Cleveland Sports Forum

games themselves have been entertaining.

everywhere but Cleveland?

backup for Sexton:

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- The Cleveland Cavaliers officially signed Andrew Harrison to a Two-Way contract on Friday.

With the injuries continuing to pile up, including the latest with point guard George Hill who is out two weeks with a right shoulder sprain, the Cavs needed to add more playable depth.

"We're down in bodies and we really needed to add another ball-handler," head coach Larry Drew told reporters following Friday's practice. "That's the reason we brought Andrew in. I'm really excited about him because at that point guard spot he gives us some size. That was one of the intriguing things about him. I remember just playing against him, how he's played well. I'm real excited to have him."

Harrison, a 6-foot-6 combo guard, appeared in 128 games, making 64 starts, with the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. He was waived after just one game this year.

In two full season with the Grizzlies, Harrison has averaged 7.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists while playing 21.7 minutes per game.

Rookie first-round pick Collin Sexton, who made his first NBA start on Wednesday night, will remain the starting point guard in Hill's absence. Jordan Clarkson is also expected to see some time running the offense. Harrison gives Drew another option.
"It's not like he's a rookie," Drew said. "He's been with teams where he's played and he's familiar with a lot of things. We're going to try to get him acclimated as quickly as we can so chances are he will be in a position where he will be playing tomorrow night."

The short-handed Cavs are heading into their game against Chicago without four rotation players, which means Harrison will remain with the NBA team instead of going to the G League. By rule, Harrison can only spend 45 days with the Cavs before they must sign him to an NBA contract.

The Cavaliers -- and all other NBA teams -- are only allowed to have two Two-Way contract players on their roster at any given time, in addition to their 15-man roster.

With Harrison's addition, Cleveland waived Two-Way forward John Holland. The other Two-Way player on Cleveland's current roster is Billy Preston.

The Cavs entered training camp with three point guards looking to lock up roster spots. But Isaiah Taylor suffered a stress fracture in his leg, leaving Cleveland one short in the backcourt while also giving the Cavs an open roster spot -- one that still hasn't been filled.

According to sources, the Cavs don't plan on signing anyone else and reaching the maximum of 15 roster spots.

civ ollilavad wrote:

games themselves have been entertaining.

everywhere but Cleveland?

Well...

Certainly the Cavs can make a strong claim to both worst and most boring team in the NBA.

It is inevitable when your roster has a ton of veteran "bit players" that only made sense around Lebron James (or a similar type superstar) and are completely miscast without him.

The Warriors have been great champions but people forget that they almost did not make the championship series last year against the Rockets. They have squeezed by numerous times during their championship runs. Great team but not unbeatable and in some ways lucky that other teams have suffered injuries to stars in crucial games going all the way back to Irving and Love and continuing through Chris Paul.

I would not be surprised to see them not make the championship series this year. I could see a healthy Jazz team surprising them.

As much as I hate to say it I would not be surprised with deadline trades and buyouts that Lebron and the Lakers give them all they can handle.

Fun year but I would not be surprised by a Lebron versus Kyrie championship series if both are healthy.

Minnesota has agreed to a deal to send Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia for a package that includes Robert Covington and Dario Saric, league sources tell @ZachLowe_NBA and Woj.

Game changer

Timberwolves agree to trade Jimmy Butler to 76ers
12:57 PM ET
ESPN

After a standoff that has stretched into the first part of the season, the Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed to trade Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers, league sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe.

Butler and the Sixers expect to reach a deal on a long-term contract this summer, league sources told ESPN. The Sixers made the trade to add Butler to a Big Three with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

The Timberwolves will receive a package that includes Robert Covington, Dario Saric and a second-round pick, sources said, and Minnesota will also send Justin Patton to Philadelphia.

