Cleveland Sports Forum

May: A Cleveland Cautionary Tale on Winning the Draft Lottery


By Chris Sheridan
December 29, 2013 at 12:42 PM

With the prospect of a dazzling draft class looming in 2014, the word “tanking” has been as much a part of the NBA lexicon as flopping or fouling.

Teams with little-to-no hope of making the playoffs – let alone doing anything there if they did – should just pack it in now and wait for the lottery in May and the draft in June. That’s where the real bonanza lies this season.

Tanking has always been part of the NBA, which is why the lottery was instituted in the first place and subsequently tweaked along the way. But with so many teams going nowhere this season – like 13 of the 15 teams in the Eastern Conference – and with such an attractive mother lode awaiting, the temptation to lose now and win later has never been greater.

Which leads us to the Cleveland Cavaliers. They present a cautionary tale, not so much in the risks and rewards of tanking, but in the supposedly `get-rich-quick’ scheme that the lottery presumably offers.

No team in the NBA has had better luck in the lottery over the past three seasons than the Cavaliers. They had the No. 1 and No. 4 picks in 2011. They had the second-worst record in the league that season. They had the No. 4 pick in 2012. They had the No. 1 pick in 2013 (and the third worst record in the league.) If you go back to LeBron in 2003, the Cavs have had three No. 1 overall picks in the last 11 years. No other team has even had two in that span.

So that’s four lottery picks in the last three drafts, none of them lower than No. 4 and two of them being No. 1 overall.

One of those picks, Kyrie Irving, has developed into an All-Star. The others? They’re still young, still growing and still learning, which may help explain why the Cavaliers left Boston Saturday with a 10-19 record after a 103-100 loss.

“They are great guys, focused guys, and they know how to play the game the right way and that’s what I’m focused on, just helping those guys win ballgames,” said Cavaliers coach Mike Brown, who hasn’t had much luck doing that.

That was before the game, when the team announced it had indefinitely suspended center Andrew Bynum for conduct detrimental to the team. He, too, was a lottery pick, though a ways back (No. 10 in 2005.)

Tristan Thompson, taken No. 4 overall in 2011, is a regular starter who hasn’t missed a game in the last two seasons. He averages almost 12 points a game.

Then there’s Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 overall pick last season. To say his rookie season has been a disappointment would be to take understatement to a new low. He’s averaging 2.4 points game on 29 percent shooting from the field.

The caveats are everywhere with the winning-by-losing philosophy.

Even getting the No. 1 pick doesn’t necessarily translate into instant success, especially if you take the wrong player (Greg Oden) for all the right reasons.

John Wall went No. 1 overall in 2010 and has yet to cash a playoff check. Neither has Irving (2011) or Anthony Davis (2012.)

Andrea Bargnani went No. 1 overall in 2006 and has been in 11 playoff games, none since 2008.

It’s way too soon to make a definitive judgment on Bennett, but it’s hard to remember a recent No. 1 overall pick who had such a dismal start. (We’re excluding Blake Griffin and Oden, each of whom missed their entire first year due to injury.)

There’s also the NBA axiom that young teams do not win, which never seems to diminish the hope and optimism that the lottery brings.

The Cavaliers have nine players on their roster who are 23 or younger. (Bennett is 20.) They have only two players, Jarrett Jack and Anderson Varejao, who are 30 or older.

(Does that explain what is going on in New York or Brooklyn. No, it doesn’t.)

All of the recent NBA champions have succeeded with veterans and only one them – San Antonio – did so because it won the lottery (and was lucky enough to do so when David Robinson and Tim Duncan were available.)

The Celtics used the lottery in 2007 to get Ray Allen and then had enough enticing players (and an all-to-willing trade partner in former Celtic Kevin McHale) to get Kevin Garnett.

The 2011 Mavericks were stocked with veterans, from Jason Kidd to Dirk Nowitzki.

LeBron didn’t win until he joined Miami, which not only had Dwyane Wade (who didn’t win until he was joined by Shaq and Gary Payton, among others) and Chris Bosh. They all had nine years in the league when the Heat finally won in 2012. But veterans helped them get there, and again in 2013, with Ray Allen, Mike Miller and Shane Battier providing big lifts.

