Alot of complaints with the Cavs since the draft. I'm no NBA expert so I've been reluctant to chime in but in my worthless opinion I'm just not seeing it. Heck, worst case scenario we just added two more players like Andy to the team. (TT and Casspi)

Is there a Cavs fan anywhere that doesn't love that guys hustle and toughness?

This team is going to play good defense and own the boards. Other teams will stay in foul trouble. I agree scoring could be a problem but I see a little bit of a "bad boy piston" type team forming here, which isn't a shock considering where Gilbert came from, and I am interested in seeing how this teams continues to form.

JJ supporters should also realize that he had one of the worst finish % at the rim in the NBA. And for a guy his size, he sure had his shot blocked frequently.

Wasn't JJ one of the Quit huggers the first time Miami played in Cleveland this year?

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_ski ... 7&f=101771

Grant Napear - Kings play by play man on Casspi.

thanks for that interview.

Napear is in for an eye opener because Hickson very much needs the ball to get involved in the game on any meaningful level.\

the irritating thing about the interview was the presence of Reghi.

BTW- Napear is very good on the Kings telecasts.

It certainly will be refreshing watch Cavaliers who hustle vs what was displayed by the local five most of last season.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ desire for Omri Casspi, looming lockout play part in trade of J.J. Hickson

By Jason Lloyd
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published: July 1, 2011 - 06:00 AM

The Cavaliers traded J.J. Hickson to the Sacramento Kings today for Omri Cassp, shown dunking against the Suns, and a future first-round pick, a league sourced confirmed. (Jose Luis Villegas/Sacramento Bee/MCT File)
View More Photos >>
Less than an hour after General Manager Chris Grant finished explaining in a conference call why the Cavaliers had traded J.J. Hickson, the long-expected statement finally came down from the league: The owners were officially locking out the players at midnight.

The two items, at least from the Cavs’ perspective, are related.

The Cavaliers traded Hickson to the Sacramento Kings on Thursday for small forward Omri Casspi and a future first-round pick. Casspi fills an immediate need and is expected to step into the starting lineup when basketball resumes — whenever that might be — and the Cavs alleviated a potentially messy situation with Hickson, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract.

Once they took Tristan Thompson fourth overall in last week’s NBA Draft, it became clear Hickson’s time in Cleveland had ended. One of the reasons was the uncertainty surrounding the collective bargaining agreement, which expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.

With the owners and players far apart and seemingly drifting even farther, the Cavs were going to be forced to either let Hickson leave as a free agent next summer and get nothing for him, or make a significant financial investment in him. Since there is a real possibility most, or even all, of next season will be decimated by the lockout, the Cavs’ sample size on Hickson wasn’t going to get much larger. And the history they’ve had with him was inconsistent at best.

Hickson averaged 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds last season, but 16.8 points and 10.8 rebounds after the All-Star break. All of those games in the second half were without Anderson Varejao and most of them came without Antawn Jamison, making it difficult to project what his numbers would look like with NBA-caliber big men around him again.

For as many monster nights as Hickson produced last season, there were enough spotty performances in his first three seasons to irritate two coaches — Mike Brown and Byron Scott.

Hickson’s mental lapses led to Scott ripping him in the preseason and throughout the early part of the regular season. He was temporarily removed from the starting lineup and ultimately, after the two had clashed long enough, there was a clear-the-air session with Scott.

Although those problems were eventually worked out, it was clear Hickson wanted to cash in big on his next contract. Sources close to the process confirmed that part of the reason for the initial falling-out between Hickson and Scott was Hickson’s infatuation with shooting long jumpers, believing a consistent 16-foot jump shot was the missing piece to a maximum contract (or close to it). Scott wanted him to spend more time in the paint collecting rebounds.

Hickson told the Beacon Journal in March he believed he was the best power forward in the league, so it’s a fair leap to assume he wanted to be paid as such next summer. He made a little more than $1.5 million last season, but Grant said talk of an extension never came up with Hickson.

“At no point did we have any conversations about contract extension or price with J.J.,” Grant said. “This is a move about Casspi.”

In Casspi, the Cavs are getting a tough, physical 6-foot-9 small forward whom they have followed for years. The Cavs liked him two years ago when he entered the draft, but the Kings selected him with the 23rd pick. The Cavs followed by taking Christian Eyenga seven picks later.

Casspi, 23, is the first Israeli to ever play in the NBA. He is an athletic wing who averaged 8.6 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, his second in the league. And he still has two years remaining on his rookie contract. That was also appealing to the Cavs, who continue trying to build a nucleus of young players who can grow and improve together while preserving valuable cap space in uncertain times.

Casspi is shooting 43 percent for his career and just 37 percent on 3-pointers, but Grant said Casspi shoots 47 percent from the corners on 3-pointers.

“He’s got some nastiness about him and some fight in him,” Grant said. “He’s a willing defender who’s a fighter.”

Casspi’s numbers were better his rookie year than last season, something Grant credits to the presence of Kings point guard Tyreke Evans, who was injured most of last season. Grant thought Evans got the ball to Casspi in spots where he would be successful and believes the Cavs’ stable of point guards, led by Baron Davis and Kyrie Irving, could do the same thing.

When he spoke to Casspi for the first time Thursday afternoon, Grant said, “he was as fired up and excited as the two young kids [Irving and Thompson] we just drafted. He’s really looking forward to getting here and excited about the opportunity.”

Similar to how the Cavs had a logjam at the power forward position with Hickson, Thompson, Jamison and Samardo Samuels, Casspi was also caught in a numbers crunch with the Kings.

