After watching the Cavaliers lose their fifth straight game Wednesday night in an almost surreal fashion, you had to wonder whether this season is turning into Danny Ferry’s worst nightmare. Then it occurred to me that maybe this wasn’t so much a nightmare but rather an elaborate display put on by the Ghost of Seasons Future in which a LeBron-less Cavaliers team struggles to win 20 games.
In fact, when you look at what’s taken place since the Cavs were unceremoniously pushed to the curb by the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, it seems as if Ferry is indeed in the midst of his own version of a Christmas Carol and we’re all along for the ride, much to our chagrin.
You can just see Ferry, lying in his bed, his legs sticking out from the other end, tossing and turning every night as if he had just eaten a plate of bad clams. Occasionally, he’s able to drift off only to be visited by a series of apparitions.
First to stop by and pay a visit is The Ghost of Seasons Past. This Ghost has taken the form of a salary cap-constrained roster that effectively has prevented Ferry from making the kinds of deals that teams on the cusp like the Cavaliers need to make in order to actually grab that next NBA crown. The Ghost of Seasons Past takes Ferry on a journey, showing him how teams like Chicago, unconstrained by salaries and possessing enough players, get a chance to flirt with adding someone like Kobe Bryant (who is the star, by the way, of his own tragi-comedy nightmare playing now in the heads of Jerry Buss and Phil Jackson). Then Ferry gets to watch, helplessly, while teams like Boston actually do get the opportunity to perform the kind of extreme makeover that can literally transform a franchise overnight, adding another team to the mix of Cavs competitors in the East. But before the Ghost of Seasons Past leaves his dreams, it does let him sign Cedric Simmons and Devin Brown as a final inside joke on how pervasive this Ghost can be when not properly respected.
Ferry then awakes from that dream, no doubt in a cold sweat and no closer to any answers whatsoever on how to pay proper homage to the Ghost of Seasons Past. Realizing that simply losing sleep over mistakes he cannot undo, Ferry begins to drift off again. But no sooner has he rid his dreams of one Ghost than does another, the Ghost of Seasons Present, stop by for a chat. This particular Ghost takes the frightening form of Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, or more specifically, the agents for these aforementioned restricted free agents.
As rough as the Ghost of Seasons Past played, at the moment he seems no match for the Ghost of Seasons Present. Ferry tried to appease the Ghost by making a tender offer to each, a gesture he thinks will show the two that the Cavs really do want them around. But this only angered the Ghost as did Ferry’s subsequent long-term offers, and they accuse Ferry of being Scrooge-like with Dan Gilbert’s money.
As the Ghost of Seasons Presents takes Ferry on another journey, it shows him that a team without Varejao and Pavolic is one that could easily lose by 18 at home to Dallas in the opening game of the season. This makes Ferry shutter. But applying one lesson that he did learn from the Ghost of Seasons Past, Ferry decided that if he succumbed to the outsized demands of his wayward free agents, the Ghost of Seasons Past would be back and with a vengeance. So he decided not to appease the Ghost of Seasons Present.
And as it turned out, this was the right move as the Ghost of Seasons Present wasn’t nearly as resilient as its more evil stepbrother. When Ferry stayed the course, the Ghost of Seasons Present eventually dissolved, just not quickly or painlessly. Pavlovic did sign a relatively team-friendly contract and was back rather quickly. Varejao, on the other hand, remained in Brazil, angry and out of shape, taking pot shots at Ferry and his fellow teammates from afar..
But eventually even Varejao realized that he had completely overestimated his worth and was forced to sign a contract for less money than he was previously offered. In matching the offer sheet to Varejao from the Charlotte Bobcats, Ferry most assuredly made a value choice that it was better not to anger the Ghost of Seasons Past then simply appease the Ghost of Seasons Present. But with a contract that will leave the Cavs without Varejao in two years, was the respect paid too deep?
That’s the question a suddenly sleepless again GM was left to ponder. But eventually Ferry came to realize that the world turns in unusual ways and two years in the NBA can be a lifetime. Oddly comforted by that uncertainty, Ferry again was able to drift back asleep, only to be visited by the Ghost of Seasons Future.