The Cavaliers look like they might well crash the lottery again in 2014. They might even get one of the top picks – again.

That may not quite qualify for the Derrick Coleman treatment – ‘’whoop de damn do’’ – but a more standard adage from throughout the ages should apply: Be careful what you wish for.

Peter May is the only writer who covered the final NBA games played by Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. He has covered the league for three decades for The Hartford Courant and The Boston Globe and has written three books on the Boston Celtics. His work also appears in The New York Times. You can follow him on Twitter.

Jason Lloyd: When Andrew Bynum experiment with Cavs failed, team quickly shifted focus to protecting ‘culture’
By Jason Lloyd
Beacon Journal sports writer


BOSTON:

The origins of Andrew Bynum’s suspension — and eventually his departure from the Cavaliers — can be traced all the way back to last season, when he was still a member of the Philadelphia 76ers and Mike Brown was living in Los Angeles.
While Byron Scott was coach of the Cavaliers, various figures within the organization didn’t think he did a good enough job of holding players accountable. When the team looked terrible in a late-season loss at Philadelphia, Scott yanked all of his starters except Kyrie Irving.
That was a defining moment that infuriated the upper levels of the organization, which believed it sent the wrong message to Irving and ultimately the rest of the team. Scott was fired the day after the season ended and Brown was rehired, in large part with the belief he would do a better job of holding all players accountable to the same standard.
Brown has ripped Irving on the bench during games, he has been harder on him privately than Scott was, according to team sources, and he has indeed set a standard the players are expected to meet.


That brings us to Saturday’s suspension of Bynum. Something happened during practice Friday, which one source referred to as the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” but wouldn’t divulge what exactly happened because it was simply a continuation of a behavioral pattern that had been ongoing for weeks. Had it been an isolated incident, no one would’ve said or done anything.
Brown, ironically, had been Bynum’s loudest supporter. Bynum admitted in early November he was still considering retirement, he still had sharp pains in his knees when he ran and he was discouraged by the deterioration in his game. He had lost his joy for basketball, he said, and wasn’t sure if he would get it back.

Brown, at least publicly, ignored the rhetoric and insisted Bynum could return to an All-Star level. When asked in late November, when Bynum was shooting 35 percent and struggling to fit in, if all of this was worth it, Brown snapped, “Hell [expletive] yes,” then walked away, turning only to add, “he’s part of our plan.”
Not anymore.
No more excuses

As Bynum struggled much of the season, Brown said his young players had never played with a post presence like him and simply didn’t know how to use him effectively or how to get him the ball properly in the post. But Brown subtly shifted the focus in recent days away from the rest of the players and onto Bynum, particularly after he missed all 11 of his shots in a bad loss to the Pistons last week.

“Bynum has been up and down,” Brown said. “Sometimes his down has been because we can’t get him the ball. But we have ways now we’ve figured out to get him the ball, now it’s a matter of him producing.”
But he couldn’t, at least not consistently. He departs averaging 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 42 percent — a fraction of his final healthy season with the Lakers when he averaged 18.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and shot 56 percent.

The Cavs were the only team to offer Bynum the opportunity for a big payday last summer, which left the obvious question of how badly did he want to be here or if he was just chasing the check. The Cavs’ dreadful start to the season, after Bynum was accustomed to winning titles with the Lakers, didn’t help matters.
Bynum is incredibly intelligent and has always been viewed as an introvert, even dating back to his Los Angeles days. He kept to himself with the Cavs, typically spent pregames alone with his headphones on and rarely interacted with teammates.
“That’s how people are sometimes,” said Jarrett Jack, who was part of Bynum’s draft class and said his mother is friendly with Bynum’s mother. “Some people like to march to the beat of their own drum. Not saying that’s a bad thing. That’s just how you are as an individual. We had a pretty good relationship with him. He wasn’t somebody who was reluctant to speak to people.”
Yet other players privately insisted Saturday that while Bynum was always quiet, he was even more withdrawn in recent weeks. One Cavs player said he wasn’t surprised with Saturday’s outcome.
“It has to be hard for him,” he said. “To go from being an All-Star to what he is now, that has to be hard to handle.”


