HOLY Crap

The rumors are true. 

There is a new addition(s) to the Ohio State commit list. 

  oh snap..

Lawrence North’s Greg Oden, probably the nation's top high school baller, announced this afternoon he will attend Ohio State and become a Buckeye.. 

Hello 06-07 contenders.  Hello Final Four and Goodbye bad reputation. 

Along with Oden comes his boy Mike Conley.  Throw those guys on top of two more highly touted Ohio athletes in David Lighty and Daquan Cook and we might win the whole thing with 18 yr olds.  Screw the Fab 5 of the state up north.  We are gonna reinvent the term with only 4 players.  And this time our team will win instead of calling 'fake' timeouts. 

Good Job Matta. 

Why Not

Early this morning, the Cavs acquired a Darko of their own without having to waste the #2 pick in the draft. 

Just a few hours before the draft, the Cavaliers traded Jiri "the other flop" Welsch and cash to the Bucks (former home of Michael Redd) for a 06 second-round pick. Then an hour after the draft finished up, Ferry & Co sent the newly acquired 06 pick to the Magic for 7'2'' center Martynas Andriuskevicius (44th pick overall).

While I don't know really anything about this massive Lithuanian, I can only tell you he is 19 and has been tutored by Lithuania basketball legend Arvydas Sabonis for several years (trust me he is quite the teacher).  Also, he entered last year's draft but pulled out.

So once again we give up our future draft picks but we do get to throw Jiri's $2.1m salary in to the pot to give the Cavs a total of almost $28 million to spend in the market when the free-agent period begins on Friday.

Finally, in response to a comment in the last post, I think the move to acquire a Lithuanian was smart given we have no idea if Z will resign and more importantly no center under contract. 

Good Old Danny

From the Danny Ferry news conference:

And back with the Cavaliers, Ferry will get reacquainted with a few Cleveland fans who have never gotten over Cleveland's 1989 trade that sent Ron Harper, two first-round picks and a second-rounder to the Los Angeles Clippers for Ferry and forward Reggie Williams.

Ferry laughed loudly when asked if he would have made the same deal.

"No comment,"  he said.

1 for 2

Well..Fairy is in and Brown is out. 

On Sunday, Danny agreed to take a few million less per year than his 1990 contract to become the Cavs new GM.  And Gilbert's plan to only acquire staff from successful teams is actually on target.  Brown from Pacers..Ferry from Spurs..not bad.  

 still worth nothing..

But it seems Larry Brown is out of the running for our team Prez and this announcement will be made later today.  Who will be the front runner now?  To be honest, I don't know and last week when I spoke with Gilbert he made no hints as to who it might be.  We shall see. 

So the nba draft is tomorrow and we are gonna try to dish our sweet midseason pickup of Jiri Welsch.  Boy did he turn out to be a bust.  I would be happy if we could get a 2nd rounder of this guy and hopefully that's what Mr. Ferry will do. 

On a very positive LeAkron note, LeBron's bike-a-thon turned out to be hugely successful.  Ballers came out in full force except Iverson who pansied out.  Charlie Frye was also there, but didn't exactly get the royal treatmant as the organizers for the bike race didn't even have a bike for him to ride.  Given the good Akronite he is, he still walked along the sidelines signing autographs.  Also, the Beacon questioned as to why the players didnt wear helments..hmm..i wonder why. 

 tmac, lebron, wade on the streets of Akron..sup now..

Let the Games Begin..

Finally..it's over..the NBA season has come to a close thus the fun begins for the city by the brown lake.  We all know Larry Brown's next stop is at the Mayo Clinic, but that visit has been pushed back till after the NBA draft next week.  hmm..do you have an important meeting Larry?  I am wondering myself if you might be passing by Cedar Point on your way to Dan Gilbert's mansion. 