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Sixers and Butler aren't allowed to enter into a negotiation or a agree on an extension yet, but barring physical issues or Butler failing to fit into the Embiid-Simmons dynamic both sides are optimistic on a long-term future. Sixers would be paying a steep price for a rental.Adrian Wojnarowski added,


Adrian Wojnarowski


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Jimmy Butler and the Sixers fully expect to reach a deal on a long-term contract this summer, league sources tell ESPN. Sixers made deal with plans to add Butler to a Big Three with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

Yes, but if Butler turns out to be a disruptive influence, they can still walk away.

Depleted Cavs [to quote Siri when I asked for results] "definitively beat the Hornets"

Isola: Like it or not, LeBron shares the blame for how it ended with the Cavs


By Frank Isola 3h ago 50

When​ LeBron James​ enters Quicken​ Loans Arena on Wednesday for​ the first and​ only time this​ season​ there will​ be loud​​ cheers and perhaps a smattering of boos. The fine people of Cleveland are entitled to their opinions and will express them accordingly.

No one is expecting a repeat of LeBron’s first game back in Cleveland after signing with the Miami Heat. That was ugly. Winning a championship for the city buys LeBron plenty of good will this time around.

Once LeBron’s introduction and the crowd’s ensuing reaction is complete, it would be appropriate for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to stand at center court and present James with the 2017-18 Most Valuable Player Award along with a letter from the national media, myself included, for getting it wrong.

To fully appreciate LeBron’s value and greatness just take a look at the present day Cleveland Cavaliers, the franchise he led to four straight NBA Finals appearances. Since James signed a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Lakers in July, the Cavs went from contender to chumps. The team the Los Angeles Lakers will face on Wednesday currently owns the league’s worst record. Their best player, Kevin Love, is injured and out indefinitely. Head coach Tyronn Lue has been fired and on Tuesday J.R. Smith was banished for good, pending a trade or an outright release.

We are all witnesses to the devastation of the Cavs. Last season, LeBron played all 82 games and Cleveland won 50. This season they’ve played 15 games without him and have lost 13. Upon further review, and with all due respect to James Harden, LeBron James should have been last year’s MVP.

James knew this would happen, that once he departed for the Lakers and Hollywood that the Cavs were doomed for a rebuild. That may explain why on the eve of his return to Cleveland James is attempting to create a narrative that places the break-up of the Cavs on Kyrie Irving and owner Dan Gilbert.

LeBron told The Athletic’s Joe Vardon “everyone knows that when Kyrie got traded it was the beginning of the end for everything. It’s not a secret.”

For a certified basketball genius who once admitted to having both “a high basketball IQ” and a photographic memory, James is a little loose with the facts.

In theory, James is correct about Irving’s departure damaging the Cavs chances of beating the Golden State Warriors. Irving is an All Star with a championship pedigree. He’s also responsible for the biggest shot in the history of the Cavaliers franchise. LeBron got “the block” in Game 7 against the Warriors in 2016. But Kyrie made “the shot” that ended the Cleveland’s 50-year championship drought.

The Cavs were never going to get equal return in the deal for a player of Irving’s caliber. But the Irving trade doesn’t happen without an assist from LeBron. The Cavs tried to trade Irving to Indiana for Paul George long before Irving handed Gilbert a list of teams he would prefer to join.

Whether it was Cleveland management or James pushing for the George trade, Irving had to act in his best interests. When that coup failed, Irving met with Gilbert to discuss his and LeBron’s future. Without any assurances that LeBron would stay beyond the 2017-18 season – the general consensus was that he was signing with the Lakers – Irving decided to trade himself away from James.

The teams Irving had on his list – Spurs, Timberwolves, Heat and Knicks – all made offers. James was adamant that Irving not be traded to the Boston Celtics. But Danny Ainge had what Gilbert coveted; an unprotected first round draft pick. In the end the Cavs received Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick. Both Thomas and Crowder were eventually traded in February.

Would Irving have re-signed with the Cavs if LeBron committed long-term to the franchise? That’s debatable. A Cavs source says Irving would have stayed. But when it became clear to Irving that James wasn’t returning he became proactive.

At the very least Irving gave the Cavs something James never did; a chance to get something in return for a star player. James left the Cavs empty handed unless you count the contract of Smith and Tristan Thompson, two players whom James wanted the club to re-sign.

