Cleveland Sports Forum

Thanks for those links rusty.

The Giffin video makes it very apparent to me that Hawes is someone they really want in Cleveland in the long term.

I have to wonder if they hadn't talked to his agent to get a feel for whether he would be open to staying. As you know, that's a pretty common practice.

He makes a great point on the concept of "untouchable". NO ONE is ever untouchable, the concept is absurd.

Kyrie. If OKC comes to Cleveland and offers Kevin Durant for him, he is soooooooo gone! So everyone has their price.

I thought Griffin was terrific in that PC.

Unfortunately, I think the Cavs are trying to get a "name" GM to attract LeBron or other free agents.
Either former players or agents.

Reading between the lines, I think Hawes will start, Andy off the bench to help manage his minutes better.

David Griffin said. "As he continues to age, (we want to) give him fewer minutes (and) pair him with (players) that make it easier on him."

rusty - correct me if I am wrong, but this completely does not matter to Philly. Because they are so under that cap thing, they would either pay $ out to Clark, or have to cut a check to the player's union for being so far below.

Great dump for Cavs.


Sixers waive Earl Clark, he’ll become a free agent

Kurt Helin

Feb 21, 2014, 2:46 PM EST
Leave a comment
Earl Clark, Miroslav Raduljica AP

This was expected and it didn’t take long.

The Philadelphia 76ers picked up Earl Clark from Cleveland as part of the Spencer Hawes trade. With all the players Philly picked up in a flurry of moves at the deadline they had 16 players on the roster, one more than the league maximum. Someone had to go.

Clark has been waived by the Sixers, the team announced. He will be on waivers for 48 hours and be an unrestricted free agent once he clears them (he will, nobody is going to pick up his contract, which was signed this summer — two years, $8.5 million, the second year not guaranteed).

Clark played a fair amount of minutes for the Cavs because Mike Brown didn’t really have other good options before the Luol Deng trade. Clark averaged 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds a game for Cleveland.

Nice new interview with Hawes:

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/video/2014 ... v-3164362/

Other interviews there too, including with Brown about Hawes.

So Hawes goes in there early in the first quarter.

Immediately hits a 3. Great assist to Bennett. Blocks a shot and grabs a couple rebounds already.

The guy is 25 years old, and 7 feet tall.

I don't get the 76ers, but I think this could be one huge steal here.

TFIR wrote:Kenny Roda ‏@TheKennyRoda 16m

Was told #Cavs in no hurry 2 fill their open roster spot. Want 2C who gets bought out & waived around the league. Cavs @ Raptors 7pm tonite

They are looking for anybody that can shoot the ball.

Wish they had dealt for Anthony Morrow then.

Tough nite, Kyrie 3-16 from the field. Toronto is very tough this year though, and it was a home game for them. No big deal, they didn't play badly.

From Pluto

About the Cavs ...

1. I'm told the Cavs didn't come close to trading Tyler Zeller. Yes, the Clippers (and other teams) wanted him. But new General Manager David Griffin had no intention of trading a 7-footer for someone such as the Clippers' Reggie Bullock.

2. A number of the trade rumors about the Cavs came from Griffin trying to figure out the value of his players. He hasn't been on the job for even a month, so lots of names were exchanged to he could figure what someone such as Jarret Jack would be worth in a deal. Ditto for Zeller. But it makes no sense to trade Zeller unless it's a very lopsided deal for the Cavs. The Cavs have team options on Zeller's contract in the next two seasons: $1.7 million in 2014-15 and $2.6 million in 2015-16.

3. Big men rate big money, even when they are backups. In his second season, Zeller is only now beginning to figure out the pro game. He is averaging 9.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in eight games (23 minutes) as a starter, shooting 55 percent. Newcomer Spencer Hawes is a free agent at the end of the season. Anderson Varejao has one more year on his contract. The Cavs need size over the next few seasons.

4. Hawes looked like he just showed up for Friday's game, uncertain of the offense and defense, But he still managed 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. He shot only 3-of-10 (seven points). You can see his passing skills, and he's a huge 7-footer. He should be someone the Cavs consider re-signing at the end of the season.

