The Cavs Nearly Did Something

Chris Grant hasn't been sitting on his hands! The Cavs inked Houston Rockets backup point guard Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet (4 years, $24 million) but the Rockets matched roughly 12 hours later. So.... great.

It seems like the Cavs assumed that would happen and they're already moving on:

It was not a surprise to the Cavs, who had attempted to work a sign-and-trade deal with the Rockets prior to having Lowry sign the offer sheet. The Rockets refused, confident they'd match the offer, which they did.

So the Cavs went to the next course of action, league sources said, and began stepping up their efforts to trade for a guard with the same traits as Lowry. It is possible the team could make such a move by the end of the week.

[snip]

So while the Cavs have a quality point guard in Mo Williams, they obviously intend to acquire another one. Two players believed to be on the radar are former Ohio State star Mike Conley and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ramon Sessions.

I'm not really high on either of these guys, but if I had my pick, I'd go with Conley (and not just because he's from Ohio State). Conley is young, has a shorter contract (has a qualifying offer for 11/12) and is coming off his best season as a pro. Sessions is older (though only 24), can't get off the bench in Minnesota and is owed nearly $13 million over the next three seasons.

The Cavs are looking into a possible sign and trade for Shaq either to the Knicks or possibly the Hawks:

The latest rumored landing spot for Shaquille O’Neal is Atlanta, as the Cavaliers reportedly have talked about doing a sign-and-trade with the Hawks to acquire swingman Marvin Williams.

I'm not really all that thrilled about Marvin Williams. Yes, he's young (only 24) but his points per game declined the past two seasons and his rebounding numbers dropped last year too (to be fair, he averaged just 30 minutes last season, lowest since his rookie year). Most disturbing, he's owed $30 million over the next four seasons.

Now, maybe you think that the former #2 pick could thrive in new coach Byron Scott's up-tempo system. Maybe. But it's not like the Hawks were a slow paced team (though they did go through a lot of isolations). I'm not totally against the idea of taking a flyer on Williams, but only if the Cavs are trading someone like Mo Williams rather than Shaq. By trading Mo for Marvin, Cleveland would be giving up salary for salary, instead of trading a free agent for a guy with four years left.

Although, do you know who would look good in Coach Scott's running system? 2009 first round pick Christian Eyenga. Windy had a nice bit about him at Summer League and the dude can jump, I'll tell ya what:

So the Cavs are making some small waves in free agency and they're adjusting to the new offense in summer league (and J.J. Hickson is dominating the young guys).

The post-LeBron era (or the post-Z era!) has officially begun.