Deep breath everybody. It’s done. It’s over. Finally.
With Kevin Love now officially a Cleveland Cavalier, the collective NBA community can return to some sense of transactional normalcy. The last of the major chess pieces in the league has fallen into place and there’s an exceptional amount of clarity within the landscape that was much hazier six weeks ago. And that clarity has informed us of the following:
The Cleveland Cavaliers will win the Eastern Conference in 2015.
Well, probably. As it stands, it’s hard to envision any team besides the Cavs or the Chicago Bulls representing the East in the NBA Finals. An already shallow conference, the East has been even further depleted by the devastating injury to 2-time All-Star Paul George, whose leg getting folded up like a dinner napkin has since removed the Pacers from serious contention. And while teams like the Wizards and Hornets are improved, neither appear to be quite as ready for prime time as a team boasting last year’s All-Star Game MVP, a two-time All-NBA Second Team member, AND a four-time league MVP.
Exactly how far have the Cavaliers come in the last three months? Well, they won just 33 of 82 games last season, missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. They fired the most successful head coach in their franchise’s history (Mike Brown) for the second time in four years, and hired a coach (David Blatt) who has never coached in the NBA. They finally committed to their new first-time general manager (David Griffin), who replaced the previous GM (Chris Grant) that was canned in the middle of the season. And their owner’s (Dan Gilbert) reputation remained a walking punchline amongst the league, the media and fans.
A fair amount of the criticism the Cavs have garnered in recent years is warranted, but Cleveland managed to turn around this abject train wreck into a title contender in less than 90 days! And that fact should not be slept on by anyone.
Say what you will about David Griffin’s inexperience, but he managed to not only bring in a coach who is well-respected throughout basketball circles worldwide, he also locked up Kyrie Irving — the team’s 22-year-old franchise player — to a five-year $90M extension on the first day of free agency. He also swung multiple trades to free up the cap and roster space necessary to precipitate the return of any former Cavaliers…ya know, should they be interested.
Sidebar: In what amounted to a massive salary dump, Cleveland traded Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev to Brooklyn and Tyler Zeller and a first-round draft pick to Boston. In return, they received a conditional second-round pick and the draft rights to Ilkan Karaman and F Edin Bavcic from Brooklyn. The Cavs also dealt Carrick Felix to the Jazz for John Lucas, Malcolm Thomas and Erik Murphy; three easily wavable non-guaranteed contracts. The most impressive part is that the Cavs managed to make these deals with the other teams involved knowing full well about their ulterior motive behind making such moves.
Say what you will about Chris Grant’s openly-mocked draft day decisions, but he was responsible for bringing Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters and Anthony Bennett (and indirectly Andrew Wiggins) to Cleveland. While they didn’t do much to positively effect the win column, this young nucleus proved to be talented enough to entice the biggest of free agents, while still having enough juice left over to facilitate a blockbuster trade.
And say what you will about Dan Gilbert’s overzealousness, but he made the now infamous expedition down to Miami — hat in hand — graciously apologized and made his pitch to LeBron James. And it worked.
Akron’s favorite son then made his triumphant return to Northeast Ohio, which would subsequently set the table for the Love deal. Ubiquitous one-liners about James “being the Cavs general manager” keep rolling in, even with people who have no business cracking-wise about another team’s front office getting in on the act.
Lebron James best executive in the NBA!!!
— Isiah Thomas (@iamisiahthomas) August 7, 2014
What should not be lost in this whirlwind of an offseason overhaul is the masterful step-by-step execution of the Cavaliers front office, despite the fact LeBron will get all the credit. Sure, they got a little lucky (specifically in the draft lottery), and in the event a little collusion took place, well, it wouldn’t be the first time. Yet the formation of this new Cleveland Cavaliers team is actually more impressive that of the 2010-11 Miami Heat, who were lauded for pulling off the greatest offseason in NBA history.
Funny how that goes, isn’t it? The story of Pat Riley dumping a cache of championship rings on the table in front of James in their meeting in downtown Cleveland in July 2010 was cool. Still, James deciding to go to Miami was the linchpin, much like his choice to go back to Cleveland was this summer. So the narrative of Pat Riley being a super-genius, with Cavaliers management merely being a group of fortuitous stooges who lucked into running the team in closest proximity to Akron, Oh is a complete joke.
A COMPLETE JOKE!
A COMPLETE JOKE!!!
Cleveland isn’t blessed with never-ending sunshine and glamorous nightlife, nor is it aided by big name front office executives and championship pedigree. This team had the worst record in the NBA over the course of the last four years, and they still pulled this off! In part due to the fact that they have an owner who is not afraid to go over the luxury tax to put a winner on the floor, something the Miami Heat (among many others) cannot say. The signing of Irving to a long-term extension was also anything but a certainty coming into the offseason. Unlike Dwyane Wade and the Heat in 2010, the Cavs did not appear to have a strong bond with the Duke product going into the summer. If Irving isn’t inked right away, this entire master plan is likely grounded before it ever got off the ground.
Sidebar: Pretty sure ESPN needs to revise this list. Like, A$AP.
The Cavaliers continued to fortify the veteran presence on this team by adding Mike Miller and James Jones, two snipers who possess both NBA Finals experience and a familiarity with James. They added veteran Shawn Marion for defensive purposes, who also owns an NBA Championship ring. The possibility of Cleveland also landing Ray Allen is still in play. For a team not known for attracting free agents or keeping their own stars for that matter, the Cavaliers have exercised the demons from many past failures in July and August. And when you factor in Cleveland winters (verses say…the Miami winters), the resurrection of the Cavaliers in 2014 is that much more impressive. Kevin Love was the final centerpiece.
The all-star power forward brings his 26 points and 12.5 rebounds per game to a team that will instantly be of the five best in the league. LeBron James has only been back in Cleveland for five minutes and the Cavs have already brought in a better running-mate than they ever got for him in his first seven seasons. With this addition, the Cavs should win close to 60 games this season, if not more.
Best case scenario for Love: his scoring dips to around 20 ppg, but his rebounding numbers remain elite (Cleveland should be a top three rebounding team this year), and he finally begins to shed the lack of “big game experience” criticism that’s dogged him the last several years. Best case for Irving: he averages close to 10 assists per game and grows into the defender and floor general we all expected him to be (playing for Team USA in the FIBA World Championships this summer should help this cause). And the best case scenario for LeBron: he finally wins the one individual accomplishment that has eluded him his entire career — Defensive Player of the Year — as he gradually turns the Cavaliers into a championship caliber team defensively (much like Kevin Garnett did for the Celtics in 2008).
Simply put, this trio is the best case scenario for a franchise that has gone ring-less in the first 44 years of its existence. Since 2010, the Eastern Conference has repeatedly opened up for LeBron James, but this is the first time Cleveland has benefited from it. As good as Andrew Wiggins would look in wine & gold, this was the shrewdest possible move (and a damn good haul for Minnesota too). The Cavs unsung management team deserves recognition for giving Cleveland its best shot at a title since the Indians nearly twenty years ago.
For all this, the NBA’s Executive of the Year Award should have already been Fed Ex’ed to David Griffin’s front door. And the longstanding negative perception of Dan Gilbert as an owner ought to take a significant turn for the better. We already know this was an unbelievable summer for any team. But we’ll know in the next five years if this was just one of the great offseasons by a team in NBA history, or the greatest.