The Knicks, the TrailBlazers, the Warriors, etc., are ready for complete makeovers. So are the Cavs. What’s Ferry going to do, and what should he do?

Also, what about Dee Brown in the draft? He’s what the pundits call a tweener, but he’s a player too.

Aside from that burp in your comments, you do make a good point about teams manipulating the media to their benefit when all they’re really doing is posturing. Seeing how Brown hardly played the guy during the playoffs, there’s no way Gooden will be signed by Cleveland without a sign-and-trade already negotiated.

Are you feeding us Cavalier propaganda or are they serious about matching any offer for Gooden? I know that teams have to give the impression that they will match any offer sheet in order to force a sign and trade rather than losing a RFA for nothing. It sounds like you are making up trade rumors to help them move Z and find a good trade for Gooden. Then you say no big moves. Are you serious that they don’t want to make changes in the front court and drafting a point guard late in the first round and keeping Larry Hughes healthy are the keys to improvement. Is it that they are just waiting for the other LJ (Luke) to get healthy and blossom?

Diop may be making a difference in these playoffs, but Dallas isn’t planning their future around the kid. He’s a nice suprise on a team that has many options. He earned minutes away from others that were competent instead of being forced into playing. Cleveland lacks options right now with the likes of Newble, Pavlovic, Jackson, Henderson, Martynas, and Graham stuck on the bench. None of these players were fighting for minutes last year. Without Z, Diop would have had to play instead of having to earn minutes. Plus, we would have tried to run Ferry out of town if he gave a new coach a starting center with Diop’s record and Varejao coming back from surgery with much uncertainty. Hindsight isn’t always 20/20.

K

Whenever the decision was made, I think it was a mistake. I get the feeling no one wants to admit it because no one saw it at the time. “No basketball instincts” was the refrain, if I remember correctly.

The Cavs probably would have been willing to bring him back at the minimum, but why would he have even considered it? I don’t think anyone could be critical of the thinking on either side.

Committing to Diop and Verajao at center last summer would have been risky, but it would have changed the dynamics of the free agency period and provided a pretty solid base for the team’s future growth.

When the Cavs signed Hughes, they said he was their first choice among big guards, which seems like a dubious claim to me. I wonder if Redd and Allen would have been more apt to consider Cleveland if they didn’t think they’d have to compete with Z for shots.

Of course, it’s all water under the bridge now.