The Cleveland Cavaliers need to fight off challengers and discern the best way to win another title. How did their offseason help them, and how did it hurt them?
A populous ideal holds up championship contention as the ultimate goal of NBA franchises. Standing on the court as winners of the NBA Finals, and the commissioner handing over the Larry O’Brien trophy, hoisting the championship banner is always the ultimate goal.
Thus the Cleveland Cavaliers, playing in three straight Finals and winning the 2016 crown, would be the idol of the other teams.
But what this idealized perspective doesn’t take into account is the incredible burden it is to maintain contention for season after season. The best players are expensive, and managing their contracts leads to large tax bills. The draft system penalizes successful teams by placing their picks at the back of the line. With fewer resources, contenders have to leverage future assets to add present talent.
The Cleveland Cavaliers bear the burden of all of these factors, with a team laden with veterans paying higher and higher payrolls every season. To this point, owner Dan Gilbert has followed through on his promise to LeBron James to spend whatever it takes, but that promise has cost an incredible number.
In an offseason where the Cavaliers came in with no draft picks and no cap space, they were still expected to upgrade the team to better compete with the Golden State Warriors. Every move, big or small, is analyzed through that question: are they more or less equipped now to defeat the juggernauts in Oakland?
The resources were sparse, but the offseason still ended up being a busy one. From parting ways with David Griffin to trading Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers annually provide no shortage of drama. They have also seen incredible success in winning 190 games over the past three seasons.
Will this summer help them to sustain their success? Or will Boston, Washington and the other challengers in the East threaten to dethrone the King? Here’s a look at how their offseason be graded.
Keeping Kyle Korver
Last season the Cleveland Cavaliers were searching the league for a shooter to add to their bench unit. At the time of the trade, acquiring Kyle Korver for a player out of the rotation and a pick seemed like a savvy move.
Korver has long been one of the league’s premier sharpshooters, flying around screens and bombing away from beyond the arc. For his career he’s shot 43.1 percent from long range, and ranks fifth all time with 2,049 3-pointers. Three seasons ago the Atlanta Hawks won 60 games and Korver was named an All-Star for his part.
Unfortunately for Cleveland, Korver has begun to show his age in recent seasons. Last season he saw decreases in his non-shooting stats across the board. In other words, his ability to contribute on the court other than shooting is diminishing. Defensively, Korver has dropped off from below average to meaningless, and he was played off the court against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.
Despite that last point, the Cavaliers felt they needed to re-sign Korver because of the investment they made and their inability to add a replacement. That is probably true, but because of his leverage Korver was able to extract what amounts to a king’s ransom for what he can currently offer. The Cavaliers quickly agreed to a three-year, $22 million contract with the third year partially guaranteed.
During the regular season Korver is a valuable piece, spacing the floor on bench units around LeBron James. But defensively he cannot keep up against the type of players you encounter in the final rounds of the playoffs. A backcourt of Korver and Derrick Rose, for example, couldn’t stay on the court against the Warriors’ bench units.
In an offseason financial climate where proven players are choosing minimum contracts and qualifying offers, paying Korver over $7 million per season does not help this team win a title. Since that’s the bottom line in Cleveland, this was an inevitable but negative signing.
Grade: C+
Signing Jose Calderon
Kyle Korver looks like Kawhi Leonard next to Jose Calderon, who is perennially one of the worst defenders in the league. When the Cavaliers signed him to a minimum contract this summer, they burned a roster spot on a player who won’t be able to stay on the court against most any team, let alone the Golden State Warriors.
Once upon a time, Jose Calderon was a true asset at the point guard position, scoring in double figures eight times in a nine-year span, only one time over that time period averaging fewer than five assists per game. His shooting has only improved as he has aged, and he was famously almost perfect from the line in the 2008-09 season.
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The problem is that Calderon will be 36 before the start of next season, and what he has left to offer is minimal at best. Even factoring in the benefit of having a veteran offensive player on the roster who will be in the “right place at the right time,” Calderon will not help this team in the Finals.
Unfortunately for Cleveland, to secure home-court advantage they may need Calderon more than expected. Isaiah Thomas is the new starting point guard for the team, and he could miss significant time with his hip injury. Derrick Rose is not sporting a clean bill of health either. That means Calderon will be pressed into action often throughout the year
For a team that has to recognize this flaw, this signing makes no sense. Their third-string point guard will be called into action more often that not. Jose Calderon is a player not capable of taking on a heavy load for this team, and if Rose or Thomas go down in the postseason, this team would have a grave weakness at the point.
Grade: F
Signed Jeff Green
Forced to fill out the margins of the roster with minimum players, the Cavaliers added to their wing rotation with forward Jeff Green. Once a young star in the making, Green’s potential has finally been declared dead and he is an athletic combo forward bouncing his way around the league.
The opportunity cost of this move is low, as Green signed for the minimum. However, it is not meaningless because in the repeater-tax world the Cavaliers live in, his minimum salary of $2.3 million costs owner Dan Gilbert more than three times that.
Green has the size to guard opposing forwards, and can serve as a bouncier version of what Richard Jefferson has provided over the past few seasons. Green can theoretically shoot, but he hit just 27.5 percent of his 3-pointers last season. For the first time in his career, he averaged single digits in points per game, and his effective field goal percentage was his lowest since his rookie season.