“What he is now,” is a veteran with two bad knees, $73 million in NBA checks, two championship rings, an All-Star appearance and a current employer that is finally conceding he doesn’t seem to want to play anymore.
When Bynum said, “It’s tough to enjoy the game because of how limited I am physically,” in early November, and admitted he still considered retirement, the Cavs initially tried downplaying his remarks, insisting Zydrunas Ilgauskas said similar things when he was returning from a series of foot surgeries that nearly wrecked his career. Now they’ve stopped defending him.


The Cavs have been protective of their “culture” since beginning this rebuild. One of the concerns with the trade that ultimately allowed them to draft Irving a few years ago was that it also brought Baron Davis, who had a league-wide reputation as a locker room cancer and coach killer.
From all accounts, Davis was the model teammate in Cleveland, but the Cavs weren’t about to take any chances of him infecting a rookie like Irving. Davis was quickly waived under the amnesty provision when the Cavs first had the opportunity to do so.
Bynum’s attitude has eroded in recent weeks, team sources said, and the Cavs didn’t want it infecting the rest of the team if he wasn’t fully committed mentally. The Cavs have dealt with enough other problems already this season, beginning with a controversial team meeting early in the season and continuing rumors that Dion Waiters wants out or could be traded. The Bynum issue was a problem they couldn’t risk continuing.

They knew there was risk involved when they signed him — which is why they were the only team to aggressively pursue him — and now they’re moving on without him.
Bynum signed a partially guaranteed contract last summer that only guarantees him about $6 million of the total $12 million this season. If the Cavs can trade or release him prior to Jan. 7, when all contracts become guaranteed, a team that traded for him could waive him and save about $6 million on their cap (the difference between the guaranteed amount and the total cap figure). If the Cavs simply release him, they’ll have about $6 million in cap savings.

In what would ultimately be his final game with the Cavs on Thursday, Bynum was in General Manager Chris Grant’s office inside Quicken Loans Arena while the rest of the players stretched and huddled in the hallway, then ran onto the court for pregame introductions.
Bynum stormed out of the office a few minutes before tip-off and walked across the hallway into the weight room before eventually making it onto the court. Then Brown yanked him early in the third quarter because he was ineffective rebounding and couldn’t defend Al Horford.
Bynum walked off the court for the final time, quickly showered after the game and left the locker room before reporters were allowed in. Now his time with the Cavaliers is almost certainly over. Given the lack of interest in him around the league last summer, coupled with his own admittance he doesn’t enjoy the game anymore, his career could be finished, too.


Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com.

Sounds like the Cavs were pro active with Bynum and not the other way around.

With season hitting another snag, Cavs can make their stand
Sam Amico

FOX Sports

DEC 29, 2013 9:09a

Andrew Bynum has likely played his last game as a member of the Cavs.

The Cavaliers are at a bit of crossroads, and these things can go one of two ways.

You already know the options.

Following the early-season talk of a team meeting gone awry, the rumors surrounding Dion Waiters, and the sudden (and surprising) announcement that Andrew Bynum has been suspended, the drama never seems to end.

Worse than that, of course, is the Cavs' inconsistency on the court. Inconsistency is a killer. Inconsistency leads to finger pointing. Inconsistency typically results in little beyond a loss of jobs and the gutting of a team.


Andrew Bynum may have played his last game as center for the Cleveland Cavaliers. READ MORE
The Cavs aren't there yet. Sunday's home game against the Golden State Warriors (6 p.m., FOX Sports Ohio) is the Cavs' 30th of the season. That means there are 52 to go. That means we have yet to reach the point of no return.

The 1984-85 Cavs won just seven of their first 30 games and still managed to finish 36-46 and make the playoffs. Thirty-six wins is doable for this group, and in the Eastern Conference this year, it could get you as high as the No. 6 seed.

But a few things must be overcome.