Every bit as scary as the others, maybe even more so, the Ghost of Seasons Future took the form of a LeBron-less Cavaliers team, showing Ferry in stark terms what he could expect if his one true superstar was either unwilling or unable to play for the hometown team. In this case, the Ghost of Seasons Future presented Ferry with a relatively minor injury that would keep James out of the lineup just long enough to allow Ferry to grab a real taste of what the future will hold. And it’s been ugly.
Without James, and with the Ghost of Seasons Future throwing in a few other injuries for good measure in case Ferry missed the point, Ferry and the rest of us have learned that it’s an incredibly fine line between playoff-bound and the lottery. In fact, in this case it’s not even a fine line so much as a sprained index finger. Talk about a small margin of error.
But lest the Ghost of Seasons Future feel as if its point has been missed, the Ghost has forced Ferry and the fans to endure some of the worst basketball this team has played in the LeBron era. The defensive effort has been mostly perfunctory. The shot selection has rivaled that of the losing team in a 6th grade CYO game. And the gap between success and failure seems to grow by the dribble.
Eventually, though, the Ghost of Seasons Future will disappear into the ether as well, at least for awhile. James’ finger will heal, Varejao will lose enough weight to fit into his uniform, Larry Hughes will return and the Cavs will go back to playing just good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to do any real damage. In other words, reality will set in. But at least for awhile, the nightmare for Ferry will end. The questions will remain, however, not the least of which is whether Ferry will have learned the lessons visited upon him in the night by the three evil Ghosts.
Surveying the landscape, it seems first and foremost that Ferry has indeed learned the lessons of the Ghost of Seasons Past. For example, the signings he made in the off-season were essentially meaningless other than as stop-gap measures. While the impact of these players will likely be minimal on the floor, more importantly they won’t have any real impact on the Cavs rather challenging salary structure.
Ferry also learned, with the help of the Ghost of Seasons Present, that signing either Pavolic or Varejao to above-market deals would only exacerbate the problems that the current salary structure present in terms of making wholesale improvements in this team down the road. In the case of Varejao, in particular, Ferry held firm to his concept and not only won the respect of his fellow general managers and the begrudging respect of the agents who now know that Ferry can’t be pushed around, he also sent a powerful message to the team that the only true path to success is careful planning and building.
But before Ferry starts putting together his version of Mark Shapiro’s five-year plan, he best remember what the Ghost of Seasons Future was there to show him. Asking LeBron to remain patient for too long, like Minnesota did with Kevin Garnett, would be a fool’s gamble. For Ferry and all Cavs fans, a LeBron-less team is the mother of all nightmares that can be a reality just three seasons from now. That means, of course, that Ferry can’t be content to slowly build to a crescendo several seasons down the road. Instead, he needs to find a way to balance the temptation to make a short-term splash with potentially bad long-term consequences against the need to demonstrate to James that there is no reason to look elsewhere after the 2010-2011 season. And for good measure, he better show the fans he and Gilbert are asking to fund this enterprise that there is a plan in place that will work.
If Ferry can do all that and do it well, if Ferry can learn the lessons of his nightmares, then the Cavs have a legitimate chance to grab a title or two. And if that happens, Ferry can stand arm and arm with Gilbert and the fans as they survey all that has accomplished and shout “God Bless Us Everyone.”
Showing posts with label Sasha Pavlovic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sasha Pavlovic. Show all posts
Friday, December 07, 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
While Cleaning Off My Desk This Morning...
If you thought you had already witnessed a game like Wednesday night’s Cavaliers/Dallas Mavericks game, it’s because you had. Only it was back in September and it was between the Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Mavs put a beat-down on the Cavs of Steelers proportions. They held LeBron James scoreless for the first half for the first time in his career and ultimately limited him to 10 points. If Cleveland thought that James’ performance in the World Games this past summer when he shot something like 168% from the field was going to carryover into the NBA regular season, perhaps then last night’s game was a real eye-opener. Most fans probably appreciate the differences between the two games, but still, an open 15-footer is an open 15-footer. It just wasn’t James’ night.