Hence, the revisionist history to protect the LeBron brand while deflecting blame on a former teammate and owner. Last June, when James failed miserably in the second half of Game 4 of the NBA Finals, in what turned out to be his final game in a Cavs uniform, the game’s best player arrived on the podium for his postgame news conference wearing a soft cast on his hand. At best it appeared to be an attempt to shift the focus from his no-show performance in an elimination game to his “injury.”

No one does passive-aggressive quite like LeBron.

James discussing the Irving trade is another diversionary tactic. And it’s a pointless exercise for him. For one, the Cavaliers intend to play a video tribute on Wednesday. It’s a smart play. They, like LeBron, have moved on.

The organization and the fans understand that LeBron didn’t want to be in Cleveland anymore. It’s his right. No matter what happened between Irving and Gilbert and regardless of what role LeBron may have played, no one can take 2016 away from the legend who was born and raised in Akron. That title will be his legacy in Cleveland.

As a student of the game, LeBron should know that.

(Top photo: Jason Miller/Getty Images)

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Utah is also sending Alec Burks to Cavaliers in the deal, league source tells ESPN.


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Utah will send two future second-round picks to the Cavs for Korver, league sources tell ESPN.

Where the trade leaves the Cleveland Cavaliers

While there are cogent rationales for this deal in terms of the talent on the floor and draft picks, this transaction also raises some interesting questions about how GM Koby Altman wants to approach the 2019 offseason, particularly in ways that affect what they do before the February trade deadline.

It may appear at first glance that shedding Korver’s partial guarantee for the 2019-20 season in a deal for a fully expiring contract makes it more likely that Cleveland is in space-clearing mode for next summer, but that may not be true and the timing here tells a more compelling story.

While the Cavs are allowed to trade JR Smith next summer for a player making substantially more than his $3.9 million partial guarantee thanks to an unusual situation, both Korver and George Hill signed their deals under the current CBA so trading them for someone with a significant 2019-20 salary needed to happen this season if they wanted to go down that road. Due to existing obligations to Kevin Love, Larry Nance, Tristan Thompson and Jordan Clarkson, Cleveland’s salary structure should lead them to function as an over the cap team next summer without larger moves.

That may raise the question of why Altman just traded Korver for Burks’ expiring deal, but for many teams Burks would be a more desirable target in a long-term salary dump than Korver due to that partial guarantee. This is because many franchises have complicated calculations where $3.4 million could make a big difference, making purely expiring contracts more desirable.

The CBA has a limitation on aggregating players who have been recently acquired unless they did so using cap space, which is not the case here. Aggregation is basically combining a player’s salary with others in order to take on a larger salary than they could with any of them individually. Due to that limitation, Burks cannot be immediately traded along with any other Cavs to take on a big money deal.

However, the CBA only prevents teams from aggregating recently-acquired players for two months and the trade deadline is February 7, 2019, just over two months from now. That means Altman can make a bigger move combining Burks with Hill, Smith or someone else to take on multi-season salary at the deadline, presumably for a meaningful asset return.

There is no guarantee that such a move will take place at the deadline but the timing of this trade keeps that door open.

(Top photo: Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)

And the Cavs were past due keeping their promise to Korver to deal him if Lebron left.

Good job to Altman waiting though for the right situation and good job Korver staying professional until Altman had the right fit.

Korver goes back to Utah where he is comfortable to and to a much better team. It's a win/win.

So looking bad at Post No. 1 in 2011 in the Cavs folder, a name like a lot of those minor leaguers I get excited about while they're playing A ball:

From Wine & Gold:

Re: NBA Scouts on the 2011 Draft Class
Everybody is going to really be scouting hard the 1st pick, but, we'll eventually have another 1st I'm sure, towards the backend, and early 2nd rounders as well . I would like to see us find a way to land Travis Leslie. I see him as a kid that, with what we are building, would have a good chance with us. He's another of those limitless potential, physically gifted kids... and in the right system, with court opportunties ealry on in his pro career ...Cleveland would be the perfect team for him to land with, and for us to benefit from.
He's still raw, but has loads of untapped potential, and is showing that he's taking to coaching and improving sharply. Like him alot ..love the passion with which he plays with ...improving ball handling, and shooting. But, he's one of those kids that needs to be in the right system coming into the league to ultimately realize his potential and make it... That's why I'd love to see him in wine and gold.


