deal is the same as Larry's.
In the end, I just don't know what to make of it. It's entirely unclear if this was a good move or a bad one.
Wallace might be a headache, but at least he's a headache who can share the pain with the opposition. The only pain Hughes shared was every time he'd get shelved for six weeks with a skin abrasion.
This trade makes the Cavs significantly older. Wallace is 33, Smith 32 and Wally 30. So this trade singlehandedly removes the "we're a young up-and-coming team" tag. This is a veteran team that is expected to contend for a title starting this year, and win a title before the summer of 2010.
For what it's worth, Stephen A. Smith was slobbering into a mic for Kenny Roda this evening. He says LeBron's camp has made it known to anyone who will listen that LeBron is, in no uncertain terms, gone from Cleveland after the 2009-10 season. In other words, we'd just better start preparing for life after LeBron now because he knows he cannot become the defining, Ruthian character of the 21st Century while playing in Ohio.
Smith said Ferry knows this, Gilbert knows this and everybody in the national media knows this. So Ferry made this move because he knows he has three cracks to win a title with LeBron in '08, '09 and '10 before LeBron leaves and everybody who is anybody rolls up the sidewalks and gets the hell out of Cleveland.
Thus spaketh Stephen A.
It's this simple: LeBron will leave if they don't have a solid supporting cast in place for the forseeable future at the time of his decision. Part of that will be ensuring they have a second guy to help carry the load (read: a consistent all-star).
If they become a (more) solid and effective organization/team, he's going to stay.
Stephen A. can say whatever he wants, as adamant and as loud as he wants, but that's what it will come down to. I must admit though, the more he goes on yapping about this, the better I feel: LeBron doesn't like to even appear to be a follower. He's his own man and I bet he hates people predicting exactly what he'll do.
who knows, maybe. i think if they're close, he'll pick up his option for one more year. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if he left, but I'd be more than surprised if he left a quality Cavalier team just to move to a bigger market. All the Cavs can do is try to be the most attractive team basketball-wise. I think this is a step in that direction.
By the by -- Charley Rosen gave the Cavs the lowest marks of any team in this trade. The highest marks went to the Sonics, who got pertty much nothing except Donyell Marshall and expiring contracts.
I swear, if Rosen had his way, every team in the league would just be a shell of cap space. In his Ed Crankshaft world, there is no player in the league worth giving the time of day, let alone spending money on. Except Kobe. Charley loves Kobe.
I can only imagine what having a conversation with Rosen must be like. Hearing him drone on about back in the day, when PLAYERS were PLAYERS, and used to take the SUBWAY to the game, and trained by dragging OLD TIRES up a hill! These kids today, they don't know what basketball is. They don't respect the game.
Every time I read Charley Rosen, I have an overwhelming urge to tell him to drink his Metamucil and watch some Matlock so he'll feel better.
I haven't read Charley Rosen in years. Probably not since he Mike Brown a "C" after his first year.
I should just email him his "LeBron will be nothing more than an average NBA player" column every week. Hey Charley, I was going to pay attention to what you say, but then I read this and realized that you're full of shit.
TYhis from Chad Ford's trade wrap:
"Negative Spin: LeBron is happy . . . for the moment. It's not clear that Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith and Delonte West bring enough to the table to put the Cavs on par with the Celtics and Pistons. And the team's cap flexibility is now practically gone. It's doubtful Danny Ferry can make another big move before LeBron hits free agency in 2010."
Um ... Did I miss something, or don't the Cavs have Szczerbiak, Smith, Snow, Damon Jones, Andy and West to trade as expiring deals this summer?
Or is Ford talking specifically from a being-over-the-cap standpoint?
From what I can tell, Ford means that they aren't going to be able to make any big free agent signings... like Larry Hughes and Rashard Lewis (you know, the types that propel teams to the Championship).
The thing is, the Cavs are no worse off than they were before. If they stood pat, they weren't going to have cap room to add a player. As is, they've increased their expiring contracts for next year. They could easily make a run at Vince or Arenas or Redd.
If you claim, "you can't make another big move before LeBron's free agency", wouldn't that include the ability to make a trade?
Well, guess what, Cavs still have a great opportunity to make a trade like that (or let the contracts expire to sign someone in FA). Ford is just dead wrong here, as he often is.
If you don't like the trade b/c some guys are old, Wallace is done, or they all won't mesh....fine. But its really bad when you are so off the mark in terms of facts.
Sorry about the rant, but man, these guys are just not dialed into the profession they cover.
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