The bigger concern that last night’s performance fed was that the woeful play of the preseason would carry into the regular season. Fans and players can shrug off the preseason as meaningless, but for a team like the Cavs that basically stood pat in the off season, those games were played with the same crew that fans saw Wednesday night.
And while we’re kvetching about the Cavs game, let’s not get too excited about the imminent return of Sasha Pavlovic or the eventual signing of Anderson Varajeo. All that does is ensure that the Cavs will be at full strength. Whatever flaws they had and were exposed in the NBA Finals against San Antonio will still be there given the dearth of off-season activity by the club. The problem is that much of the rest of the league was moving forward, particularly Boston.
It’s the second straight season the Cavs have basically stood still and while the team’s regular season record was basically the same last year as the year before, the team did get deeper into the playoffs, even if they were swept by the Spurs in the finals. Thus, the only places left for this year’s team to go with essentially the same lineup are either to win it all or backward. Staying static, which means getting to the finals and being swept, doesn’t sound all that appealing to anyone.
But if you think this team is ready to win it all, which is your right, I have one suggestion: put down the happy juice. If this team is to reach its stated goal of sustained excellence in the mold of the Spurs, then they have to find a way to upgrade the roster, significantly. Simple to say, hard to do, critical to accomplish.
***
Speaking of the Browns/Pittsburgh Steelers game from week one, the poster child for the futility in that game, Charlie Frye, returns with the Seattle Seahawks this week. Frye was hardly the only culprit in that game, but it does speak volumes that the Browns themselves saw it that way when they yanked him midway through and traded him a few days later. It also speaks volumes that the Browns have thrived, offensively anyway, since then.
I always liked Frye, not necessarily as a big-time player in the NFL, but as a decent guy with local roots who worked hard and had his heart in the right place. I’m glad he landed somewhere in the NFL and while everyone is saying the right things about him, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the NFL that truly believes Frye will ever become the starter for any team outside of an injury to the regular quarterback.
And as much of a beating Frye has taken, both physically and to his ego, you have to admire his pluck. According to a story by Mary Kay Cabot in Thursday’s Plain Dealer, Frye said he wasn’t surprised at how well the Browns are moving the ball since “nobody was really stopping us in the preseason.”
I guess that’s true if by “us” Frye means “Brady Quinn.” The only quarterback that seemed to move the team consistently in preseason was Quinn. He at least had three touchdown passes. Neither Frye nor Anderson had any. Moreover, the team was hardly an offensive juggernaut, scoring 16, 20, 17 and 19 points in the four games. In fact, throw in the seven points the team scored against Pittsburgh and at that point basically everyone was stopping them. There was absolutely no reason to believe that this team would suddenly turn into the machine it’s become. That’s what made the 51 points scored against the Bengals seem so stunning at the time.
The truth is that this team was going nowhere with Frye as the quarterback. Though confident to a fault when he spoke, Frye lacked the kind of confidence necessary to make decisions quickly. He always seemed so intent on not making a mistake that that’s all he ended up doing, making mistakes. Anderson, on the other hand, carries his confidence on the field in a way Frye could not. Anderson makes quick decisions; less worried is he about making mistakes than in moving the team forward. And when he does make a mistake, it doesn’t seem to linger on his next drive. In other words, he has what good quarterbacks in the NFL have to have, a short memory.
***
And finally, there was a nice little nugget this week that Eric Metcalf is eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. The Board of Selectors for the Hall of Fame puts out a preliminary list of eligible candidates this time of year. That list is eventually winnowed down to 17 finalists, 15 from the modern era and two senior nominees. From the finalists, at least four and no more than seven ultimately get selected, with final approval by 80 percent of the selectors required.
Apparently Metcalf is on that preliminary list. If you’re like me, your initial reaction had to be something like “unless they’re considering an exhibit of undersized running backs crashing into the middle of the line for no gain, how could Metcalf’s name appear on any list?” I stand by that assessment.