Bynum has likely played his last game as a member of the Cavs. That's a bit of shocker to most of us. Most fans and reporters never anticipated the announcement of Bynum's suspension Saturday. But those within the organization knew it was possible for quite some time -- perhaps since the first week of the season.

Give Cavs general manager Chris Grant credit on this one, though. The Cavs understood the risks associated with signing a 7-footer who missed all of last season with knee issues, irritating the Philadelphia 76ers along the way.

Grant protected the organization with a contract that would cost nothing more than an NBA pittance in the event of a Bynum meltdown. That day has come. And the Cavs weren't winning all that much with Bynum anyway. When they did win, he wasn't exactly a major factor.

Cutting ties with him, at this point, would be the logical choice. Despite what some players (including All-Star guard Kyrie Irving) are saying publicly, moving on from Bynum will be a large weight off the Cavs' backs.

Not that he's a bad guy. He isn't. It was just an experiment that didn't work. Everyone knew that was a possibility going in. There are no losers here. A slight disappointment perhaps, but certainly not a reason to sound the sirens of panic.

The Cavs (10-19) could actually be a better team without Bynum. In case you didn't notice, the man can't really move. Perhaps that will change someday, but questions remain about whether Bynum has the desire (or physical ability) to become anything more than what he is right now.

Today, he really is just a backup center who's capable of a few big games. But that's not a role Bynum wants, and not one coach Mike Brown and the Cavs want for Bynum.

For whatever reason, things didn't pan out. That doesn't mean it has to be somebody's fault.

A new path

There is still plenty right with the Cavs. Irving is finding his groove. Waiters has gotten into a rhythm. And you could do a lot worse than a starting frontcourt that now includes Anderson Varejao at center and Tristan Thompson at power forward.

This can still work.

But the Cavs have to come closer to following Brown's defensive principles. They have to adhere to his offensive philosophy of "keeping things simple" and not geting "too cute" with the ball. They have to be committed to cohesiveness and making the simple play.

Forget who Brown had on the roster during previous coaching stints. The bottom line is he's never fallen short of the second round of the playoffs. He deserves the players' attention. He deserves more time before everyone who follows the team starts freaking out.


Mostly, the Cavs have to find some resolve. They have to be the men Grant and the front office and coaching staff expected them to be. They don't have to be best friends off the floor. They don't even have to like each other. They just have to play with some pride.

It's happened before and it can again. They showed real guts in the fourth quarter of Saturday's loss at Boston. They did the same in the second half of a defeat at Miami. They won five of six at one point -- although anymore, that seems like it happened in 2002.

Sunday's opponent offers a great opportunity. The Warriors are pretty doggone good. They play with at least a hint of arrogance. Their guards, Stephon Curry and Klay Thompson, are known as the "Splash Brothers." They rain down jumpers from deep on the perimeter. Some say Curry is a better guard than Irving, and you just know Curry believes it, too.

A win over the Warriors would be something really solid on which to build. It could show the players that, hey, we care about this thing. We DO have a strong sense of dignity; we CAN forget about everything else and just pull together.

The Cavs don't need Andrew Bynum. But they do need each other. Now is their chance to show the doubting basketball world that, actually, each other is all they really need.

Sam Amico \ Cavaliers \ FSO Buzzer \ Ohio

Andrew Bynum Rumors: Sunday Morning
December 29 at 12:52pm CST By Chuck Myron

Cavs coaches and players grew angry during practice Friday as they watched a disinterested Andrew Bynum hurl wild shots at the basket, and that was apparently the tipping point that led the team to suspend him indefinitely, as Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer explains. The Cavs are seeking to trade Bynum as time ticks away toward January 7th, the last day Bynum can be waived before the $6MM partial guarantee on his contract turns into a full assurance of his $12.25MM salary. We rounded up yesterday’s Bynum rumors in a pair of posts, and we’ll keep track of at least the first several dispatches on the former All-Star center here:

Bynum was technically suspended only for yesterday’s game against the Celtics, and he’s now simply excused from all team activities, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com clarifies. The suspension cost Bynum his salary for one game, worth about $111K, and he’ll now be away from the team until the Cavs release him or trade him, neither of which may happen until July, according to Windhorst (Twitter links).