Thus Green is an athletic, inefficient player who looks the part but cannot follow through. Even so, Green is a value at the minimum despite his warts. With the acquisition of Jae Crowder, Green can fade back into the rotation to an extent and allow the bigger stars to bear the load.
Grade: B
Signing Cedi Osman
One of the Cavaliers’ true assets this summer came by the way of a 2015 second round pick, as Turkish forward Cedi Osman made the decision to come to the United States. The Cavaliers owned his rights, which meant financially, Osman was going to be a Cavalier.
Osman is long, and he is also thin. While he has the height and length of a much larger player, down in the paint it becomes quickly apparent he doesn’t have the size and bulk to bang with larger forwards.
Defensively in general, Osman will have a long way to go, as defensive schemes are hard enough for rookies to learn without the added challenge of being a poor defender at the European level. Cleveland is skeptical, and is not requiring his assistance from the start.
A three-year, $8.3 million contract seems reasonable for a wing who could turn into something great. If he is simply a usable body the Cavaliers will count themselves lucky. For now, Osman will need to pick things up as he learns how basketball in the NBA works.
Grade: B
Signing Rose
There are often two sides to every story, and that especially applies in the NBA. Players who agree to small contracts often have a motivation, just as the front office that signed them does.
Similarly, players that cash in on mammoth deals that look too large from the start are negotiating those contracts with front offices that have a goal too. Moves that look perfect aren’t without risk, and moves that seem misguided are not without upside.
On the surface, Derrick Rose is a terrible fit on the Cleveland Cavaliers. In a league where point guards need to shoot to be effective, Rose shot just 21.7 percent from 3-point range last season with the New York Knicks.
King James Gospel
While that was a career low, it was far from an outlier; Rose is a career 29.8 percent shooter from distance, clearing 30 percent in just three of his eight seasons. The Cavaliers’ offense is centered on shooters spotting up around penetrating ball-handlers, and if Rose can’t spot up that means he is taking the ball out of the hands of LeBron James.
Rose is also a poor defender, an infrequent passer and brings a large suitcase of off-court baggage. Last season he disappeared before a game, with team officials mystified as to his location at tip off. He had gone home to take care of a family issue without alerting anyone with the Knicks.
But there are always two sides, and for Rose that centers on the price. For all of his warts, he is an accomplished offensive player with postseason experience. At the veteran’s minimum of $2.3 million, that’s a reasonable signing. Add in the Cavaliers’ inability to add more expensive options and the decision is even more defensible.
Rose’s strength has always been his ability to penetrate the defense, and with Kyrie Irving gone and Isaiah Thomas potentially unavailable, this team needs someone to serve as a secondary creator. When Thomas is healthy Rose will be on bench units featuring Kyle Korver, Jae Crowder and Channing Frye — plenty of shooting around his drives.
There may have been better fits out there, but at the minimum this is a move that makes sense. If Rose is forced to start for a significant portion of the season then the Cavs could be in trouble, but no one they were signing was going to be starter-quality for the minimum. This is the sort of reasonable but largely not impactful move the Cavaliers have to make at this point.
Grade: C+
Traded Irving for Thomas
The tension and drama of the Cleveland Cavaliers was stretched to the limit when it was revealed that All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving was requesting to be traded to another team. Memories of Shaq and Kobe, predictions about Klay Thompson following the same path, and questions about where Kyrie would end up dominated NBA discussions during a period that is generally quiet.
When the Cavaliers did pull the trigger on a deal, it was with a surprising partner — the Boston Celtics. Boston is easily the biggest threat to the Cavaliers in the East, Kyrie Irving or no, and as such it was shocking to see the Cavaliers dealing with them, especially on such a scale.
But trade they did, sending Kyrie Irving to the Celtics in exchange for All-NBA guard Isaiah Thomas, wing Jae Crowder, center Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 unprotected pick. However, when the Cavs did their medical testing on Thomas they saw something they didn’t like, and returned to Boston to demand a higher ransom. In the end Boston didn’t flinch, merely blinked, and tossed in a future second round pick.
From the Cavaliers perspective, a healthy Thomas replicates 80-90 percent of Irving’s production on both ends of the court. Slot him in, add the defensive ace Crowder, and the center Zizic, and suddenly the Cavaliers have rotation players that can challenge the Warriors’ versatility. The Brooklyn pick is an unexpectedly sweet prize.
For the Cavaliers they set themselves up for now and in the future. This trade represents a clean walkaway with the best pieces in the deal.
Grade: A
Conclusion
The Cleveland Cavaliers entered the summer without a single draft pick, nor did they have much money to spend. Instead they used what they had, signing players to minimum contract deals and trades.
Players such as Jose Calderon and Kyle Korver will not help this team win games next June against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Jeff Green is due for a good few months, but they are always surrounded by terrible negatives.
Cedi Osman is young and relatively unknown, so bringing him over made sense. The Kyrie Irving trade, while not ideal, was the best way we have to get out from under that situation.
In summation, their every move is being watched. Teams want to see the inner-workings of the franchise as they put together a plan with which to attack Golden State. Will Derrick Rose, Jose Calderon, Jeff Green or Cedi Osman be on the court?
Next: New York Knicks: Complete 2017 offseason grades
In the end, the Cavaliers couldn’t do much this offseason but attacked free agency in order to add solid players as they were able. Capping the period off with a blockbuster trade, the Cavaliers have been busy all summer long.
Grade: B+