He had bounced in and out of the starting lineup in each of his first two years and seemed to be pushed out entirely when the Kings reacquired small forward John Salmons in a three-way trade on draft night last week.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Casspi said. “I wasn’t worried about it because it’s nothing I could control.”

Casspi laughed at Grant’s label that he has a “nastiness” edge to him.

“Sometimes I play hard,” he said, “and sometimes I might play too hard.”

Casspi will play for the Israeli national team this summer and compete in the European championships in Lithuania in September. After that, he’ll join every other NBA player, waiting and wondering when the lockout will end.

The Cavs beat the deadline with the last major move before it began.

“We’ve had a list of seven to maybe 10 young wing players we’ve been targeting since the end of the season we felt strongly about. Obviously, Omri was one of those players,” Grant said. “Whenever we could make the right deal that felt good, we were going to pull the trigger, whether that’s today, yesterday or two months from now.”

The draft pick from the Kings is lottery protected next season (1-14), meaning the Cavs would get it only if the Kings make the playoffs in the Western Conference. They were the second-worst team in the West last season.

The pick is protected 1-13 in 2013, 1-12 in 2014 and top 10 protected every year through 2017. If the Cavs do not acquire the pick within the next six years, they will receive the Kings’ second-round pick in the 2017 draft.

As for the Cavs’ $14.5 million trade exception obtained in the LeBron James deal, it has temporarily expired. The lockout bans any movement among teams, but the Cavs have 11 days remaining on the exception. They aren’t expecting to hear from the league until after the lockout is lifted whether they will get an extension to use it.

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

Dan Gilbert is a significant figure in this CBA fight.

It sure would be interesting to chat with him about exactly what are his terms for an agreement.

Also- I think the Decision is a major point among many owners in addition to Gilbert.

After second guessing the draft choices a bit I've had some time to dig deeper into the how's and why's of the moves the Cavs are making.

I like everything they've done.

I'm really glad to see Hickson gone, replaced with a tougher player who can shoot, plus what will likely be a first round pick.

I'm glad Jayjay isn't the GM. After looking at everything more closely, I have to say "what's not to like?"

I think what is missed is that the Cavs wanted Casspi...... badly. Not because he is a superstar but because he plays hard and is a team player and plays a position the Cavs had no one for. Plus they will probably get a pick that is no higher then the pick that we got Hickson with. (#19)

Just because a guy averages more points does not make him a good player.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=6244586

This is a Bill Simmons podcast with Steve Kerr about this season. Simmons asks Kerr what advice he would have given Danny (Ainge) about the the Celtics- Thunder trade at the deadline. Kerr answers by saying he is against messing with the team chemistry and why he was against trading Amare last year.

You can fast forward to the 57 minute mark.

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Re: Hickson traded to Kings for Casspi and (protected) 1st Rd Pick
The writing was on the wall with JJ as far as his future goes, in Cleveland. It's tough personally, to see him go since I was a large part in how he ended up here with us. From where he was selected in that draft, he turned out to be a successful pick for us, but, it's dissapointing to me that he didn't quite realize the potential that I felt he had within him. His work ethic was good on the aspects he enjoyed to work on, but was lacking in the areas he needed most work on, basically. Not unlike most, to be perfectly honest. Young kids have a vision of what they WANT to become, as opposed to what they should be looking to become ...that's the hurdle I had with JJ. He's pretty much phased me out of his development over two and a half years ago.

Im going to a team like the Kings, he will likely stunt his growth and possiblities further. He will fit in with a team that just looks to have great numbers and stats, but fail to perform in the areas needed to become consistent winners. That's why I don't foresee their 1st round pick comng our way anytime soon.

Probably did not forsee the Mavs winning the championship or Mo Williams getting the Cavs the #1 pick either.

Things happen that way. W&G still discounting that you received a player at a position of need that likes to play team ball.

W&G edited his post and added this.

Caspi will be a player that Scott will like much better than Hickson. He doesn't have the high ceiling that Hickson has, but, to be honest I have my doubts that Hickson will ever see his highest ceiling because he doesn't innately enjoy or have a feel for defensive concepts, and going to the Kings won't advance that, but rather most likely do the opposite. He'll have nice numbers, but will be a losing team player. Caspi can be an excellent role playing SF on a very good basketball team, and that's exactly the role he'll eventually slide into once we draft or trade for our eventual franchise type SF within the next two years.

Call me crazy, or just an optimist, but Alonzo Gee is a player with lots of athletic ability that also has an incredible work ethic, and is very coachable, in that he works diligently on his weaknesses. You take three kids in Gee, Eyenga, and Caspi and just take a couple years and see how far they go ...we could have some surprises within the ranks, quite frankly. Far stranger thngs have happened in this league. Gee with a reliable outside shot is a middle of the road to better starter in this league, folks.

Knicks and Spurs wanted Casspi

By Mark J. Miller

Now that the NBA owners have locked out the players, no transactions of any sort can take place, but ESPN has it that there was one the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs both wanted to make before the window came crashing down when the last collective bargaining agreement ended Friday morning.

The site reports that both teams were interested in snagging small forward Omri Casspi(notes) from the Sacramento Kings. The Israeli native averaged 8.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, one assist, and 24 minutes per game while playing for the Kings last season.

Both teams lost out to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who traded a 2012 first-round pick and J.J. Hickson(notes) to the Kings for Casspi on June 30.

(obviously this guy from Yahoo got the details of deal wrong)