Monday, March 09, 2009

It's apparently Danny Ferry Day

The PD gives some love to Danny and well, I don't really blame them. The Cavs are the best run franchise in Cleveland and it's not even close.

Windhorst gives us a list of the Good/Bad moves and there's not much to disagree with. Though, I think the Hughes/Jones/Marshall summer is a bit overrated as bad moves go (at least among casual fans). I mean, it's not like those guys didn't help the Cavs. All three were rotation players on a squad that got the Cavs to the playoffs and eventually made the Finals.

Sure, a few years down the road it was time to part ways but those guys filled the role in helping the Cavs grow from a crappy team to a mediocre-but-decent playoff team. Unless you get a Hall of Famer gift wrapped to you by a former teammate, odds are you aren't going from worst to first really quickly. The Cavs and James had some growing pains to go through and Ferry's free agent trio helped them through it.

Jones and Marshall hit some big 3s for the Cavaliers (Jones had a series winner against the Wizards) and I'm not sure they can beat the Pistons without Larry Hughes guarding Chauncey Billups. Ya, it was time to part ways last season, but as far as first moves go (and that was Ferry's first summer on the job), it could've been worse. Plus, he's learned from those mistakes and hasn't overpaid a role player since (much to the chagrin of Dan Fegan and Anderson Varejao).

My problem, as far as Danny Ferry goes, is that I wonder if I now have to relook at the Ron Harper trade. I mean, if the Cavs don't trade Harper for Ferry, does he still become Cleveland's GM? If he spends most of his career in LA with the Clippers (or goes somewhere else), I'm not sure he's playing with Dan Gilbert's money. Sure, he could've caught on with the Spurs eventually and become a GM prospect, but Ferry met his wife here and he has ties to the area. Without those ties, is he eager to come here? I dunno.

Though it wasn't his fault, I (along with many other Cavalier fans- and Lenny Wilkens) hated Ferry for the Harper trade. If he builds the Cavs roster that wins a championship, I'll probably have to forgive and forget. I'm not pleased about it (I've been hating on that trade for the bulk of my life), but I like to think that I'll be in a forgiving mood throughout a championship celebration. I'd love to test that theory...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the Cavs win the NBA title this year or next and LeBron inks up long term, the Harper for Ferry trade might go down as maybe the biggest pre-LeBron era trade in franchise history. All it took was about 17 or 18 years for the trade to bear fruit.

According to a Dan Gilbert interview a few years ago, Ferry wasn't all that eager to leave his cushy gig as an assistant in the best front office in the league. I doubt he would have left the Spurs to take over the Bobcats or Grizzlies. But his Cleveland connections made the move back to the Cavs more attractive, and Gilbert was able to talk him into taking the job.

If not for the infamous Harper trade and the subsequent 10-year contract, Ferry's connections to Cleveland wouldn't be so deeply-rooted, and he might have found it easier to say "no" to Gilbert.

If that had been the case, maybe Larry Brown would have alrady come and gone as the basketball guru of the Cavs, maybe Gilbert turns into the type of owner who is always chasing the next shooting star, and who knows where the oranization would be right now? Who knows where LeBron would be?

mattocsd said...

Yea. Ferry deserves some credit. For the most part he has done an excellent job. But let us not forget that he hasnt won it all yet. Let's save these praise for after they have.

ps. The PD is in dire financial trouble. We know this. Here's some advise: Instead of waisting the only talent you have in the sports department, you may want to combine articles that are virtually the same. There was really no need for three articles on Danny Ferry (was it his b-day?).
I understand that Windhorst is afraid to speak ill of the team, but with his inside knowledge I would leave the "feel good" Ferry story to Terry (i write every article the same exact way) Pluto and give us something in the realm of "how we are going to win on the road against a good team in the playoffs?" Or "why does Lebron insist on playing like shit against formidable foes and stand behind the three point line to consistently halt our offense?"

Ben said...

Personally, I'm not too worried about LeBron's play versus the good/great teams right now.

They're throwing different defenses at him and I think over the course of a 7 game series, LeBron and the coaching staff can game plan a little better.

My biggest beef with coach Brown is his in-game adjustments. Game-to-game, I love the guy. Which is why I'm fairly confident about the playoffs. The combo of Brown and LeBron in the post season have taken crappy teams up against good team and come out looking pretty good. This year however, the Cavs can actually matchup talent-wise.

I feel very ok with this.

Anonymous said...

That's been one of Roker's biggest strengths, and a reason why the Cavs have routinely overachieved in the playoffs since he came aboard -- Roker is good at making game-to-game adjustments.

It's one of the great advantages of having a coach who loves to spend 8-hour time blocks in a darkened room with a projector screen, DVD player and a cooler of Red Bull (or at least that's my mental picture of him). Games, and losses in particular, will be dissected down to the molecular level.

The film room is Brown's strength. Maybe not so much the dry-erase board at halftime, but then again, he's handing a lot of the game-day coaching off to his assistants so he can do the more big-picture stuff.

Mike Brown: Master Delegator.

mattocsd said...

WOW! Ben, you took it that literal?

"There's a lot of blame to go around in this loss, but the fact of the matter is, the Cavs aren't going to win in Boston if LeBron has a poor game. They just aren't. Hell, they don't win in Boston when he has a good game, they can't overcome a 5-15 night against the good teams on the road.

Yea....you're ok with it.

Ben said...

Not sure I follow.