Cavs Board

Delonte’s negotiations haven’t progressed at all.  The Knicks-Cavs trade rumors have been covered extensively (and may I add more extensively).  I’ll briefly write up my feelings on the proposed trades later today (and it will likely be in a quick summarized fashion), but as the season approaches, I want to look to Chicago where the Bulls faithful are awaiting a resolution on the Ben Gordon situation much like Cleveland fans are with Delonte.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was envious of the Bulls good fortunes.  It’s very similar to how I feel about the Portland Trailblazers now.  Through shrewd picking in the NBA draft and some timely trades, they had positioned themselves to be a force in the league for a long time to come.  2003 saw the addition of Kirk Hinrich.  2004 brought both Ben Gordon and Luol Deng (not to mention Chris Duhon).  They assembled a talented young core in the span of two drafts that was able to grow together unfettered by the concern of minutes.  

They’re still a very good team.  I don’t feel that their record last season was a true indication of how good they can be.  And that record allowed them to add Derrick Rose.  Damn.

Admittedly, my fear/respect for their current talent has chilled somewhat.  But that’s bound to happen as a player’s “ceiling” becomes more apparant, and all the promising young talents that were/are on rookie deals during my infatuation period sign big deals.  Before, criticism was impossible.  Objectively, no fan or hater could label any of the Bulls core players “not worth the money”.  That kind of “oh shit, what happens in three years” problem was a good one to have…. until now.  

In my estimation, the first move the Bulls made that concerned me was adding Jim Paxson to the staff.  The second was signing Ben Wallace to the massive deal he was given.  That’s easy to say now, and I have no way to prove I adamantly opposed that deal at the time.  This blog didn’t even exist two months ago.  But you’ll have to take my word on it.  

Truth be told, as much as I found myself hating Larry Hughes as a Cavs fan, I think the move the Bulls made to unload Wallace was a great one for them as well as us.  We needed a fourth big man who could log minutes (even if they are rotational ones), and the deal brought back that extra body in Joe Smith, not to mention the closest thing we’ve had to a point guard since Jeff McInnis (Delonte).  They got a more talented Hughes (albeit overpaid) and a cheap, young offensive oriented power forward to complement their largely defensive frontcourt until they can upgrade the position (Gooden).

Anyway, the point of this post is not to revisit the Wallace-Hughes trade.  It’s to look at what is an eerie parallel.  Through trade, the Bulls added Hughes, and with him, they have a “fallback” in place for Gordon who was commanding much of the salary cap space that could have been used more wisely if not for guaranteed contracts signed foolishly by other teams (cough).  They added a high priced, high profile player (think Mo) who could lessen the potential sting of losing a valuable young asset should he play hardball in free agency (think Delonte).

The Bulls find themselves in a contentious negotiation with their own restricted free agent Ben Gordon, who like Delonte seems opposed to going overseas.  I’ve made my stance on Gordon pretty clear.  The guy can score.  But Deng is a much more well-rounded player, and if reports are true that Gordon (a offensively gifted small 2-guard with limited defense) thinks he should command the largest salary on the team, I think he’s batshit nuts.  Worse still for the Bulls is that while Delonte doesn’t really have a good parallel on the market (unless you count Chris Duhon…which I don’t) he’s still viewed as a role player around the league.  Guys like Andre Igoudala and Luol Deng are who Gordon has equated himself too in terms of value. 

Matt from Blog-a-Bull has made some excellent points from the Bulls fan perspective that I think bare repeating (as they relate to Cavs fans as well):

I do not feel good about the sign/trade scenario. Back when it was done with Crawford, it was easy to accept salary relief (getting Jerome Williams off the books) as a benefit. And Curry’s situation was a no-win that actually produced quite the haul of draft picks. But that’s just not enough at this point. Expiring deals, picks, ‘assets’…Paxson’s had 5 years of getting those, and goal for the last couple of those seasons should be actually getting better instead of just more.  Better as in of Gordon’s caliber or higher. And that rarely happens when you’re the one signing and trading.