Just a name to put in your memory bank..

So I checked out his career and he was a 2nd round pick of the Clippers in 2011. NBA career totals 45 minutes 14 points.
Other locales for his pro career include:
the Bakersfield Jam, the Clippers' D-League affiliate
the Santa Cruz Warriors in the NBA D-League
2013, Leslie was signed to a 10-day contract by the Utah Jazz.[8] He did not appear in a game for the Jazz during that time,
August 2013, Leslie joined JSF Nanterre of France.[ASVEL Basket
ASVEL waived him on January 13, 2014. Later that month he signed with BC Šiauliai.
July 23, 2014, Leslie signed a one-year deal with an option to another with Lietuvos rytas of Lithuania
August 14, 2015 with medi bayreuth of the Basketball Bundesliga.
On October 30, 2016, Leslie was selected by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Development League Draft
On August 10, 2017, Leslie signed with the Sydney Kings for the 2017–18 NBL season.[
November 9, 2017, he was released by the Kings Three days later, he signed with French club Levallois Metropolitans for the rest of the season.[
Leslie signed with Boulazac Basket Dordogne on October 8, 2018

I don't know if he's made much money at this line of work but he certainly has had a chance to see the world in his 20s. Teams in France, Lithuania, Germany, Australia and more France, not to mention Fort Wayne

LeBron James hears Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, but he isn’t going to listen


By Joe Vardon Dec 4, 2018 15

The​ last year​ Kyrie Irving​ and LeBron James played​ together in Cleveland,​ Irving took more​ shots​ and used​ more possessions​​ than James.

During that 2016-17 season, Irving chucked a career-high 19.7 shots per game to James’ 18.2. Irving’s usage rate, which measures how many shots, assists, passes to shooters and ball handling players partake per possession, was 29.4 percent to LeBron’s 29.0.

So after two years, two Finals appearances, one historic comeback and a legend-creating 3-pointer to beat the Warriors, LeBron was comfortable enough with Irving to share the offense with him.

The only other season in which a teammate had the ball in his hands more than James was in 2010-11, his first year in Miami, when his best friend and the Heat’s at-the-time resident champion Dwyane Wade used 30.7 percent of the team’s possessions to LeBron’s 30.6.

Irving and Wade have four championships and 17 All-Star games between them. In the mix in Cleveland and Miami, respectively, were Kevin Love and Chris Bosh, with similarly sterling resumes.

Do the Lakers have anyone else like that on their roster? Of course not.

In the meantime, LeBron is a ball-pounding, possession-using, floor-seeing, rim-attacking, shot-chucking, assist-passing, whirling dervish of a basketball player. So when Laker legends Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant suggest LeBron needs to trust and defer more to younger, unproven teammates for the good of the franchise, what they’re really asking him to do is something for which there really isn’t any precedence in his career.

And it’s not how this is going to work in Los Angeles this season.

“I don’t know what asking me to do too much is, to be honest,” James said to Bill Oram of The Athletic and other Lakers writers on Tuesday. “I just play my game.”


Let’s start with Johnson, the organization’s president, who made some waves in a SiriusXM interview last week when he said the Lakers are trying to ensure they “don’t run everything through” LeBron on offense because “now it is Cleveland all over again and we don’t want that.”

In comments on Monday at a fan event at Staples Center, Bryant showed more sympathy to how James is playing this season but said it’s “not the recipe to win a championship.”

LeBron said he gets what Magic and Kobe meant from the standpoint of trying to grow young players Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Lonzo Ball, and Kyle Kuzma, who are all under 24, but, “I mean, Magic and Kobe know who I am.”