5. In Friday's loss to Toronto, the Cavs needed one more scorer. Playing without the injured Dion Waiters (hyper-extended knee) and C.J. Miles (ankle injury) left the bench thin. Varejao has missed the last five games with a bad back.

Cleveland Cavaliers fire GM Chris GrantThanks to former General Manager Chris Grant, the Cavs remain well stocked with draft picks.Lonnie Timmons III / The Plain Dealer

About the Cavs future drafts ...

Yes, the Cavs have traded four future second-rounders and one very conditional first-rounder in the recent trades for Luol Deng and Spencer Hawes. Both veterans are free agents this summer, so both are probably short-term deals unless the players re-sign here.

But the Cavs did it because former General Manager Chris Grant has been piling up draft picks -- some for deals such as these.

I checked with Cavs Vice President Tad Carper for how the team now stands with future drafts.

Note the following:

• The Cavs still have a first-rounder in every draft.

• They have a second-rounder in every draft.

• At some point, they will receive a first-rounder from Memphis.

Carper emailed this:

2014: The Cavs have their own first-round pick. They also have Orlando's second-round pick.

2015: The Cavs have their own first-round pick, with Chicago having the right to swap first-round picks with the Cavs (protected 1-14). The Cavs also have Miami's first-round pick (1-10 protected). The Cavs also have Memphis’s first-round pick (protected 1-5 and 15-30). The Cavs also have their own second-round pick.

2016: The Cavs have their own first- and second-round picks. If not conveyed in 2015, Cavs also have Memphis’s first-round pick (protected 1-5 and 15-30), if not already received.

2017: The Cavs have their own first- and second-round picks. If not conveyed earlier, Cavs also have Memphis’s first-round pick (protected 1-5), if not already received.

2018: The Cavs have their own first- and second-round picks. Cavs also have Memphis’s first-round pick (protected 1-5), if not already received.

2019: The Cavs have their own first- and second-round picks. Cavs also have Memphis’s first-round pick unprotected, if not already received.

2020: The Cavs have their own first- and second-round picks.

About the NBA second round ...

I looked at the last five years of the NBA draft, looking for players in the second round. Consider the following:

1. Only 14 of 30 players picked in the second round of 2013 have played in a regular season NBA game. The best are Ryan Kelly (7.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, .404 shooting) and Nate Wolters (7.0 points, .413 shooting).

2. In 2012, there are only 14 second-rounders who have played in 41 games (50 percent of one NBA season) in nearly two years. The best are Khris Middleton (9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds) and Mike Scott (7.1 points).

3. The hint of hope for second-rounders was the 2011 draft. The last pick -- No. 60 -- was Isaiah Thomas, averaging 20.3 points for Sacramento this season. Then there was Chandler Parsons, scoring 17.1 for Houston. After that, you have Kyle Singler (8.8 points) and Lavoy Allen (5.2 points) as guys averaging at least 5.0 points in their careers.

4. The 2010 draft yielded Lance Stephenson (14.0 points this season for the Pacers) and Landry Fields, who started fast for New York but is now scoring 2.4 for Toronto. He's a career 7.5 scorer.

5. The 2009 draft produced Marcus Thornton (13.5 points, career) and DeJuan Blair, a good role player for San Antontio at 7.7 for his career.

6. Out of these five drafts, there are three very good starters: Thomas, Parsons and Stephenson. There are some solid role players. I like Jonas Jerebko (Pistons, 2009). But in general, the talent is thin. It's why so many teams (not just the Cavs) are quick to trade second-rounders.

The Trade Deadline Diary

Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons swap emails as the buyers and sellers in the NBA make their moves
by Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons on February 20, 2014

E ditor’s note: Every time there’s an NBA trade deadline, Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons like to trade emails about the relative nonaction while secretly hoping that something huge will happen. It never does. Every February, they gamely press on. Here are today’s emails from coast to coast, as they appeared in real time, as our boys killed time until the 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.

