Watched this morning’s Cavs-Magic exhibition game in China with interest. Overall, I felt like it was the best the Cavs have played so far in the preseason, even though they are like 7,000 miles away from home. If you missed it, which I am sure many of you did, the Magic beat the Cavs, 90-86. The front line outplayed the Magic and Orlando came back when Dwayne Jones, Donyell Marshall and Anthony Tolliver were trying to guard Dwight Howard in the end. Sort of like how the Cavs beat the Pistons last week.
Here’s some of what’s going on…
–First off, Daniel Gibson missed the game with a right hamstring issue. I am told by the Cavs people there that it happened at shootaround on Wednesday morning (Tuesday night for those of us in the U.S.). I am also told it is not serious and that he is expected to play Saturday (12:30 a.m.) in the second game over there. He was on the bench in uniform.
–Just to get it out of the way, LeBron James again played pretty well, scoring 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting. He’s acting like a superstar, no doubt. I must say, though, that LeBron’s defense continues to be suspect at times. He’s had his moments, as he did with Team USA over the summer, but he still gets beat often. No big deal in the grand scheme, but I think it deserves to be pointed out.
–Also, I’m sure it will please may of you that LeBron is now wearing an Indians cap everywhere in China. Here’s the thing, LeBron is a shallow sports fan. His favorite teams were the best teams when he was growing up in the 1990s — Yankees, Cowboys, Bulls, and Florida State football. Last year, he started cheering for Ohio State basketball all of a sudden. So don’t get all wrapped up in it. He does care about Akron and his family and friends who are Akronites. Even if he leaves later in his career, that will always be true and that comes from knowing him for eight years. But when it comes to being shallow, he’s got plenty of peers in Northeast Ohio considering the way the fans came down on him after capgate. Seriously, people.
–Shannon Brown played, in my opinion, his best game of the preseason. You may do whatever you want, but I caution you not to get obsessed with his stats. In the summer league he had seemingly good numbers and some people did some stories about how good he looked, but I thought he played out of his comfort zone and not all that well. Just as the other night, when he had 17 points, I thought he played out of control and somewhat selfishly because he kept driving into crowds and got a bunch of free throws in junk time. However, his athleticism is so impressive and he’s showing more signs of learning how to use it at the NBA level. He really picked his spots well today and found driving lanes when they were there and passed when his path was blocked. He even made a jump shot or two, which is not yet his forte at all. He’s got a lot of potential but also a lot to prove and, to his advantage, is now getting a lot of minutes. I am not sure you can count on him just yet, but without Sasha Pavlovic, he’s getting the opportunity.
–Larry Hughes also played his best game of the preseason, both hitting open jumpers and getting to the basket. We’ll have to see if it continues. All the coaches and players have been raving about his play in practice but it has yet to show on the court in games. So we’ll see.
–Yesterday, Peter Vecsey wrote what I thought was an excellent viewpoint of the Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao contract issues. If you follow the Cavs, you will have read most of this already. But his perspective, in this case, I think is right on the money. Just how LeBron handles this if/when the Cavs get off to a slow start will be interesting. But while LeBron wants the team together, I find it hard to believe he could honestly look Anderson Varejao in the face and agree he’s worth $10 million per season. One of the reasons Kevin Garnett got fed up in Minnesota was because the Wolves kept signing average players to contracts for more than they were worth. Even though that may be difficult to see when you are so embedded in trying to win right now.
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a nice article on the Cavs from NY Post..
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10162007/sports/trouble_in_lebrons_hood.htm
they doen’t mention him going to NY and he is wearing an Indians hat…
Larry Who’s????
Any chance we can send Andy V. and Sasha P. over to the Nets for Jason Kidd?
mister redundant, thanks for posting a link to the same site brian posted in his blog.
I’m not sure I agree that Ferry’s decision to try and circumvent Varejao’s agent was a needed gamble or even ethical. That’s not bargaining in good faith and it’s bound to anger Sideshow and his mouthpiece.
