This is part four of The Pit’ five-part look at the NBA’s Central Division.
LeBron James makes his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers this year. Photo/Wikimedia
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Central Division had more movement than any other division in the NBA over the summer of 2014. The Cleveland Cavaliers undoubtedly came away with the biggest fish, and they didn’t stop there.
After Lebron James decided to return to his hometown team, the Cavaliers outbid several suitors and obtained the services of superstar Kevin Love. We take an early look at all that the Cavs have accomplished this offseason in part 2 of a 5 part look at the Central division:
Management: Chris Grant served as the Assistant General Manager to Danny Ferry from 2005 until he took over as GM in 2011 when Ferry moved on to Atlanta. Grant was one of the most active GM’s in the sport during his reign, which he began by firing Head Coach Byron Scott and rehiring former Coach Mike Brown.
Brown was fired after a single season of a five year contract, allowing him to sit home and collect the 16 million dollars he had remaining on his guaranteed contract. Grant made multiple trades and acquired aging talent along the way suffering through multiple financial mishaps that kept the Cavs in the lottery, where they held the number one pick in the draft two of the three years he was in charge.
To everyone’s surprise, Grant chose Anthony Bennett with the number one pick in 2013, which proved to be one of his final mistakes. In his final move before being fired, Grant traded oft injured center Andrew Bynum, which he signed in the summer on a partially guaranteed contract, to the Chicago Bulls for Luol Deng to avoid yet another financial tragedy.
Grant was fired on Feb. 6, just one month after the trade. Grant’s assistant David Griffin was promoted to full time General Manager in April. As the current General Manager, Griffin has already been the recipient of Lebron James returning home, and he drafted Andrew Wiggins, which he used as the centerpiece to acquire Kevin Love. In his short tenure, Griffin has already made two very bold moves; Signed Euro league legend David Blatt as the new Head Coach and traded away draft mistake Bennett in the Love trade.
Players retained: G Matthew Dellavedova, G Kyrie Irving, F Tristan Thompson, F/C Anderson Varejao, and G Dion Waiters
Departures: Luol Deng was acquired at mid-season to be a core piece of future Cavalier teams after nine successful seasons with the Bulls. After Lebron decided to return, Deng took his talents to South Beach and signed a two-year, $20 million deal with the Miami Heat.
After taking over on an interim basis after Grant was fired on Feb.6th, Griffin acquired Spencer Hawes from the Philadephia 76ers on Feb.20th. Hawes spent the remainder of the season with Cavaliers before signing with the Los Angeles Clippers this offseason.
CJ Miles spent the previous two seasons as the starting shooting guard, but faced a numbers crunch with the drafting of Wiggins and Dion Waiters ready to take over as the full time starter.
Miles signed with the Indiana Pacers in July. Guard Carrick Felix, Forward Alonzo Gee, Guard Scotty Hopson, veteran Jarrett Jack, import Sergey Karasev, and Center Tyler Zeller were all moved to clear salary cap space in order to accommodate the return of King James.
Acquisitions: Eleven time Champion and four time Coach of the Year David Blatt brings his leadership and legendary resume to lead the Cavaliers this upcoming season. After leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to four straight Israeli Cup Championships and the 2014 Euroleague title, Blatt joins the Cavs as the reigning Euroleague Coach of the Year and leaves the team he put together to defend their titles without him. Here’s a look at the players acquired this offseason that he will be in charge of coaching:
- Lebron James: The single most important free agent signing in Cavalier history, if not the most important acquisition in the history of Ohio sports period. Lebron returning to Ohio represents the feel good story of the summer of 2014 and made the Cavs the biggest winners this offseason in terms of free agent signings.
- Former Miami teammates Mike Miller and James Jones turned down more lucrative offers to join Lebron as veteran voices to help lead a group that includes 8 players under the age of 25.
- Shawn Marion comes to the Cavs in much the same fashion, as he turned down more lucrative offers as well as opportunities to start on lesser teams in order to make one final run at a championship after 15 years in the league.
- Kevin Love: If the Cavs didn’t already do enough in securing the services of the best player on the planet in free agency, they followed that up by landing the best player available through trade. The long summer of wondering where Love would land, finally concluded on Aug. 23rd when the Cavs surrendered the two previous number one over-all draft picks in Wiggins and Bennett to acquire the 2014 double-doubles champ. Love firmly solidifies the Cavs as a team ready to compete immediately.
- Alex Kirk was signed as an undrafted free agent and joins second round pick Joe Harris as rookies this upcoming season.
- Import Edin Bavcic, Christian Drejer, veteran Center Brendan Haywood, Ilkan Karaman, journeyman John Lucas III, Erik Murphy, Dwight Powell, and Malcolm Thomas round out a team that only retained five players from the previous season.
Outlook: The Cavaliers finished the previous season with a record of 33-49 which represented 10th in the Eastern Conference. With a completely overhauled roster and the additions of Love and King James joining up and coming point guard Kyrie Irving; the Cavs are early favorites to represent the East in the finals.
The Cavaliers did more to improve their team in three months than they were able to accomplish in the previous five seasons. The tricky part of so many changes will be on display at the beginning of the season when the Cavs look to understand the philosophy of a coach who never coached in the NBA.
After being the leader of the Cavs the previous 3 season, Irving will have to adapt to Love and Lebron who were also undisputed leaders on their previous teams as well. Talent alone will help these players get through the early part of the season, and once they learn each other’s’ tendencies, they should gel nicely together as a unit.
Early Prediction: With the infusion of new and returning talent acquired this offseason, the Cavs will battle for the best record in the NBA as well as compete with the Bulls as the best team in the Eastern Conference. Barring any major injuries, look for the Cavs to be in the Eastern Conference finals with a very good chance to reach the NBA finals.