Zach Lowe (10:08 AM EST)
So, I was about to ask for your thoughts on why the deadline is so quiet at this point — whether it’s the new CBA in effect, general managers getting smarter, some sort of overcautious groupthink, or something else. But Spencer Hawes just got traded to Cleveland for two second-round picks!! Spencer Hawes is officially the best player to have been traded so far at the deadline, and we only have about five hours to go!

Irony: His last game as a Sixer came against Cleveland, and he was blatantly not trying on defense. He was leaping out of the way when Cleveland players attacked the rim. TRADE FOR THAT MAN!!!

Bill Simmons (10:16 AM EST)
Now that it’s over, I want Spencer Hawes to know how much I appreciated his little cat-and-mouse game of “Oh, you think you’re gonna shamelessly sabotage this team while dangling me around the league in trade talks for three months? DANGLE THIS!”

Check out his monthly splits — each month, he gets 15 percent worse. He went from 16 and 10 with 51/47/72 shooting percentages in November to 8 and 8 with 32/27/78 in February. And that doesn’t even count the other end of the floor; by February, he was wandering around on defense like a Walking Dead zombie. I wonder if Philly made Hawes its tanking mole. Maybe the Sixers said, “Hey, Spencer, give us three gawd-awful months, and then we’ll send you to an awesome contender”? And then they double-crossed him by sending him to Cleveland?

Zach Lowe (10:19 AM EST)
Philly will receive two second-rounders, which is decent return for a mediocre unrestricted free agent who has regressed defensively this season. That’s especially so if Philly is getting Orlando’s 2014 second-rounder from the Cavs, which is pretty much a first-round pick without the long-term salary guarantees. But we’ll have to see. Ditto for what the Cavaliers are sending out, since they are over the cap and don’t have a trade exception to just fit Hawes. It will almost certainly be random expiring contracts. No way Sam Hinkie is taking on Jarrett Jack’s contract.

Bill Simmons (10:21 AM EST)
So, to recap — Jordan Crawford was worth more than Spencer Hawes in an NBA trade this season. I love the NBA. Never change, NBA!

Zach Lowe (10:22 AM EST)
Well, Crawford is much cheaper, which will come into play as we discuss Hawes deals that didn’t happen. I can see the thinking here for Cleveland, I guess.

Bill Simmons (10:22 AM EST)
That sentence hasn’t been written in four years.

Zach Lowe (10:22 AM EST)
Don’t be mean! The Cavs already hate you, and that hatred is starting to trickle over to me!

Anyway, they want to make the playoffs, they’re on a nice six-game winning streak against mostly very bad teams, and Hawes gives them a big man who can shoot 3s. The Cavs suffer from spacing issues, in part because none of their bigs can really shoot beyond 15 feet or so on the pick-and-pop/pick-and-roll — which is just about all the Cavs run, in various forms. Anderson Varejao has become quite good from midrange, and Tyler Zeller has shown flashes of late on jumpers and rolling hard to the rim. So has Anthony Bennett, even out to the 3-point line.

But Hawes is a proven 3-point shooter and an elite passer for his position. He should help unclog a cloggy Cleveland offense, especially if Varejao is banged up for any prolonged period. Cleveland is giving up assets to chase the no. 8 seed, which is stupid in a vacuum. But the Cavs aren’t operating in a vacuum. They’re operating under a screaming owner who wants to win.

Bill Simmons (10:24 AM EST)
On NBA Countdown last night, we discussed how the two most exciting types of people at the trade deadline are new owners and restless owners. I totally forgot about screaming-and-restless-owners-who-want-to-win. Any sane person running the Cavs would be thinking two things. First, missing the best lottery in six years just so the Cavs can get annihilated by Miami or Indiana in Round 1 sounds like the dumbest plan since “We have a young and impressionable team … let’s bring in Andrew Bynum as a mentor for everyone.”

And second, they needed to use these next two months to (a) see if Kyrie and Waiters can be their long-term backcourt (and not a long-term threat to fight to the death), and (b) get Anthony Bennett as many minutes as possible. Bennett was just starting to show flashes and extricate himself from that Kwame Brown/LaRue Martin narrative … now he’s going to lose minutes to Hawes? What???