If what Vescey writes is true, I doubt things are going to get easier at this point. I’m starting to see why a lot of Ferry’s dealings with players turn into precedent-setting snubs.
larry is absolutely correct. This is absolutely nothing like when Chris Wallace flew to Argentina to try to recruit Andres Nocioni to sign with Memphis. Nocioni didn’t know Wallace, Wallace didn’t know Nocioni, and the free agency period had just begun.
Ferry’s gambit, on the other hand, borders on unethical conduct. Only a total dirtbag (and/or a complete incompetent) would resort to such underhanded (and desperate) bargaining tactics. It is bad faith, pure and simple.
Gilbert Arenas represents himself. If you want to talk to Arena’s agent, then you talk to Arenas. But Varejao hired an agent. This is the guy you deal with.
Of course, if Varejao had initiated the direct contact with Ferry, then this would have been kosher. But it’s fairly obvious that Ferry snuck down to South America, presumably in the dead of night, in order to pull this tactic. No wonder there was a news blackout with the local beat writers.
What is it about Duke University that makes it a breeding ground for guys that don’t bargain on the up and up?
Maybe it even shines some new light on old history, Alan.
It could be that Michael Redd wasn’t some selfish egomaniac out for the biggest contract he could get. Maybe he and his agent got angry when Ferry tried playing some secret under-the-table footsies with Redd during their dinner meeting at Tavern on the Green.
You guys are incredible-the PLAYER is in charge, not the agent. Agents get hired and fired all the time, this much Danny Ferry knows. The above comment in regards to Michael Redd is absurd-the CAVS simply could not come close to the max that the Bucks could offer and that was that, plain and simple.
Who cares about a bruised agen’t ego-particularly when Andy V. has the nerve to ask for $10 million plus per year. Anyone who understands business and negotiating knows you must get to the DECISION MAKER, along with the influencer. Vent all you want about Ferry, but this one is off the mark.
I’m going to give Ferry his due credit for NOT buckling to those absurd demands (much as other lame organizations have with their salary demands) and his holding firm on his leverage. Play or don’t play Andy and Sasha…….YOUR call.
Oh, come on, Randy. Get real. The player may be “in charge,” but there’s protocol. There’s right and there’s wrong. There’s bargaining in good faith and there’s bargaining in bad faith. By any stretch of the imagination, this is not how bargaining is done in the business world. You circumvent the agent ONLY if the agent’s client initiates the direct contact. It’s completely unprofessional at best, totally unethical at worst.
Furthermore, what kind of message does this now send to Varejao’s agent? For months, Ferry and his media minions were trying to send the public and private message, “We are not going to blink.” Well, Ferry blinked. The gambit backfired right back into his bald head. Ferry’s desperate, and now everybody knows it. He can’t possibly save face from this tactical blunder.
So what’s the alternative now? Unless Ferry is able to trade Pavlovic for somebody that plays Varejao’s position, Ferry has just announced to the world that he may as well just bend over and spread ‘em.
The specific Redd scenario I outlined is ludicrous Randy, but it’s completely possible that some front office blundering turned Redd off the Cavs. How do we know it was only a money decision, “pure and simple?” Because Ferry told reporters it was so? I’ll bet Redd, his agents and the Bucks never said that.
And why did Redd meet with his hometown Cavs if he wasn’t considering a move at all? I can’t remember, but did the Bucks cave after Redd met with the Cavs, or was it already assured they’d give him the maximum?
A more nagging question for me is why did the Spurs snub Ferry this summer by giving Luis Scola to the Rockets? The Rockets are an in-state, division rival for the Spurs.
Alan T.-”this is not how bargaining is done in the business world……WRONG. If you were in that business you’d know better.
Larry D.-you’re killin me man, Lous Scola?!!!
Randy: Whatever, dude.
According to our blog host, the Cavs were hot for him and he’s good. I have no idea whether that’s true.