“I know who I am,” James said. “They know what they’re going to get out of me. That is, you know what you’re going to get out of me every game. … When it’s really, really, really money time, you know who is going to be there.”

Unless the Lakers, through a blockbuster trade, pair LeBron with someone like Wade, who is already a proven winner and top-10-like talent, or until someone on the Lakers proves himself like Irving did on the Cavaliers, the Lakers are indeed going to continue on like Cleveland last year.

It doesn’t do Magic or Kobe any good to bring it up until one of those things happens.

Through 23 games this season, James is using 31.6 percent of the Lakers’ possessions — the same usage rate he had last season with the Cavs.

James is leading the Lakers in scoring, of course, at 27.8 points per game. No LeBron teammate has ever led in scoring for a whole season. He is also the Lakers’ top assists man with 6.7 per game. James has led every team he’s played on in assists since his second pro season.

It’s the way LeBron is dominating each possession right now that has caught management’s attention.

The Lakers have won three straight, six of eight and 10 of their last 13 games. James has handled the ball even more during this stretch. He’s reverted back to his personal comfort zone of running the point, something he did for most of his tenure in Cleveland because he seldom trusted anyone (other than Irving, and that was really for only one season) to operate the offense.

Ingram is second on the Lakers in usage, but it’s not close (he uses about 22 percent of their possessions). Rajon Rondo and Ball, the Lakers’ two listed point guards, have usage rates in the teens. Rondo has been out since Nov. 17 with a broken hand. In those nine games, LeBron’s’ usage rate is 33.7.

“At the beginning of the season, you saw a collection of individual talent trying to figure out what they can do and where they can do it on the floor,” Bryant said. “What about their games? But at the same time how to figure out how to make those games blend in as a group. You can’t have one before the other, see what I’m saying? So it’s a test of Bron’s patience, and also doing what he needs to do to keep the team’s head above water. So it’s a balancing act.”

Bryant said what James is doing is “enough to keep (the Lakers’) heads above water,” which means enough to keep them winning and headed toward the playoffs.

Last season, James’ 15th in the NBA, he played in all 104 Cavs regular season and postseason games. Irving was already gone to the Celtics, and Love missed two months with a broken bone in his hand.

The first iteration of last year’s Cavs team included Wade, Derrick Rose and eventually Isaiah Thomas, but injuries and team turmoil prevented that squad from jelling.

Nearly half the roster was traded at the deadline, infusing the Cavs with three 25-year-old rotation players in Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. (both from the Lakers) and Rodney Hood.

James stuffed the stat sheet every night and the Cavs reached their fourth consecutive Finals, but, especially in the playoffs, he appeared to be a one-man wrecking crew while his teammates watched.

When the Cavs’ season ended with a Finals sweep by the Warriors, LeBron averaged 34.0 points per game in the playoffs. Only Love (14.9 ppg) averaged in double digits besides him. The pressure to win, coupled with the uncertainty of when they would get the ball playing with James, had a crushing impact on some of Cleveland’s younger players.

LeBron knows he was hard on teammates at times during his time with the Cavs, and so far in L.A. has tried to change in that regard. But he’s not going to change how he plays each night.

His minutes are creeping up toward 35 per game, but he’s still under the NBA-leading 36.9 minutes he averaged last season (again, when he played every game).

In his SiriusXM interview, Johnson said reducing LeBron’s minutes is a goal, but so is limiting “usage of the ball in his hands.”

“We got a lot of ball handlers so we feel we won’t overuse him in terms of his ball handling and also every play has to run through him,” Johnson said. “I think we got proven scorers — Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram … and then when you have two point guards like Ball and Rondo, we don’t have to have LeBron having the ball in his hands all the time.”

If LeBron agreed, he’d be deferring more. And the more the topic is broached by the people who aren’t in the Lakers locker room — like Magic and Kobe — the more it becomes a narrative that James’ teammates begin to soak up. It’s what happened in Cleveland last season.

The Lakers don’t want that.