But to be fair to Metcalf he did play 12 full seasons in the league, which is kind of hard to believe. Despite his size, he was relatively injury-free. He was also a NFL vagabond. After his six seasons in Cleveland, he was in Atlanta for two, and then in San Diego, Arizona, Carolina and Washington for one year each. His last year was 2002 when he appeared in one game for Green Bay.
Though he was utilized to most as a running back in Cleveland to no great effect, once he left town he was almost exclusively a receiver, again mostly to no great effect. He did have one monster season, 1995 with Atlanta when he had 104 receptions for 1189 yards and eight touchdowns. He never got close to that again.
Where Metcalf was most feared and most effective was as a return man. Overall, he had 280 kick returns and 351 punt returns. In fact, his 351 returns are second all time to Brian Mitchell, a contemporary of Metcalf’s. Mitchell also holds the record for most kick returns, 607.
Metcalf’s 10 touchdowns as a punt returner is a NFL record. He had two touchdowns twice with Cleveland and three with San Diego in 1997. But his average of 9.8 yards per return isn’t even close to the record of 12.78. For perspective, Josh Cribbs is currently averaging almost 12 yards per return.
Though he had a decent career upon which he can look back fondly, there is virtually nothing about it other than its sheer length that even hints at Hall of Fame. Undoubtedly the selectors will see likewise. But though he is long since gone I doubt he’ll ever be forgotten here in Cleveland. That’s because in Cleveland, just as everyone knows the “Red Right 88” they also know the name of the play where an undersized back like Jerome Harrison is sent into the line for no gain. It’s called “Metcalf up the middle.”
The Mavs put a beat-down on the Cavs of Steelers proportions. They held LeBron James scoreless for the first half for the first time in his career and ultimately limited him to 10 points. If Cleveland thought that James’ performance in the World Games this past summer when he shot something like 168% from the field was going to carryover into the NBA regular season, perhaps then last night’s game was a real eye-opener. Most fans probably appreciate the differences between the two games, but still, an open 15-footer is an open 15-footer. It just wasn’t James’ night.
The bigger concern that last night’s performance fed was that the woeful play of the preseason would carry into the regular season. Fans and players can shrug off the preseason as meaningless, but for a team like the Cavs that basically stood pat in the off season, those games were played with the same crew that fans saw Wednesday night.
And while we’re kvetching about the Cavs game, let’s not get too excited about the imminent return of Sasha Pavlovic or the eventual signing of Anderson Varajeo. All that does is ensure that the Cavs will be at full strength. Whatever flaws they had and were exposed in the NBA Finals against San Antonio will still be there given the dearth of off-season activity by the club. The problem is that much of the rest of the league was moving forward, particularly Boston.
It’s the second straight season the Cavs have basically stood still and while the team’s regular season record was basically the same last year as the year before, the team did get deeper into the playoffs, even if they were swept by the Spurs in the finals. Thus, the only places left for this year’s team to go with essentially the same lineup are either to win it all or backward. Staying static, which means getting to the finals and being swept, doesn’t sound all that appealing to anyone.
But if you think this team is ready to win it all, which is your right, I have one suggestion: put down the happy juice. If this team is to reach its stated goal of sustained excellence in the mold of the Spurs, then they have to find a way to upgrade the roster, significantly. Simple to say, hard to do, critical to accomplish.
***
Speaking of the Browns/Pittsburgh Steelers game from week one, the poster child for the futility in that game, Charlie Frye, returns with the Seattle Seahawks this week. Frye was hardly the only culprit in that game, but it does speak volumes that the Browns themselves saw it that way when they yanked him midway through and traded him a few days later. It also speaks volumes that the Browns have thrived, offensively anyway, since then.
I always liked Frye, not necessarily as a big-time player in the NFL, but as a decent guy with local roots who worked hard and had his heart in the right place. I’m glad he landed somewhere in the NFL and while everyone is saying the right things about him, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the NFL that truly believes Frye will ever become the starter for any team outside of an injury to the regular quarterback.
And as much of a beating Frye has taken, both physically and to his ego, you have to admire his pluck. According to a story by Mary Kay Cabot in Thursday’s Plain Dealer, Frye said he wasn’t surprised at how well the Browns are moving the ball since “nobody was really stopping us in the preseason.”
