RealGM

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. F

The grade is undetermined. If the Cavs can resign Deng for five years at $65 million they will have succeeded. If Deng chooses to sign elsewhere, then the attempt failed. In this particular situation, Deng is well worth the risk.
The Cavs do have some leverage being able to offer Deng the maximum five years. Is the Cleveland franchise going in a direction that satisfies Luol Deng? Or will he take a four year deal to play for a contender or a city that has palm trees and sandy beaches?

Great deal for the Cavs if they want to make a playoff push, their only 3 games out of 8th. In all likelyhood they end up giving up 3 second round pick for LUOL DENG.

D if Deng leaves, C if they can re-sign him to a fair contract. F if they re-sign him to more than 12 million a year

dumping bynum for nothing alone would be an automatic B. getting a quality player like deng in return bumps it up into A territory in my opinion

I give B.

Bulls bite the Bullet.

Cavs dump Bynum bogus salary.

I think its bad for the Cavs. The Bulls couldnt sign Deng for $10 mil a year, why would he accept less to play with the Cavs?
The 2 most likely scenarios are
A: Deng leaves in free agency, and they gave away a bunch assests just to get rid of Bynum
B: They overpay Deng, and he ends up getting paid 12+ million dollars as 33 year old while Irving is in his prime. Even with him, their ceiling the next few years is probably going to be a 2nd round exit at best.

Unless they manage to sign Deng to a great contract this deal is bad for the Cavs.
Meanwhile, the Bulls save a **** load of money (and avoid the repeater tax penalty for the rest of this CBA) and collect assests for a player they were going to lose in the offseason.

Not to mention that this coming draft is the strongest draft in a decade, and the bulls improved their position, and Cavs made it worse

There isn't a grade low enough to give them. I'll give them an F I guess, since I have no other choice.

nikster wrote:I think its bad for the Cavs. The Bulls couldnt sign Deng for $10 mil a year, why would he accept less to play with the Cavs?
The 2 most likely scenarios are
A: Deng leaves in free agency, and they gave away a bunch assests just to get rid of Bynum
B: They overpay Deng, and he ends up getting paid 12+ million dollars as 33 year old while Irving is in his prime. Even with him, their ceiling the next few years is probably going to be a 2nd round exit at best.

Unless they manage to sign Deng to a great contract this deal is bad for the Cavs.
Meanwhile, the Bulls save a **** load of money (and avoid the repeater tax penalty for the rest of this CBA) and collect assests for a player they were going to lose in the offseason.

Not to mention that this coming draft is the strongest draft in a decade, and the bulls improved their position, and Cavs made it worse

Yeah just forget that those "bunch of assets" are second round picks, rights to swap next year with a lottery protection, and a pick that will likely never reach their hands until 2020 and then becomes another second round pick. That "bunch of assets" is actually just a few chances at a cheap roster filler with some potential.

PrecociousNeoph wrote:dumping bynum for nothing alone would be an automatic B. getting a quality player like deng in return bumps it up into A territory in my opinion

Bynum's salary was only guaranteed for two more days, so they could just waive him, just like the Bulls did. And Loul Deng is most likely a ½ season rental. F from here.

The Cavs gave up a bunch of assets? They gave up 2 seconds and a heavily protected first that they very well may never see (or at least that's what people used to always say about that pick). I don't think they gave up much at all. Sure, it's more than nothing, but still less than very much. Especially since they still have all their complement of firsts and a couple more owed them. There was no way that they'd ever have used all those picks themselves.

Grant traded a small amount of his accumulated draft assets for what is probably a better than 50/50 chance of keeping Deng for several years. The downside isn't so bad either. If Deng leaves the Cavs will have considerable CAP space to use to acquire a replacement via FA or trade. Extending Deng for even a little over his market value does not put the Cavs in the luxury tax even if the try to keep almost their entire current roster. Signing him will keep them over the CAP where they will have the $5.3M mid level exception to add another player to the mix. If Grant wants to he can also pretty much blow the roster up while keeping only Deng, Irving Waiters,Zeller and TT and still possibly add a max contract FA over the summer, because of how he has the guarantees on contracts laid out. Potentially great move with no appreciable downside makes this a solid A.

I am giving the Cav's a B on this trade. If the Cav's can resign Deng to a fair contract then this is a A trade for them. Cleveland doesn't attract big free agents so trades need to be made to acquire players. Also, true winning leadership was needed on this team. Deng provides that leadership, and a good two way player at the SF position. Cleveland badly needed a competent SF. Tanking an drafting high doesn't always payoff. There is more to building a team then entirely through the draft. Leadership, the right veterans, role players, and system all need to come together with young talent to make things work.

dkjjr wrote:

nikster wrote:I think its bad for the Cavs. The Bulls couldnt sign Deng for $10 mil a year, why would he accept less to play with the Cavs?
The 2 most likely scenarios are
A: Deng leaves in free agency, and they gave away a bunch assests just to get rid of Bynum
B: They overpay Deng, and he ends up getting paid 12+ million dollars as 33 year old while Irving is in his prime. Even with him, their ceiling the next few years is probably going to be a 2nd round exit at best.

Unless they manage to sign Deng to a great contract this deal is bad for the Cavs.
Meanwhile, the Bulls save a **** load of money (and avoid the repeater tax penalty for the rest of this CBA) and collect assests for a player they were going to lose in the offseason.

Not to mention that this coming draft is the strongest draft in a decade, and the bulls improved their position, and Cavs made it worse

Yeah just forget that those "bunch of assets" are second round picks, rights to swap next year with a lottery protection, and a pick that will likely never reach their hands until 2020 and then becomes another second round pick. That "bunch of assets" is actually just a few chances at a cheap roster filler with some potential.

2 2nd rounders and a first rounder is nothing to laugh at

Let me just ask... what team is going to be willing to pay Deng 12+ million a year for 4 years?

With the new CBA it seems most teams are being really careful (or at least should be) not to throw that type of money to anyone but legitimate stars, or a piece that puts a very good team over the top for contention. Deng is a very solid 2 way player, but not a star. He's not getting any better or younger, and can't carry a team on his own.

So any team to throw that kind of money at him would need to either be stupid, have a young improving core with more capspace coming, or be borderline contenders.

Anyone see any scenarios where this works?

nikster wrote:2 2nd rounders and a first rounder is nothing to laugh at

Sure it is, esp if the 1st rounder ends up being a late or non-lottery pick

2nd rounders are literally throw aways. Of course, you can cite deviations from the mean, but by-and-large 2nd round picks rarely to never contribute to an NBA roster in a meaningful way.

nikster wrote:2 2nd rounders and a first rounder is nothing to laugh at

Sure it is, esp if the 1st rounder ends up being a late or non-lottery pick

2nd rounders are literally throwaways. Of course, you can cite deviations from the mean, but by-and-large 2nd round picks rarely-to-never contribute to an NBA roster in a meaningful way.