Earlier updates:

Bynum has no desire to play on a non-guaranteed deal for the Cavs, since they’re rebuilding, and wants to wind up with a contender, a source tells Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.

The Cavs organization had seen Bynum’s suspension as a possibility for a while, perhaps as early as the first week of the season, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.

The Clippers and Heat are reportedly Bynum’s favored destinations, and those teams would indeed have mutual interest if Bynum were to become a free agent, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times confirms.

If the Heat were to add Bynum, it would put the team’s commitment to Greg Oden into question, suggests Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Bynum’s attitude has worsened in recent weeks, and the Cavs decided they didn’t want that adding to off-the-court drama that’s included a players-only meeting and trade rumors surrounding Dion Waiters so far this season, writes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd’s piece analyzes the organization’s emphasis on locker room culture that dates back to its decision to amnesty Baron Davis in 2011.

Phil Jackson, Bynum’s former coach with the Lakers, took to Twitter to dispute the notion that Bynum has never been committed to the game. “I am reluctant to judge ABynum’s [basketball] intent. He is a man of many interests and has a life outside of [basketball], but he does like to compete,” Jackson wrote.

Most Hoops Rumors readers don’t think the Cavs will find a trade partner, and a plurality believe he’ll end up becoming a free agent and signing with a team other than the Clippers and the Heat. Bynum’s also rumored to be open to joining the Celtics.

Updating previous reports, the Cavaliers are still "considering holding onto [Andrew Bynum]" if they are unable to trade him before his contract becomes guaranteed on Jan. 7.
Bynum will earn another $6 million this season if the Cavs hang onto him, but the second year of his contract won't be guaranteed until June 30. The Cavs might therefore be able to trade his 'expiring' contract for assets later in the year, but that seems like a shaky bet for Cleveland. The Clippers and Heat reportedly both have interest in adding Bynum for frontcourt depth, but no matter what happens this week Bynum's fantasy upside is severely limited.


Source: Akron Beacon-Journal Dec 30 - 8:58 AM

http://www.terezowens.com/andrew-byn...h-coachs-wife/

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced Sunday that they have lifted the suspension of center Andrew Bynum, but he still remains away from the team, excused from all basketball activities for the foreseeable future. Was it a case of Bynum being Bynum, or is there something else going on behind the curtains? According to our tipster, apparently Bynum got together with of the assistant coach Jamahl Mosley’s wife. When they found out, that was the final straw. The Cavs should have stayed far away from Bynum, especially after his disastrous stint in Philly.-TO

Rusty adds - Mosley is not married but he is engaged and his fiance is pregnant.

Cavs, Lakers Discussing Bynum, Gasol
December 31 at 7:51am CST By Luke Adams

Nearly 17 months after they sent him to the Sixers, the Lakers are mulling the possibility of reacquiring Andrew Bynum, according to Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. The ESPN duo reports that the Lakers and Cavaliers have had discussions about a trade that would sent Bynum back to Los Angeles in a package for Pau Gasol. No deal is imminent, but the two sides are weighing their options in advance of January 7th, this season’s contract guarantee deadline.

By trading Gasol for Bynum, and subsequently waiving Bynum before his full 2013/14 salary becomes guaranteed in January, the Lakers could potentially get out of luxury-tax territory for this season, depending on what other pieces were included in the deal. At the very least, it would significantly reduce the team’s payroll and tax bill, and would give L.A. more financial flexibility going forward. Since Gasol’s full-season salary is worth about $7MM more than Bynum’s, the Cavs would have to include at least one other player in the hypothetical swap for it to work under CBA rules. Adding C.J. Miles, or any player or combination of players earning more money than Miles’ $2.25MM, would make a Gasol/Bynum trade legal.

Still, the Lakers would have a hard time parting with Gasol without receiving some assets of value in return, according to Windhorst and Sherburne. Given the club’s storied history, a simple salary dump likely isn’t in the cards, even if the ability to avoid the repeater tax would be extremely beneficial. The ESPN duo notes that there’s still a strong organizational sentiment within the Lakers to let the current group get healthy and try to contend before the front office does anything drastic.