And will what I have been happily avoiding might happen in that the Cavs choose to hire their worst player pickup ever in Danny Ferry?   The Akron Beacon Journal, a publication that tells no lie, says it's going down today.  Danny Ferry could seriously become our GM.  Wow..I remember this guy coming into the league.  He was beyond hyped and I had no idea where he came from.  At age 9, I was confused if he was a french player or was he a white Dukie.  I assumed all players started on the playgrounds and moved their way up. What is all this training in LeFrance...is the guy that good?   Well, a $5million a year contract later, we all found out this guy was a bust..a huge bust.  See..the Cavs were a team who spent very little money back in the day.  This was a team who hired good guys like Nance, Price, and Kerr.  Respectable guys who played with heart.  But then comes Mr. Fancy French trained Ferry.  The Cavs were taking the 'next step.'   Well screw that next step.  That was about as beneficial as all the Brown's draft picks in the past decade.  So Ferry bombed and his playing time dwindled to nothing as the years past. 

And now he is about to represent our team.  Make decisions which affect our future.  Granted he does work for the Spurs, who just won it all last night, but still..this is a guy who really ticked off the city of Cleveland.  I think I even went as far to throw away his Fleer rookie card in disgust.  It's gonna take some time for this guy to win us back.  And Danny if you can bring us a championship or even a trip to the Finals, I will forgive you.  And I might even go as far as commeding you.  But don't get me wrong, you still were the worst transaction ever in Cavs history...   

So next Friday is when free agents can start locking up deals.  But in that nice cushion of 7 days, we have to hire our whole upper management staff.  And once that happens, everyone has to be aligned on our future.  Picture this..a rookie coach, a very young & hated GM, a first time President of Ops, and a very young owner..all trying to work together to keep the future of the NBA at home. 

It sure as hell won't be easy, but at this point, we don't have a choice.  The next week is massive and the decisions made WILL affect the history of the Cavs franchise.  We have never won in our franchise history and we have never had the opportunity we do now.  We have the King..the NBA is his..this needs to happen.   

Just In Time

Whew..it seems as though King James snuck in the NBA at just the right time.  Because of the new terms set by the NBA and National Basketball Players Association, LeBron would not have been eligible for the Cavs thus deferring to Akron U or OSU for a year. 

The new collective bargaining agreement includes a lot of upper management details such as luxury tax and escrow withholdings.  But for the rest of us, the agreement means:

1) minimum age for entering the draft will be 19 (plus one year removed from high school for those 5 year high school seniors who are 19 yrs old)
2) 14-player rosters
3) players in their first two seasons in the league may be placed on teams in the NBA Development League for skills development (a good thing for Neil Yanke)
4) players will be subject to 4 random drug tests per season (sorry Portland) and penalties for use of performance-enhancing drugs will be increased
5) an increase in the salary cap
6) maximum length of player contracts will be reduced to 6 years from 7 (damn)
7) maximum annual increases in salaries will be reduced from 12½ to 10½ percent for teams resigning their own players (from 10% to 8% for teams signing free agents - think Redd long term...)

So thank goodness for not only Cleveland, but the NBA that LeBron made it in on time. 

On another LBJ note, this weekend in Akron LeBron is holding the first ever "King for Kids" Bike-a-thon.  On the site you will notice this event includes other "celebrity" guests, but I was informed these guests will be none other than Iverson, D-Wade, Carmello, Charlie 'Akron' Frye, Braylon 'the healthy receiver' Edwards and other Cavs players.  I can't remember the last time that caliber of talent hit up the AK. 

Sup Tribe

Yes, we are finally turning the corner.  Since Eric Wedge shaved his mustauche, the Tribe have been on fire.  And of course once a team in which everyone likes to ignore gets hot, the press jumps on board.  But I am happy to welcome any positive press we can get.  And I am especially happy to see the Tribe's yearly respects from the main man, Peter Gammons.  For all of you out there who aren't aware, Mr. Gammons jocks the Tribe and loved our firesale move back in the day.  He has been waiting for these young stars to come of age and it seems like it's finally happening. 

 the next fantasy stud?

Oh and did anyone realize that the AL Central is the best division in baseball.  When was the last time you heard that..