That’s an excellent point, and one plays out 90% of the time.  Think back over the history of sign and trades.  You have Rashard Lewis to the Magic for a trade exception and draft picks.  You have Joe Johnson to the Hawks for Diaw and draft picks.  You have Kenyon Martin to the Nuggets for draft picks.  

Sure there are ways to get relief monetarily or stockpile draftpicks, and sometimes the team trading the talent wins in the long run (Seattle/OKC looks headed down that path now), but on the sheer basis of talent in the present, sign and trades almost never bring in more for less.

Names like David Lee and Udonis Haslem are being tossed about in rumors for Delonte West.  While it would be great to see that happen since it would address weaknesses in the Cavs lineup, realistically those guys bring as much to the court as West, if not more.  Count me amongst the skeptics those deals would ever happen unless other significant considerations factor in.  Salary relief for the Knicks could do that possibly.  But do we really want to tie our hopes to the idea that New York is finally going to practice some fiscal responsibility?  They just gave Duhon the midlevel!  

As for the Heat, Haslem, despite having Marion on board, still logs major minutes with the massive hole at center they created by dealing Shaq.  Not to mention, Marion isn’t even guaranteed to be there past this year.

Back on the subject of restricted free agency, Blog-a-Bull continues:

If it turns out that not only does signing Nocioni (who the Bulls signed before Memphis gave him an offer sheet in restricted free agency) prevent the Bulls from signing Gordon, but getting rid of Nocioni’s deal is an objective in a Gordon sign/trade…man, how bad was that Nocioni deal?

If Gordon can’t be signed because of the Nocioni contract, that deal goes from thorn in the ass to complete abomination.

For those that don’t realize, Nocioni signed a 5-year deal for $38 million dollars.  That’s an average of nearly $8 million per year.  Anderson Varejao had reportedly asked for somewhere between $8-$10 million dollars a year over a long-term deal from the Cavs.  Ferry refused and Varejao eventually took $5.5 million per year for two season (assuming he exercises his player option after this year).

The Cavs could have very easily found themselves in a similar position had Ferry caved liked so many impatient Cavs fans were crying out for last season.  Hell, the Cavs were the laughing stock of the NBA in terms of payroll because of that type of carefree spending on role players like Jones, Hughes, and Marshall. Now they find themselves with the all powerful “expiring contracts” so they’re in the position to potentially rob some of these money starved teams of superior talent.  We’ll see how that plays out.

If anything is being reinforced in this Bulls scenario, it’s that GM’s need to be more responsible about how they pay role players, even ones that are fan favorites, or that offer skills that the team is by and large lacking.  

Delonte is a role player.  He offers some point guard skills the Cavs had been lacking for a long time.  Ben Gordon is a very good to great role player who scores as well as anyone of the Bulls team.  They’re not on the same level as players.  That’s obvious.

$10 million dollars a season is fair for Gordon.  I say that with complete disregard and lack of concern of the Bulls luxury tax threshold.  As a Cavs fan, you won’t see me crying if the Bulls eventually give in to his exorbitant demands in fear of losing him to unrestricted free agency.  They did something similar with Hinrich (back in October of 2006) and many consider his deal unmovable now.  Similarly, last year they jumped the gun with Nocioni in fear what Memphis may have offered him and signed him to a long-term deal that won’t be easily movable for another few years.

I like the Luol Deng deal.  He plays both ends of the floor, he rebounds well, he has a great midrange game, and to this point in his career, he’s shown nothing even close to unethical behavior in dealing with the Bulls.  I wish the same could be said for two other Duke guys named Carlos Boozer and Elton Brand.  But if you’re love of the game trumps your hate of the Bulls, you have to be rooting for Gordon to get a taste of what so many greedy role players (or greedy role player’s agents) deserve…. reality.