Zach Lowe (10:30 AM EST)
They’ve now given up five total picks for Hawes and Luol Deng, plus swap rights with the Bulls in 2015, which could be valuable — to Chicago. Four of those picks will be second-rounders, and the first-rounder, from Sacto, is protected in such a way that it might become a second-rounder. Still: That’s a lot for two unrestricted free agents. Cleveland fans are bombarding me on Twitter, saying second-round picks “don’t matter.” Umm … what did you just use to trade for Hawes and Deng? Extra second-round picks!

They absolutely matter, as sources of cheap labor and as wheel-greasing ingredients in trades. If you think they don’t matter, you haven’t been paying any attention to how the league is evolving. It’s true that teams gather extra picks in order to monetize them, as the Cavs have done here. But I’m not sure monetizing them for two unrestricted free agents, one of whom doesn’t really move any team’s needle, is the smartest play. It will be interesting to see whether the Cavs re-sign either guy, and for how much. They won’t have much cap flexibility, if any, if they devote about $21 million combined to Deng and Hawes. But both will help this season, especially if Varejao’s injury is serious.

Bill Simmons (10:36 AM EST)
One of my favorite underrated traditions: when a healthy Anderson Varejao plays well for three or four weeks, then the Cavs forget to trade him before he gets hurt … and then he gets hurt. I think this has happened in every NBA season since 1965.

Zach Lowe (10:39 AM EST)
Also: Don’t talk to me about needing to please Kyrie Irving so desperately. He’s going to become a restricted free agent. The Cavs control the situation. This only changes if he’s made it known he’ll sign the one-year qualifying offer, or the mini-max extension LeBron and Bosh signed. Otherwise, it’s just noise.

Bill Simmons (10:41 AM EST)
But they have to please Kyrie — he doesn’t make his teammates better, thrives in pickup games when there’s no defense, and has lost over 60 percent of the NBA games he’s played. You have to take care of guys like that! Here’s my question, Zach — where the hell were the Clippers on Hawes??? If the price was two second-rounders, they couldn’t have topped that? They have Ryan Hollins, Byron Mullens, Hedo Turkoglu, Keith Closs Jr., Mike Golic, Stan Verrett and Snoop Dogg as their backup bigs right now. Hawes REALLY would have helped. Explain this to me.

Zach Lowe (10:45 EST)
There’s no question the Cavs frontcourt is crowded now. And Bennett can’t really play small forward, though they’ve tried him there. Look: The Cavs feel they need a culture change, and that making the playoffs will help everyone jell and get serious. There is some precedent for the value of a first-round loss in the no. 8 spot — see the 2011 Pacers, for instance — but the precedent is all over the place on that.

As for the Clips, well, Hawes is making $6.6 million this season, and the Clips are $2 million over the tax. So that’s hard to swallow, even though this is a freaking potential title contender in obvious need of a third quality big man.

Bill Simmons (10:49 AM EST)
Is it OK if I don’t break out my violin for the Clippers — playing in America’s second-biggest market, filling Staples every night, charging Hollywood prices and trotting out two of the NBA’s most marketable players — because they might creep into the luxury tax this season? Especially when the league is about to double its media revenue with its next media deal? And especially when 29 of the 30 NBA teams aren’t for sale right now because the league has quietly turned into a cash cow? The Clippers could sell for ONE BILLION DOLLARS right now. That is not a misprint. If they’re afraid of the tax, that’s embarrassing. You’re right, Donald Sterling is incapable of being embarrassed. Forget everything I just wrote.

Zach Lowe (10:53 AM EST)
Less sympathetic figure to you, in terms of non-tax spending: Sterling or Clay Bennett? (Please don’t reenter the James Harden Vortex!)

Bill Simmons (10:54 AM EST)
I can’t answer that because everyone in Oklahoma City already hates me. I keep making the mistake of pointing out that it could have had the probable 2014 MVP (Durant), one of the NBA’s five or six best guards (Westbrook), the NBA’s best third banana (Ibaka) and someone who just started the All-Star Game (Harden) all on the same team. Sorry, this seems relevant.