I do know they pretty much gave him to the Rockets shortly after Brian Windhorst wrote that Cavs were insisting he be included in some trade or other. It seemed like another snub to me. With Varejao on the outs, the Cavs could use him if he can play at all.
Larry, ease up on this one. Louis Scola can’t play, unless you want another 13th man on the roster. Stiff would be too kinda a word for Mr. Scola my friend. Knocking Danny on this is beyond ludicrous.
I guess it was all misreported, then.
Alan,
I have never been an agent for an NBA basketball player but I have acted as an agent in contract negotiations many times for clients. I can tell you first hand that conduct similar to Ferry’s is not unheard of. It could be considered unprofessional by some old-schoolers but would not be considered unethical by any (except, maybe, Yakuza). At the end of the day, “professional” or not, Ferry has to get the job done. This move could turn out OK for Ferry if it ends up softening Andy to the point that he instructs his agent to make a deal. These types of “reach-out”, “peace-talk” maneuvers pay dividends down the road.
I completely respect Ferry’s move here with Pavs and Andy (stonewalling). Make them blink first. I don’t think either of these guys are worth the kind of money they want. Neither are they worth it to the Cavs. Also, their options are now very limited here. I think Brown/Damon Jones and Simmons/a warm body/Dwayne Jones can fill 80-90% of Pavs’ and Andy’s shoes at a fraction of the incremental cost.
By the way, has anyone mentioned the possibility of the Players Union getting involved here or even the Commish’s office? I can’t believe that either group is real happy with the whole “uncharted waters” aspect of this issue.
Alan are you serious, unethical treatment? What are you smoking, a GM going to talk to a player is unethical, so if Ferry runs in to Varejao at the airport they are supposed to go separate ways, you are a moroon. Circumvent the agent, the last time I checked Alan, an agent works for the player not the other way around, so how is that unethical, you need to get out of your basement once and a while einstein. Continue to show your basketball IQ Alan, impressive.
Hey Alan what protocol is the agent following telling his boy to not sign the 1 year tender and hold out bargaining in good faith all right. He is trying to get the best for his boy and Ferry is trying to get his best for the club, that is how negotiations work. Good faith or bad faith, there is no more in professional sports, need we revisit Boozer where your boy Pax got burned by good faith barganing Alan.
Brian, sinking to carp-level doesn’t make it right. I couldn’t imagine real professionals like Jerry West and Wayne Embry ever even CONSIDER pulling that kind of underhanded crap. It stinks to high heaven. That’s not how business works. Or is supposed to work.
There is nothing wrong with what the agent is doing. Indeed, there is nothing in the CBA that says the qualifying offer must be accepted. It’s a giant loophole that will need to be filled. So I don’t see your point in the least.
I thought the mantra was the Cavaliers were all about doing it the San Antonio professional way.
By the way, I just re-read your first post … Ferry ran into Varejao at the airport??? For God’s sakes, the guy traveled literally to the other end of the world on a top-secret surprise visit, intentionally leaving reporters out of the loop so neither the agent, nor Varejao nor anybody else would know!!! If not for Vecsey’s sources, the local reporters would have likely been instructed by Ferry to pretend that the meeting never even happened! What, do you think the two of them merely coincidentally bumped into each other while they happened to be ordering a danish at the same Cinnabon in the upper level of the Hopkins terminal? Jeesh.
Hey einstein, I was making a comparison statement, I know those are big words for ya but it was a what if scenario, you are so clueless it is funny. By the way I haven’t been watching lately, has your assassin Marc Jackson signed with anyone yet? Didn’t think so.
Uh…yeah, Jackson did sign with someone, Brian. If you bothered reading what I originally wrote, he signed a one-year contract in Europe on the same day. If Ferry had bothered to sign Jackson, and if he hadn’t pissed off Luis Scola’s agent prior to that, then he wouldn’t have felt compelled to make a corrupt fool of himself by trekking around the globe under the cover of darkness.