I guess that’s true if by “us” Frye means “Brady Quinn.” The only quarterback that seemed to move the team consistently in preseason was Quinn. He at least had three touchdown passes. Neither Frye nor Anderson had any. Moreover, the team was hardly an offensive juggernaut, scoring 16, 20, 17 and 19 points in the four games. In fact, throw in the seven points the team scored against Pittsburgh and at that point basically everyone was stopping them. There was absolutely no reason to believe that this team would suddenly turn into the machine it’s become. That’s what made the 51 points scored against the Bengals seem so stunning at the time.
The truth is that this team was going nowhere with Frye as the quarterback. Though confident to a fault when he spoke, Frye lacked the kind of confidence necessary to make decisions quickly. He always seemed so intent on not making a mistake that that’s all he ended up doing, making mistakes. Anderson, on the other hand, carries his confidence on the field in a way Frye could not. Anderson makes quick decisions; less worried is he about making mistakes than in moving the team forward. And when he does make a mistake, it doesn’t seem to linger on his next drive. In other words, he has what good quarterbacks in the NFL have to have, a short memory.
***
And finally, there was a nice little nugget this week that Eric Metcalf is eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. The Board of Selectors for the Hall of Fame puts out a preliminary list of eligible candidates this time of year. That list is eventually winnowed down to 17 finalists, 15 from the modern era and two senior nominees. From the finalists, at least four and no more than seven ultimately get selected, with final approval by 80 percent of the selectors required.
Apparently Metcalf is on that preliminary list. If you’re like me, your initial reaction had to be something like “unless they’re considering an exhibit of undersized running backs crashing into the middle of the line for no gain, how could Metcalf’s name appear on any list?” I stand by that assessment.
But to be fair to Metcalf he did play 12 full seasons in the league, which is kind of hard to believe. Despite his size, he was relatively injury-free. He was also a NFL vagabond. After his six seasons in Cleveland, he was in Atlanta for two, and then in San Diego, Arizona, Carolina and Washington for one year each. His last year was 2002 when he appeared in one game for Green Bay.
Though he was utilized to most as a running back in Cleveland to no great effect, once he left town he was almost exclusively a receiver, again mostly to no great effect. He did have one monster season, 1995 with Atlanta when he had 104 receptions for 1189 yards and eight touchdowns. He never got close to that again.
Where Metcalf was most feared and most effective was as a return man. Overall, he had 280 kick returns and 351 punt returns. In fact, his 351 returns are second all time to Brian Mitchell, a contemporary of Metcalf’s. Mitchell also holds the record for most kick returns, 607.
Metcalf’s 10 touchdowns as a punt returner is a NFL record. He had two touchdowns twice with Cleveland and three with San Diego in 1997. But his average of 9.8 yards per return isn’t even close to the record of 12.78. For perspective, Josh Cribbs is currently averaging almost 12 yards per return.
Though he had a decent career upon which he can look back fondly, there is virtually nothing about it other than its sheer length that even hints at Hall of Fame. Undoubtedly the selectors will see likewise. But though he is long since gone I doubt he’ll ever be forgotten here in Cleveland. That’s because in Cleveland, just as everyone knows the “Red Right 88” they also know the name of the play where an undersized back like Jerome Harrison is sent into the line for no gain. It’s called “Metcalf up the middle.”
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A Bizarre Game of Chicken
The only thing really worth knowing about the holdouts of Cavaliers restricted free agents Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao is that it underscores why Dan Gilbert would be a far better owner for the Indians than the Cavaliers. Having to operate in a salary-cap constrained world is antithetical to the way guys like Gilbert would prefer to operate.
First, the back story. As most know already, Pavlovic and Varejao are, either coincidentally or in concert, holding out for contracts that the Cavaliers and GM Danny Ferry believe would give the team less financial flexibility down the road. Reportedly each is seeking approximately $10 million a year for several years, a figure the Cavs have deemed too rich and too restricting to their ability to build a team worthy of being a legitimate multi-year contender for a NBA championship.