Zach Lowe (10:58 AM EST)
In any case, the Clips also don’t have great pieces to sell in a direct two-team trade with the Sixers, since they need Jamal Crawford (given J.J. Redick’s injuries) and Jared Dudley has long-term money the Hinkster won’t want. Now you’re starting to talk about cobbling together a three-team deal when the Clips might actually want to duck the tax so they can reap the Brooklyn bonanza payout only non-tax teams can get. I’ve also heard indirectly that Doc Rivers isn’t a huge fan of Hawes’s, but I haven’t asked him directly about that. Maybe they’re hoping there’s a buyout candidate looming. Chris Kaman?

Bill Simmons (11:02 AM EST)
Update: Philly got Earl Clark’s expiring contract in that Hawes trade. Earl Clark made $4.25 million this season, Zach. Let that one soak in for a second.

Here was my dream 2014 trade deadline deal that died an hour ago: Thaddeus Young and Willie Green to Phoenix; Hawes to the Clippers; then Philly gets Jared Dudley, Byron Mullens, Emeka Okafor’s expiring contract, Byron Mullens’s expiring basketball career, the highest of Phoenix’s 2014 first-rounders and a super-duper-ultra-protected future first-rounder from the Clips. Everyone would have been a winner. Alas.

Zach Lowe (1:12 PM EST)
Also, Philly gets two more second-round picks, with these two falling in 2015 and 2016, it appears. This is what you do with cap space: rent it, and charge assets (the two picks) in return — especially when you’re likely out one first-rounder and one second-rounder already via the weird Arnett Moultrie draft-day trade from 2012. The league should just let Sam Hinkie announce the second round of the draft for the next three years. It’d be great! He could come out dressed as Ben Franklin or the Liberty Bell, fans would boo him, and he could start negotiating contracts with every pick onstage. Maybe Allen Iverson could be involved.

Bill Simmons (1:15 PM EST)
“Next on When GMs Totally Outsmart Themselves, we’ll talk to Sam Hinkie — who mistakenly accumulated 38 second-round picks over a three-year span when you’re allowed to carry only 15 players at the same time! And coming up later — more of our interview with Chris Grant!”

Cavs Sign Onuaku To 10-Day Contract
February 22 at 1:03pm CST By Cray Allred

The Cavs have signed Arinze Onuaku to a 10-day contract, the team announced today. Onuaku inked a deal with the Pelicans last summer, but the club waived his non-guaranteed contract in November. Onuaku went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2010, but executives around the league have been praising his abilities for at least a year, tweets Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.

After parting with New Orleans, Onuaku hooked up with the D-League affiliate of the Cavs, the Canton Charge. While in the D-League, he put up impressive averages of 14.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game and caught the attention of acting Cavaliers GM David Griffin.

This move will help further supplement Cleveland’s frontcourt depth after acquiring Spencer Hawes at Thursday’s trade deadline. The Cavs will be looking to make a late run to sneak into the playoffs, as the club currently sits four games back from the eighth and final playoff seed. With this signing, Cleveland’s roster now sits at a league maximum 15 players.

OK, now this one was funny:

“We have a young and impressionable team … let’s bring in Andrew Bynum as a mentor for everyone.”

Jason Lloyd: Cavaliers have plenty of work ahead to make the postseason

By Jason Lloyd

Beacon Journal sports writer

Published: February 22, 2014 - 07:53 PM


CLEVELAND: Given the popularity of the “Final Thoughts” column that appears regularly at www.Ohio.com/Cavs after every game, here are random thoughts, rumblings and musings on the Cavaliers, the trade deadline and a possible postseason run …

1. If the Cavaliers are still intent on making the playoffs, it’s going to take an incredible finish. The Cavs enter today’s game 22-34, four games behind the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Bobcats for the final playoff spot.

2. The eighth seed in the Eastern Conference has averaged 38 victories over the last five seasons, and even as woeful as the East is this year, the Hawks and Bobcats are still on pace to win — you guessed it — 38 games. That means the Cavs will have to go 16-10 and win 61 percent of their games the rest of the way. Only two teams in the East have won at least 61 percent of their games this season: the Pacers and Heat. The last team to make the playoffs with fewer than 37 victories was the Boston Celtics, who won 36 games to claim the eighth seed in the 2003-04 season.

