Cleveland Sports Forum

Larry Nance Jr‏ @Larrydn22
People mad cause I'm a Browns fan.. I'm from there what you want me to jump ship now that I'm in LA?


Cleveland Browns @Browns
Welcome home, Larry!

No today is an outstanding day for anyone that intends to watch the Cavs the rest of the way.

Go younger and got rid of a lot of the garbage. Only JR garbage remains....... Could not get rid of him..... Hopefully dump him in the offsesaon.

Team is now ready to move forward with this group plus Brooklyn pick and Love trade. (Be great to trade Love to Boston for one of their high draft picks.)

People are going to be wowed by the athletic and long Larry Nance Jr. This is a major coup.

ESPN Cleveland
@ESPNCleveland
"Another guy to look at is Brandan Wright. He’s a buyout candidate and he is a shot-blocking rim protector. Keep an eye on that name (for the Cavs) going forward." - @WindhorstESPN

5:33 PM - Feb 8, 2018

Joe Gabriel
The 6-8 Hood is having his best offensive season as a pro -- averaging 16.5 points in his 27 games off the bench, including games of 30 and 31 points this season. Hill, a 10-year vet, leads the league with a .453 mark from three-point range.

Rodney Hood - watched him a lot.

He's sorta a bigger, lefty Jamal Crawford. LOL!

Yes, this guy puts up shots at an alarming rate at times. I imagine he will do well as a 2nd unit scoring machine and also as a catch and shoot with Lebron. He definitely can shoot from anywhere.

This team sounds a lot more interesting than Wednesday's Cavs.

Well put civ - it is and will be much more interesting to watch to see how it gels the rest of the season.

Bottom line good decisions were made to get younger and more athletic. Isiah Thomas and his attitude/defensive lapses were shipped out. And Gilbert footed the bill by taking Clarkson's (and George Hill's) contract on to make the Nance acquisition possible. And Clarkson is a good young player too - not just a cancerous contract.

Hill is originally a Spurs guy so he knows winning culture. As a defensive point guard who can shoot 3s well, he is the perfect Lebron compliment point guard.

So with Hill on the opposing point guard and Nance a big upgrade in rim protection, and I.T. gone, defense got way stronger.

The reason the Lakers did it was to free up space for 2 max contracts. That's the only way they are going to get back to being the LAKERS. The Cavs have their star players and the Lakers have none. The Lakers really did bite the bullet but it is a win/win with 2 teams having totally different goals but goals that complimented each other.

Koby Altman earned his stars and kudos to Griffin too for creating a staff that was so capable after he left.

PS - another rim protector in the buyout market would also help the defensive remake.

Hill will be the Cavs first IUPUI guy. My favorite university.

rusty - Sam Mitchell on Sirius is going on and on about Dwayne Wade. In a good way

He believes it bothered him having to sit behind JR Smith.

Mitchell points to the insanity of Hall of Famer Wade having to sit when JR pitched a fit about not starting.

They are also talking about Crowder being another unhappy guy who wanted out.

Just listened to David Fizdale(former Memphis head coach) absolutely RAVE about Jordan Clarkson and Rodney Hood.

Said that as well as scoring the ball, those guys are great defenders who can switch off at any time and be effective. And their scoring abilities speak for themselves.

And he couldn't have had more respect for George Hill.

Ty Lue will be like a kid in a candy store all of a sudden with young, athletic, multi-skilled players who are willing to work

How come dumping Clarkson is considered a key gain for the Lakers? I know it's about his big salary, but is there debate about whether he's overpaid or is it just freeing space to get LBJ or other superstar is more of a positive than loss of a solid performer, if that's what Clarkson is?

Here's a scouting report on Luplow and others.

Rookies and new faces: Sam McDowell and Cline are excellent rookie prospects. Rookie Ty Cline, a slap hitter with good speed and defensive ability, is supposed to make the fans forget last year's center fielder, Jimmy Piersall. Lefthander McDowell, only 19, has a good fast ball and a dipping curve, but lacks control. Catcher Doc Edwards (.331 at Salt Lake City) and Outfielder Al Luplow (.302, 17 HRs at Salt Lake City) will be reserves.

[I'm pretty excited about Cline. Could be the table setter we need. Maybe McDowell will harness that control and be helpful some day too??]

civ - it's a great question really about Clarkson.

He is actually on a very reasonable deal for a guy of his quality. It just happens it's not up for a couple more years and those are the years the Lakers want to make bids on Paul George (this summer) and one other star.

You see in the NBA Paul George won't want to come to the Lakers unless there is more talent there - in other words another superstar.

Stars attract stars and in the NBA where only 5 guys play at a time you win BIG only with star players. And this is the Los Angeles Lakers where "good team" is nowhere near enough. They want to be at the top.

So the salary structure in the NBA is quite rigid. Long story short, there are contract "categories" and the largest one is the max contract category. That's the most you can pay a guy - and a star will want that.

So the Lakers (run by Magic Johnson) are determined to open up TWO max contract slots so they can attract TWO superstars. They are a prestigious franchise and the location of Southern California doesn't hurt either.

So they are smart and happened to find a team in the Cavs looking to win now and not caring about salary structure. As well, they have a logjam at Larry Nance's position (with Julius Randle and Kyle Kuzma) so they needed to clear that out. My guess is that they would have rather moved Randle but Nance fits better what the Cavs need and Kuzma was probably not an option since the Lakers love him (he is smaller than Nance so that's fine with the Cavs).

http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=22382471

Mark, a lot of interesting stuff.