Though the NBA rules on this sort of thing can get fairly technical, the options each player had given their status were pretty limited, a fact that seems to have eluded both. Once the Cavs made each a one-year qualifying offer (by rule, qualifying offers are limited to one year), the restricted status of each was preserved, meaning that the Cavs could match any offer made by another team.
Of course, the two could have signed the qualifying offer, played the season and opted for unrestricted free agency next year. Apparently each preferred longer-term deals now that would shield them from the risk of injury or poor play and turned down the qualifying offers. In doing so, they boxed themselves even further into a corner, also a fact that seems to have eluded both.
At this point, the corner they now find themselves in is to lower their demands, find another team willing to pay them what they want, or hold out for their original price. There seems to be no sign of them lowering their demand and to this point no other team has jumped into the mix. Thus, they find themselves sitting in Europe somewhere unpaid and facing the specter of hard-bargaining by the Cavs down the road. But the key to all this is that so long as they sit out, they’ll never lose their status as restricted free agents. It’s hard to believe the market gets better for them the less they play, but hey, that’s for their agents to convince them otherwise.
It may be that both overestimated the willingness of another team to pay them that kind of money and get a niche player in return. But knowing the mentality of player agents, more likely the two have been programmed to believe that the only reason no one else has come forward with a contract relates solely to the Cavs having the right to match it. Eventually, the two will learn that their agents are nuts.
If any other team wants either player, all they need to do is sign them to the kind of dollars they want (approximately $10 million per season, 3-5 year deals). Assuming Ferry’s stated reasons for not signing either is based on their demands, then there is no reason to believe he’d match such an offer. He wouldn’t.
This means, of course, that GMs across the league firmly don’t believe that either is a $10 million a year player, an ego-deflating reality that eventually will set in, even as the agents tell them otherwise. So the two are left to sit and stew in Europe or elsewhere while this gets sorted out, hoping against hope that the Cavs will tank so bad early this season that Ferry and Gilbert will be forced to meet their demands to appease the fans, even if that means hurting the franchise down the road.
But that’s a sucker play for both Pavlovic and Varejao and if that’s what they’re relying on to break the logjam, then I hope they enjoy the winter weather in Europe or wherever else they may be hanging out for there is still more reality that they’ll face.
Let’s concede up front that the Cavs are a better team with them than without them. But is that really the issue? We already know that this team, even with the two, is not strong enough to win the NBA championship. That is not going to change just because they have new contracts. The Cavs did basically stand pat going into last season and while they did progress to the NBA finals, they did so out of a much weaker conference. In baseball terms, the NBA East is the National League and the NBA West is the American League. Nothing’s changed on that score.
On the other hand, there is every real possibility that the team will eventually regress should the Cavs accede to their demands. Financial flexibility in the NBA isn’t the same as financial flexibility in major league baseball. In the NBA, having too many role players under long-term, big money contracts that eat up your salary cap is the recipe for long-term mediocrity and frustration. Think New York Knicks.
In baseball, on the other hand, you can buy your way out of such problems if you are so inclined. It may be costly, but there is absolutely no reason for a major league baseball team to repeatedly flounder under large contracts to underperforming players. The absence of a salary cap always allows for a mulligan, several if need be. In basketball, once you get saddled with these contracts, it’s an owner’s, a GM’s and the fans worst nightmare. Put it this way, you’d rather be stuck in a cart forever on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney World than trying to fight your way out of NBA salary cap hell.
Which gets us back to Dan Gilbert. This absolutely has to eat at him in a way that no other owner of a Cleveland professional sports franchise could ever experience. So committed to excellence and possessing the ability and acumen to execute the steps needed to achieve it, Gilbert can only sit idly by while Ferry and the players’ respective agents engage in this game of chicken.
Gilbert didn’t get off on the right foot with Cavs fans when he took over because he initially seemed like a meddlesome basketball-player wannabe with neither the knowledge nor the experience to make the kinds of decisions he seemed to be making. But initial appearances can be deceiving. Since that rocky start Gilbert has defied the age-old bromide that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
At this juncture, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better owner in Cleveland sports history, which is not as stunning as that may sound initially. The history of Cleveland sports is dotted with well-intentioned by undercapitalized owners. It’s one of the main reasons, frankly, that this town has not enjoyed a championship in any major sport since 1964.