3. Now look at the Cavs’ upcoming schedule: 14 of their next 19 games are against playoff teams (15 of 20 when counting Friday’s loss at the Raptors). The combined winning percentage of all their opponents from now through March is .582. They still have to play Oklahoma City (twice), Miami, San Antonio, Houston, Indiana and they have a three-game West Coast trip next month against the Suns, Warriors and Clippers.

4. They still have two games remaining against the Bobcats, a team they’re chasing and probably the most likely team to fall out of the playoffs in the East. A sweep of those two games is critical to their playoff odds.

5. Bottom line? The Cavs are going to have to pull some upsets if they’re going to sneak into the playoffs. The dreadful start to this season has essentially removed all margin of error the rest of the way, and that’s a tough place to be.

6. The Cavs’ erratic play and the teams bottled together in the East have left the team in a precarious position in terms of scouting. The Cavs’ scouts and front office personnel are basically scouting for draft positions anywhere between five and 20. It’s an awfully wide net to cast, but this group is actually used to doing it. They’ve had picks in both the top and middle of the first round the last couple of years, forcing them to scout a wide range of players. The only difference is they have one first-round pick this summer, not two.

7. Tanking has become a hot topic in the NBA this season and I’ll dig deeper into the issue in an upcoming Sunday column, but it’s worth noting the Philadelphia 76ers gave away their top scorer (Evan Turner), rebounder (Spencer Hawes) and shot blocker (Hawes) for little more than three second-round picks.

8. It has been a terrible season for the Sixers and it’s about to get much worse without Turner and Hawes. Sixers management seems intent on making up for the team’s hot start by trading away their most valuable pieces and catching the Milwaukee Bucks for the league’s worst record.

9. After moving Turner and Hawes, the Sixers will likely just miss the NBA’s salary floor for this season despite adding Danny Granger’s $14 million contract in a last-minute deal before the deadline. Teams are required to spend at least $52.8 million on salary. Any team that falls below that threshold must distribute the difference between $52.8 million and the actual salary spent amongst the players on the team. The Sixers were well below the line before adding Granger, whose $14 million deal took a few extra dollars out of the pockets of the rest of the Sixers. “Now they don’t even get pain and suffering compensation,” one NBA player told me.

10. First-round picks are becoming more and more difficult to acquire in trade. Since last summer’s draft, only two first-round picks were traded and none of them were dealt on Thursday’s deadline day. The Pacers gave the Suns a first-round pick for Luis Scola last July and the Cavs gave the Bulls a heavily protected first-round pick for Luol Deng (along with a couple of second rounders). That’s it. All other picks changing hands were second rounders.

11. That comes on the heels of last season, when the only first-round pick traded between the 2012 draft and last season’s trade deadline was the first-round pick the Cavs acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies. Teams’ uneasiness to take on future salary, combined with teams hoarding first-round picks, is proof how much owners are concerned with the more punitive tax penalties.

12. Two of the three free agents the Cavs signed last summer (Andrew Bynum and Earl Clark) have now been traded. The third, Jarrett Jack, is only still here because the Cavs couldn’t find a place for him without taking back future money.

13. There were deals on the table for Dion Waiters, but the Cavs never really came close to trading him. Owner Dan Gilbert and acting General Manager David Griffin both love Waiters. He and Kyrie Irving have shown better chemistry in recent weeks, while both guys seem to be committing more to the defensive end.

14. The Cavs filled their open roster spot Saturday by signing Arinze Onuaku, who was with the Canton Charge and will remain in the Development League, to a 10-day contract. At 6-foot-9 and 275 pounds, Onuaku can play forward and center and he was selected to the D-League All-Star Game last weekend. He appeared briefly in a game for the New Orleans Pelicans this season.

15. Cavs coach Mike Brown ruled Waiters, C.J. Miles and Anderson Varejao out of today’s game against the Wizards.

Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at http://www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.