As for the Cavs, they also pursued Gasol in the summer, conducting extensive discussions with the Lakers before Dwight Howard signed with the Rockets, according to the ESPN report. Windhorst and Shelburne also suggest that Cleveland has engaged in talks with the Bulls about a similar deal that would involve Bynum and Luol Deng. Like the Lakers, the Bulls could get out of tax territory, or at least very close to it, by swapping Deng in a package for Bynum, then cutting the big man before his $12.25MM salary becomes guaranteed. However, Chicago still doesn’t seem inclined to move Deng at this point.

Cost-cutting moves by teams like the Lakers and Bulls, who are typically perennial contenders, may not have even been considered if not for the new CBA. As Windhorst points out (via Twitter), the new luxury tax, and the repeater tax in particular, is far more punitive than it was a few years ago, so clubs with expensive, non-contending rosters may be more inclined to cut their losses. Whether or not the Lakers or Bulls opt for that route, it’ll be something to watch closely as 2014′s trade deadline approaches.

10. Klay Thompson scored 16 points and shot just 5-for-16 Sunday, but how good would he look in a Cavs jersey? It nearly happened on draft night in 2011. One NBA source told me recently the Cavs were trying frantically to add a third top 10 pick in that 2011 draft. Byron Scott told me months later it was the night he really came to believe Chris Grant knew what he was doing and was the right man for the job, watching him work the phones trying to get a third pick.

11. The Cavs selected Kyrie Irving first overall and Tristan Thompson fourth. Grant wanted one more pick and one of his targets was Klay Thompson. The Cavs talked to the Sacramento Kings about a deal involving J.J. Hickson for the No. 7 pick, but the Kings ultimately dealt the pick in a different deal and the Cavs sent Hickson to the Kings after the draft for Omri Casspi and a future pick. Then the Cavs had a deal in place with the Utah Jazz for the No. 12 pick, but the Warriors snatched Thompson at No. 11. The Jazz ultimately backed out of the deal with the Cavs and selected shooting guard Alec Burks.

Jason Lloyd

Akron Beacon Journal

From Jason Lloyd:
---

INDIANAPOLIS: Kyrie Irving will have an MRI on his ailing left knee Wednesday after he injured it in the third quarter of Tuesday's 91-76 loss to the Indiana Pacers. He was cleared to return to the court, but Irving said he felt a "pop" in the knee and it still felt weak even after he in the fourth quarter.

"I thought the worst had happened," Irving said. "My left knee is pretty weak right now. I was falling all over the place. I didn't have my legs under me."

Irving was driving to the rim when he slipped and fell on the court. He stood up and walked gingerly toward the bench, then sat on the court, then laid on his back as the Cavs medical staff attended to him. He was helped to the locker room without putting much weight on the knee, but was able to return.

"I'm still hoping that there's nothing wrong, just something slight, if anything at all," Irving said. "Just hoping for the best."

Irving’s injury history is long and well-documented. He missed 15 games his rookie season and 23 games last year with various injuries and ailments. He said recently his goal for this season was to play in all 82 games.

The Cavs are presently engaged in trade talks with the Los Angeles Lakers for Pau Gasol, a league source confirmed. A long-term injury to Irving could change the direction of the franchise.

Kyrie Irving - G - Cavaliers

Kyrie Irving was diagnosed with a left knee contusion after an MRI on Wednesday and is listed as day-to-day.
He is questionable to face the Magic on Thursday and will be re-evaluated in the morning at shootaround. Irving felt a "pop" in his knee on Tuesday, so this is great news to hear for the Cavs.

Also, it's worth noting Kyrie had some knee soreness last season, but that was to his right knee.

ESPN Insider


Few NBA general managers have ascended to a position as a team's chief decision-maker under more trying circumstances than Cleveland's Chris Grant. One look at his transaction log tells the story: Grant's first transaction was the one that sent the best player in Cavaliers history -- local legend LeBron James -- to the Miami Heat in a sign-and-trade deal that netted a bevy of draft picks. In Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Tyler Zeller, Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev, Grant's roster featured six potential rotation players with two years of experience or less, including Irving, who seemed poised to establish himself as a first-tier star in the NBA.