But Gilbert is different. What distinguishes him from his counterparts, Larry and Paul Dolan with the Indians and Randy Lerner with the Browns, is the fact that while the others possess some, he possesses all of the qualities necessary to actually bring a winner to Cleveland.
The Dolans are life-long Indians fans and value their franchise in only a way that someone with that kind of pedigree can, similar to Randy Lerner with the Browns. But the Dolans ultimately lack the funds they need to realize the full scope of their grand plans.
Lerner, as passionate as he is about the Browns generally, simply seems to lack the singularity of focus that someone like Robert Kraft in New England has. Money may never be an object to Lerner, but it’s not the dividing line in football anyway. Ultimate success in your chosen endeavor has to consume your every waking moment and right now Lerner is a nice guy, rich billionaire with too varied of interests to devote his full time and efforts to ensuring that the Browns win a Super Bowl.
But Gilbert has both the money and the drive. Unfortunately, he exists in a league that, like the NFL, legislates against owner avarice through a salary cap. It simply doesn’t suit his innate sense to spend what it takes to ensure success. The best thing that Gilbert really is doing right now is resisting the temptation to simply spend to solve an emerging short-term problem. Unlike most owners, he has the business acumen to recognize how a short-term fix can cause a long-term problem.
Hopefully, though, Cavs fans will remember this when the Cavs take their woeful preseason play onto the court for good starting this week. It won’t be pretty, but Gilbert’s not the problem. All he’s done is to earn the trust that may require the team to take a half-step back to ensure a sea-change step forward. But as he’s watching this unfold, hopefully he’s keeping an eye on the Indians. If they’re ever for sale, hopefully he’ll make that purchase and never look back.
First, the back story. As most know already, Pavlovic and Varejao are, either coincidentally or in concert, holding out for contracts that the Cavaliers and GM Danny Ferry believe would give the team less financial flexibility down the road. Reportedly each is seeking approximately $10 million a year for several years, a figure the Cavs have deemed too rich and too restricting to their ability to build a team worthy of being a legitimate multi-year contender for a NBA championship.
Though the NBA rules on this sort of thing can get fairly technical, the options each player had given their status were pretty limited, a fact that seems to have eluded both. Once the Cavs made each a one-year qualifying offer (by rule, qualifying offers are limited to one year), the restricted status of each was preserved, meaning that the Cavs could match any offer made by another team.
Of course, the two could have signed the qualifying offer, played the season and opted for unrestricted free agency next year. Apparently each preferred longer-term deals now that would shield them from the risk of injury or poor play and turned down the qualifying offers. In doing so, they boxed themselves even further into a corner, also a fact that seems to have eluded both.
At this point, the corner they now find themselves in is to lower their demands, find another team willing to pay them what they want, or hold out for their original price. There seems to be no sign of them lowering their demand and to this point no other team has jumped into the mix. Thus, they find themselves sitting in Europe somewhere unpaid and facing the specter of hard-bargaining by the Cavs down the road. But the key to all this is that so long as they sit out, they’ll never lose their status as restricted free agents. It’s hard to believe the market gets better for them the less they play, but hey, that’s for their agents to convince them otherwise.
It may be that both overestimated the willingness of another team to pay them that kind of money and get a niche player in return. But knowing the mentality of player agents, more likely the two have been programmed to believe that the only reason no one else has come forward with a contract relates solely to the Cavs having the right to match it. Eventually, the two will learn that their agents are nuts.
If any other team wants either player, all they need to do is sign them to the kind of dollars they want (approximately $10 million per season, 3-5 year deals). Assuming Ferry’s stated reasons for not signing either is based on their demands, then there is no reason to believe he’d match such an offer. He wouldn’t.
This means, of course, that GMs across the league firmly don’t believe that either is a $10 million a year player, an ego-deflating reality that eventually will set in, even as the agents tell them otherwise. So the two are left to sit and stew in Europe or elsewhere while this gets sorted out, hoping against hope that the Cavs will tank so bad early this season that Ferry and Gilbert will be forced to meet their demands to appease the fans, even if that means hurting the franchise down the road.
