RealGM

You know, I have dislike the Cavs for some years because of my dislike for a certain player. I now feel different about the Cavs. I root for you guys to do well. Magic fans may be the only fanbase that can relate to how you guys feel. Shaq left us high nad dry and I hated him and the Lakers for sooo many years. It killed me to see LA win three championships with the guy who was suppossed to bring us our first. We were suppossed to be a dynasty and one player put us in a downward spiral for the next 10 years. We tried to rebuild thru free agency with the signing of Grant Hill and T-Mac in 2000. If only Hill was healthy. Ultimately FA didn't work for us, it was the draft. We had the worst year ever and got D12 and Nelson in the same draft and that brought us back to the top. What do you guys think is the best avenue for the Cavs? Would you like to sign a big name free agent or would you rather bomb and build thru the draft? Hopefully you guys will not have to wait as long as we did to become championship contenders again. I hope to one day restart the rivalry we had started to build. Good luck and like I said, most Magic fans feel your pain. Good luck!

Cleveland will build through the draft as opposed to overpaying free agents to come to Cleveland. I see Cleveland being back in the playoff hunt within 4 seasons, possibly sooner depending on when they find a stud on offense or a defensive anchor.

Yeah, I think we are committed to the draft. Maybe get a free agent to fill in down the road, but only to fill in.

Im not sure we have a choice but to build through the draft. We could barely convince any FA's to come here when we had LeBron, its going to be nearly impossible without him.

I think the Cavaliers are is a great position to do both.

If they are patient in three years they are going to have 3 or 4 reasonably high picks still on their rookie contracts and plenty of cap space to spend on a couple free agents. Cleveland isn't going to be a free agent destination unless they overpay or hit on a couple picks to make it worth someone's while.
They have to go the draft route first, and it has to work, but they can be dangerous in a hurry if it does.

Eh building through the draft is risky. The Miami picks will be useless and as it stands we will be a 30-40 win team. So what that is a high lottery pick? I am not sure what they should do, but we have that nice TE that I would hate to lose.

actually, I really love the idea of one of those Miami picks since it could easily go beyond the life of LeBron/Bosh/Wades contracts.

I think in terms of the comment made about no free agents coming here when lebron was here, i do not think that is totallt true. Lebron never recruited anyone here like he has done in miami thus throwing up a red flag to other players that he had no intention of staying and that is exactly what happened. If lebron showed some committment here then other FA's would have then came here,that is just my opinion on that matter.

Niko23 wrote:...The Miami picks will be useless...

Early rumors were that the first of them was Minnesota's, swapped as part of the Beasley deal. Can anyone confirm of deny this with any confidence?

agreed with the Original poster, we been thru the same thing with Shaq, and i did not like him ever since and whatever franchise he won a title for, i don't like them, the only thing thats worse, he was a local hometown kid and did this on national tv, best of luck, i liked the Cavs with Lebron, but oh well, good luck to you and your franchise.

No big name free agent will ever come to Cleveland, it's just a fact. Cleveland will never be a free agent destination, thus we will have to overpay for any quality free agents to come here which isn't the way to go.

The way small market teams, like Cleveland, have to go is through trades and the draft if they want to be successful.

Draft no doubt! Orlando had the right idea but they made the mistake of losing too many pieces. Remember the sign and trade for Hill included Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins. In addition, there was the trade that gave away Corey Magette. Of course Hill's injury but having those role players would have ensured the team at least a playoff berth. In Cleveland's case Kentucky is turning out NBA prospects and there are players in the draft that could really make a difference.

wallsfamily wrote:Draft no doubt! Orlando had the right idea but they made the mistake of losing too many pieces. Remember the sign and trade for Hill included Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins. In addition, there was the trade that gave away Corey Magette. Of course Hill's injury but having those role players would have ensured the team at least a playoff berth. In Cleveland's case Kentucky is turning out NBA prospects and there are players in the draft that could really make a difference.

And by Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins, you mean Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups. Of course, neither was the player in Orlando that he became in Detroit. The writing on the wall was there for Ben though; he put up big numbers in 24 minutes a game playing with a broken hand. Hurt to see him go. Granted (no pun intended), Hill was arguably a top-5 player at that point, and was regarded as an heir-apparent to the recently retired MJ. Nobody questioned the move at the time.

We gave Maggette away to get under the cap enough to sign two marquee Free Agents. It's the same reason Miami gave MIchael Beasley away, the Nets traded Vince Carter for Courtney Lee and expiring contracts, and the Sonics trading Maggette to Orlando in the first place.

wallsfamily wrote:Draft no doubt! Orlando had the right idea but they made the mistake of losing too many pieces. Remember the sign and trade for Hill included Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins. In addition, there was the trade that gave away Corey Magette. Of course Hill's injury but having those role players would have ensured the team at least a playoff berth. In Cleveland's case Kentucky is turning out NBA prospects and there are players in the draft that could really make a difference.

And by Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins, you mean Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups. Of course, neither was the player in Orlando that he became in Detroit. The writing on the wall was there for Ben though; he put up big numbers in 24 minutes a game playing with a broken hand. Hurt to see him go. Granted (no pun intended), Hill was arguably a top-5 player at that point, and was regarded as an heir-apparent to the recently retired MJ. Nobody questioned the move at the time.

We gave Maggette away to get under the cap enough to sign two marquee Free Agents. It's the same reason Miami gave MIchael Beasley away, the Nets traded Vince Carter for Courtney Lee and expiring contracts, and the Sonics traded Maggette to Orlando in the first place.