With a smattering of veterans peppered into the mix and the return of the franchise's most successful head coach, Mike Brown, Cleveland seemed a fair bet to be one of the season's breakout teams. That's where things stood at the outset of the campaign. Since then, the Cavaliers have done nothing but backpedal from what seemed like a possible path to eventual championship contention.
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Where do the Cavaliers reside on the arc of contention?

Since Cleveland plays in the Eastern Conference, it is just three games out of a playoff spot despite sitting with a 10-20 record entering Tuesday's game at Indiana. The Cavaliers have an averaging scoring margin of minus-5.9 points, which ranks just 13th in the weak East. The current Hollinger playoff odds give Cleveland a 13.7 percent chance of earning a postseason spot. There are no injured stars waiting in the wings to come back. The team is mired in turmoil and has gotten underachieving performances up and down the roster. Despite the whiff of promise that this season carried, the Cavaliers remain much closer to challenging for another No. 1 pick than an NBA title.
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What do their moves say about how management views the team's place in the NBA pecking order?

Given the degree of losing that marked the post-James years, it was perhaps understandable that Cleveland built its 2013-14 roster with a playoff push in mind. However, it wasn't just a run at a mid-to-low playoff seed that appeared to be at stake.

Whether it was Grant's call or a directive from team owner Dan Gilbert, this season's roster was clearly built to win. In addition to all the young first-rounders mentioned above, the Cavaliers had the last holdover from the James teams set to come back from injury in Anderson Varejao. With plenty of cap space available -- space kept clean by Grant's shrewd reconfiguration of the Cleveland payroll -- the Cavaliers signed a trio of veteran free agents over the summer: forward Earl Clark, guard Jarrett Jack and most significantly, former All-Star center Andrew Bynum.

Cleveland already had a nice combo in the pivot with Varejao and Zeller, and you don't take a flier on a guy like Bynum unless you are trying to win now. Grant did well to structure Bynum's contract to protect the organization, and if he had panned out, Bynum could have served as the second piece of a high-powered big three with Irving. Grant also could use his enormous collection of assets to add a third star to the mix. And of course there were whispers that a successful season could make the Cavs an attractive suitor if James decided to hit the market again and had a desire to return home. With 10 wins in 30 games, those whispers have gone away.
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How does reality mesh with that vision of the organization?

Given the Cavs' clean cap situation and the potential for adding a key piece in the 2014 offseason, Cleveland's decision to make a push was reasonable. Before the season, Cleveland projected to be one of the league's most improved teams. Even if you feel the Cavaliers were over-projected, you can't deny the wall-to-wall underperformance of the roster. Of the eight players averaging the most minutes per game, all eight have fallen short of their projected individual winning percentage, with a whopping average shortfall of 52 points.

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What key decisions lie ahead?

Anderson Varejao still remains a valuable asset to the Cavaliers, despite his penchant for injury.The headline-grabber is the Jan. 7 deadline for waiving Bynum, thus saving about $6.2 million in 2014-15 payroll. Another avenue the team might explore is a rumored trade with the Los Angeles Lakers involving Pau Gasol. It would in effect be a salary dump for both teams.
Either way, with so much payroll flexibility, Cleveland must also decide whether to pursue a high-salary player before the trade deadline, perhaps even absorbing dollars from a tax-paying team for Bynum if the opportunity arises. Cleveland also has three relatively expensive partially-guaranteed deals on the books for next season belonging to Varejao, Clark and Alonzo Gee.
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What are the team's chief assets?

Here is all the cap space we've been talking about -- more than enough to absorb a max-dollar contract. Cleveland also has extra first-rounders from Memphis, Miami and Sacramento. Cleveland also has four extra second-rounders over the next three years, in addition to all of its own future draft picks, and all the young players on the roster.
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How does the team get from here to a championship?