But that’s a sucker play for both Pavlovic and Varejao and if that’s what they’re relying on to break the logjam, then I hope they enjoy the winter weather in Europe or wherever else they may be hanging out for there is still more reality that they’ll face.
Let’s concede up front that the Cavs are a better team with them than without them. But is that really the issue? We already know that this team, even with the two, is not strong enough to win the NBA championship. That is not going to change just because they have new contracts. The Cavs did basically stand pat going into last season and while they did progress to the NBA finals, they did so out of a much weaker conference. In baseball terms, the NBA East is the National League and the NBA West is the American League. Nothing’s changed on that score.
On the other hand, there is every real possibility that the team will eventually regress should the Cavs accede to their demands. Financial flexibility in the NBA isn’t the same as financial flexibility in major league baseball. In the NBA, having too many role players under long-term, big money contracts that eat up your salary cap is the recipe for long-term mediocrity and frustration. Think New York Knicks.
In baseball, on the other hand, you can buy your way out of such problems if you are so inclined. It may be costly, but there is absolutely no reason for a major league baseball team to repeatedly flounder under large contracts to underperforming players. The absence of a salary cap always allows for a mulligan, several if need be. In basketball, once you get saddled with these contracts, it’s an owner’s, a GM’s and the fans worst nightmare. Put it this way, you’d rather be stuck in a cart forever on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney World than trying to fight your way out of NBA salary cap hell.
Which gets us back to Dan Gilbert. This absolutely has to eat at him in a way that no other owner of a Cleveland professional sports franchise could ever experience. So committed to excellence and possessing the ability and acumen to execute the steps needed to achieve it, Gilbert can only sit idly by while Ferry and the players’ respective agents engage in this game of chicken.
Gilbert didn’t get off on the right foot with Cavs fans when he took over because he initially seemed like a meddlesome basketball-player wannabe with neither the knowledge nor the experience to make the kinds of decisions he seemed to be making. But initial appearances can be deceiving. Since that rocky start Gilbert has defied the age-old bromide that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
At this juncture, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better owner in Cleveland sports history, which is not as stunning as that may sound initially. The history of Cleveland sports is dotted with well-intentioned by undercapitalized owners. It’s one of the main reasons, frankly, that this town has not enjoyed a championship in any major sport since 1964.
But Gilbert is different. What distinguishes him from his counterparts, Larry and Paul Dolan with the Indians and Randy Lerner with the Browns, is the fact that while the others possess some, he possesses all of the qualities necessary to actually bring a winner to Cleveland.
The Dolans are life-long Indians fans and value their franchise in only a way that someone with that kind of pedigree can, similar to Randy Lerner with the Browns. But the Dolans ultimately lack the funds they need to realize the full scope of their grand plans.
Lerner, as passionate as he is about the Browns generally, simply seems to lack the singularity of focus that someone like Robert Kraft in New England has. Money may never be an object to Lerner, but it’s not the dividing line in football anyway. Ultimate success in your chosen endeavor has to consume your every waking moment and right now Lerner is a nice guy, rich billionaire with too varied of interests to devote his full time and efforts to ensuring that the Browns win a Super Bowl.
But Gilbert has both the money and the drive. Unfortunately, he exists in a league that, like the NFL, legislates against owner avarice through a salary cap. It simply doesn’t suit his innate sense to spend what it takes to ensure success. The best thing that Gilbert really is doing right now is resisting the temptation to simply spend to solve an emerging short-term problem. Unlike most owners, he has the business acumen to recognize how a short-term fix can cause a long-term problem.
Hopefully, though, Cavs fans will remember this when the Cavs take their woeful preseason play onto the court for good starting this week. It won’t be pretty, but Gilbert’s not the problem. All he’s done is to earn the trust that may require the team to take a half-step back to ensure a sea-change step forward. But as he’s watching this unfold, hopefully he’s keeping an eye on the Indians. If they’re ever for sale, hopefully he’ll make that purchase and never look back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)