The Cavs did something, but not that

The Cavs may have missed out on Matt Barnes...

NBA free agent and Del Campo High graduate Matt Barnes has agreed to a two-year deal to join the Los Angeles Lakers next season, Barnes said Thursday.

Barnes made the announcement Thursday night to fans attending the Sacramento Tweetup event in Sacramento.On his Twitter feed, Barnes tweeted, "Its official I AM A LOS ANGLES LAKER. I wanna thank u for all ur patients and understanding. This is a dream come true!!!"

The agreement is a reported two-year contract worth $3.6 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

but they did sign rookie power forward Samardo Samuels!

The Cavs reached an agreement in principle with rookie free-agent power forwardSamardo Samuels on a multiyear contract, agent David Baumanconfirmed to The Plain Dealer.

Samuels (6-8, 240) is a low-post player expected to play power forward and center. The deal is believed to have a partial guarantee for the first season, which makes it likely Samuels will make the team. He was impressive during the Vegas Summer League with the Chicago Bulls, averaging 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds. His biggest statement came when he scored 17 points with seven rebounds and outplayed Sacramento Kings draft picks DeMarcus Cousins and Hassan Whitesidein a game last week.

A high-profile recruit when arrived at the University of Louisville, Samuels averaged 15.3 points and seven rebounds as a sophomore last season before declaring for the draft.

I'm okay with both of these developments. I admit, I have no idea who Samuels is, but it sounds like he's got some skills (I do love me some low post) and it's good to hear that he was a "high-profile recruit" and that he'd be entering his junior year (so he's got time to improve).

As for Barnes, he'd be a nice player to have, but I wouldn't want the Cavs to overpay to get him. Cap space isn't the end-all, be-all for the Cavaliers (I mean, they're still located in Cleveland afterall) but the last thing they need to do is to tie up a bunch of money in overpriced, aging (Barnes is 30) role players.

Back to Samuels. This is the type of player the Cavs are going to have to target for a bit. Low risk, high(-ish) reward, overlooked, young players. The Cavs need to stick a couple of these low draft picks and undrafted signings and maybe take a flyer on a guy like Adam Morrison. I know he's a joke, but your hope is that guys like Morrison have learned from their mistakes in their first few stops and now know what it takes to succeed in the NBA (like what happened with Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace).

The Cavs are kind of in no-mans land right now. They have enough good players that they aren't going to completely suck but they certainly won't be contending for a title in the coming season. LeBron kinda screwed up their offseason (ya think!?) and they've been pretty quiet but I wonder how active they'll be at the trading deadline. Maybe they'll be like the Tribe and end up shipping veteran guys like Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison and Shaq (provided they resign him, which isn't out of the question) to contenders in late February and start hoarding draft picks and young talent.

Wait, did I just compare the Cavs to the Indians? Fuck.