Cleveland made a push and it failed, but there is ample opportunity for Grant to restore order and re-establish the forward momentum of his franchise. Now it's all about making Irving feel comfortable as Cleveland's on-court leader and the face of the franchise. If they don't, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Irving would refuse a max extension next October and hope to either move on through restricted free agency, or to sign a qualifying offer for a lame-duck season and a shortcut out of town. That's a sequence of events that hasn't happened -- players just don't turn down max extensions to rookie contracts. But the Cavaliers' situation has grown precarious, and Irving is making plenty of extra cash with his off-court endorsements.

So, after Bynum is dispatched -- via trade or waivers -- it's time to deal with the on-going trade scuttlebutt revolving around Waiters. In retrospect, it was a bad draft pick. Waiters can and likely will be a good NBA player, but he doesn't fit with Irving, which is why he's coming off the bench. Whether it's by the trade deadline or not, Grant must leverage his cap space and turn a package of Waiters and some of those future assets into a veteran piece who can lead the locker room, and convince Irving that the franchise is headed in the right direction.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers could well be on target for another top-five pick, and there is a real possibility that a core piece could be obtained with a selection that high in this draft. The rub is that as deep as the draft appears to be, the wing player the Cavs need would have to come from one of the top two prospects, Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins. The other top prospects are bigs and point guards. Can Cleveland get on top of yet another draft?

For the rest of this season, the Cavaliers must sort through all of their young talent and attempt to identify a clear core. That means dusting off the massively disappointing Bennett -- a process that began with Bynum's suspension -- and making sure Zeller and Karasev get ample opportunity to play alongside Irving. At the same time, the rest of the season serves as a chance for Brown to convince his young players that his defensive principles can work. If that fails, then Grant will have to re-evaluate his coach.

Cleveland strayed from the arrow-straight rebuilding plan that began with James' infamous decision in 2010, but Grant has kept things flexible enough that a return to methodical organization building is easily obtained. He just has to make sure that Irving is on board with the program, now and going forward.

Cavs Mulling Bynum Offers, Could Choose By Monday
January 3 at 1:23pm CST By Zach Links

The Cavaliers are mulling a few trade scenarios for Andrew Bynum, with a target of Monday to choose one, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Wojnarowski adds that it is unlikely that the Cavs will send out significant asset with Bynum in a deal.

The Cavs have been talking with the Lakers about a potential swap centered around Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but those discussions have reportedly stalled. The Lakers don’t believe the Cavs have many other viable alternatives for Bynum, and feel as if they can afford to wait on a potential deal, but today’s report would indicate that there are multiple options for Cleveland to choose from.

Of course, Bynum’s market is largely in place because he can be waived on or before next Tuesday, meaning that a team can cut him loose and save on their payroll and luxury tax bill. Luke Adams recently examined the big man as a trade candidate and noted that the Lakers and Bulls – two teams that have seen their title hopes vanish – aren’t the only clubs that could make sense for Bynum. The Celtics, Hawks, and Grizzlies are among the clubs that could be a fit, but they may also want a significant piece from the Cavs, which apparently isn’t in the cards.

• The Cavaliers and Kings have been among the most aggressive teams in pursuit of trades, league sources say. On the heels of acquiring Rudy Gay from Toronto, the Kings are “swinging for the fences” on the trade market, one rival executive said. One top priority is shoring up the point guard position, with Andre Miller jumping to the top of the list after his falling out with Nuggets coach Brian Shaw and ensuing two-game suspension. But Kings GM Pete D'Alessandro's true long-term target is said to be Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson, who will be a restricted free agent after next season. With the Lakers having cooled on the idea of a Gasol-for-Andrew Bynum swap, the Cavs are now exploring other ways to end their experiment with the 7-footer before his $12.25 million salary for this season becomes fully guaranteed on Tuesday.

I would be thrilled to see what trade options the Cavs are looking at ? I don't see a lot of options that do not include the Bulls or Lakers. Celtics would be multiple players coming to the Cavs.(Bass , others) Grizzlies would have to be Randolph. Really ? Hawks ? Not sure who that would be.