2010/11 Cleveland Cavaliers Payroll: $69.1 million
2010/11 NBA Salary Cap: $56.1 million
Roughly: $13.0 million over cap
The Good: The Cleveland Cavaliers spent a lot of money trying to form a championship contending team, which means their roster is very light on contracts that provide high value for the dollar. The only obvious one is J.J. Hickson’s. He has showed why draft picks can be just as important as trades and mid-level exception free agents when it comes to improving a contending team. Drafted two years ago, Hickson blossomed to average 8.5 points and nearly 5 rebounds a game this season and hit 55% of his shots. He did well finishing alley-oops and drop off passes from LeBron James. Hickson has two years remaining on his cheap rookie contract, making him one of the few bargains on the team.
Shaquille O’Neal’s contract has ended and that is good for the Cavs in more ways than one. His $20 million salary for last season was ridiculously overpriced as Shaq has very little left in the tank and should have retired three summers ago. Also, the presence of his beefy, lane-clogging frame sure didn’t help keep the offense moving. If you doubled his numbers from last year (12 points, 6.7 boards, 1.2 blocks), it might have been something close to being worthy of $20 million. That is all in the past now. Cleveland can move on from the brief Shaq era they brought upon themselves.
The Bad: One of the biggest trade-deadline deals involved the Cavs snatching Antawn Jamison from the Wizards for nothing more than Zydrunas Ilgauskas’s expiring contract. The deal made basketball sense as the team needed a good, veteran scorer at forward to take some of the pressure off of LeBron. Unfortunately, the move did not make salary cap sense as Jamison is owed a whopping $28.4 million over the next two seasons. That is a little too much money for a sidekick who put up a ho-hum 15.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a Cav, not to mention the surprising 50% shooting from the foul line. Undoubtedly, his shot attempts went down while playing alongside a great scorer like LeBron, affecting his numbers a bit, but even his old Wizard numbers weren’t worth that much money. Jamison is a classic example of how salary cap consequences are often ignored the closer a team gets to a possible title.
Some of Cleveland’s role players also weren’t worth the price the team paid for their services. Last summer, Anderson Varejao received a six-year contract worth a total of $48.3 million, or about $8 million a year. While Varejao is a good post defender and led the team in rebounding with 7.6 boards per game, he is still just a role player who comes off the bench and he probably shouldn’t be making starter money. Perhaps when Shaq and Big Z aren’t around, Varejao can get the minutes and responsibilities to warrant his contract. Daniel Gibson, the team’s three point shooting specialist, shot a crazy 47.7% from downtown, good for third in the league. With that kind of marksmanship, you’d think Gibson would have a larger role in the offense. Instead, it has declined, from 30 minutes and 8 shots a game two years ago down to just 19 minutes and 4.8 shots a game this year. Gibson also can’t seem to stay on the court as he only played in 56 games and was missing in action for much of the second half of the season and the playoffs. It should be easy for him to earn the 3 years and $13.2 million left on his contract, but he has got to stay healthy and become a more important part of the team.
The Future: There is no hiding from the tsunami that is the LeBron James free-agency saga. Everyone knows that the future of the Cleveland franchise lies in his hands. Considering that the current team was built around LeBron, his departure would trigger a fire sale of nearly the entire roster as the Cavs would try to severely cut costs and begin the rebuilding process immediately (and try to keep their fan base from deserting the team forever). It is an ugly scenario for the franchise and one they are trying not to think about for the time being. Sure, LeBron is free to go wherever he wants, but Cleveland has some things to offer that other teams do not. They are near his home town, they can offer him the most money and an extra sixth year on his contract, and they have a team that is already pretty good. Maybe not great yet, but they did win 127 games the past two seasons combined, so they must not be that terrible. So the Cavs do have some attributes for them to pin their hopes on.
Their best option this summer isn’t to wait around for LeBron to decide, they must be proactive. The new coach and GM need to sell LeBron on the positives of the next era in Cleveland Cavs basketball. They need to get out into the trade market and push to make improvements, showing LeBron that they are committed to winning at all costs. But don’t be stupid. Making a dumb, irrational trade isn’t going to impress anybody. But, even if no trades go through, the effort alone would be a small indication of the team’s commitment to the ultimate goal. Hopefully, for the sake of Cavaleir fans, LeBron ends up believing them.
Grade: C
whether lebron was a free agent or not
being upset as a top seed in the east in back to back seasons , with the season’s mvp, meant something wasn’t working out. regardless what lebron does,this team needs to make some changes.
Cleveland has just done a
Cleveland has just done a poor job of building this team around LeBron. The “release” of Carlos Boozer, the singing of Larry Hughes, releasing of Shannon Brown, the trading for Shaquille O’Neal, the drafting of Christian Eyenga, and the contract for Anderson Varejao. They’ve had some opportunities to do it right and they haven’t and now I just don’t see how they will be able to do it. They don’t really have any players that anyone wants or wants to pay for. If they could put a halfway decent team around him I would feel better about him staying there.
varejao
the cleveland front office has made some blunders in the past. resigning anderson varejao was not one of them. the only reason he did not start was because they had to appease shaq. with him gone varejao gets 30 minutes a night. he has the length, foot speed, and length to be a great defender. he is the only player on their team who can defend the low post and still help in pick and rolls. pair him with an offensive minded big man like stoudemire (whom they should have pursued instead of jamison), and he would not be as much of a liability.
That issue with resigning
That issue with resigning Anderson Varejao was with this contract not with the signing itself…