Stillwater wrote:jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:
I can easily see some of both going on ... to what extent? Yes, that's still conjecture unless we get further rumors or better yet confirmation.
If players who weren't buying in were traded for players who had either played for Beilein would be receptive to him - well - that would had sent a completely different signal. Trading for Drummond (like I said at the time) seemed to be a play to save Kevin Love. Not only because they share the same agent and have a connection, but because of how he could compliment Kevin and give us some veteran stability if Tristan signs elsewhere. It also gives Sexton and Garland some rim protection and a P&R target.
Andre improves our chances of winning games which would have made life less miserable for ... well, everybody; but I don't think that was enough for Beilein. He didn't want to just go through the motions. It seems he lost the locker-room and knew it.
What Andre's stance does is just encourage everybody to accelerate everything.
Beilein I'm sure would have been professional and finished out the season so the Cavs could make a clean transition this off-season and he'd collect his fully salary, but he made it clear things weren't working and he was done or at least likely was done.
With Andre making it clear (no doubt through his agent) that Beilein was a problem (after just days!!!) that just makes the decision to act now rather than wait very clear. The trick then became reaching an agreement with Beilein and Bickerstaff so they could have a sensible and affordable transition.
I mean, it's not like we invested much in to Drummond. We could just try to recoup some assets by agreeing to S&T him this Summer and just be done with him. But then we'd probably be looking to trade Kevin, and we'd have to strongly considering trading Sexton or Garland too to break up that back-court.
And while it can be argued that would still be the best course for the team, presumably that's not what the Cavs were hoping to accomplish or at least they weren't interested in having that decision forced on them.
I get that they share the same agent, but I really lose the thread when people argue that Drummond was brought in to help Love. I don't see them as a great pairing. Love doesn't strike me as having a low bbiq so hopefully he sees the same thing. Neither big man is a good PNR defender and they both have poor lateral quickness. Drummond's rim protection is vastly overrated. His block per minute rate is decidedly meh.
Offensively, Drummond's at his best when he tries to do less and sticks with what he's good at. He should not be trying to stretch the floor. He should not be screwing around with behind-the-back passes or excessive dribbling. Drummond should be setting picks, rolling to the hoop, crashing the boards, and posting up. That's it. Love is at his best when the floor is opened up and he's playing alongside more athletic big men like Nance who can offer some spacing but still presents enough of a threat to cut to the basket to keep the defense honest. Love's ideal pairing is a version of Nance who is several inches taller.
In order to have a Drummond/Love front court translate to wins, you'd have to fundamentally alter the team's approach. I'm talking about slowing the pace of the game down to a crawl and just starving the opponent of shots by killing them on the boards. That's not really conducive to developing young guards to play in the modern NBA, and if that's the plan, they'll need to start different guards than one currently on the roster (with the possible exception of Exum). I can't imagine that's the plan, but then again, nothing about this season has made sense thus far.
of course it has... when the goal is to lose and keep the lottery pick to add a legit 1st option. none of the schemes or in game rotations have been optimal to winning basketball in the majority of games all season, and if its true JBB was in charge of that aspect of it ( doubtful given his history of overplaying vets) then it wont be getting any better without Beilein anyway. Which is just fine with this org who places way too high of value on draft picks especially considering how many times they have got it all wrong.In the past I have actually hoped they would get a lesser pick so they wouldn't get a chance to take the overhyped guy I didn't like and boom they of course picked the guy I didn't like over several other options again last draft. but they redeemed themselves taking Windler and KPJ so I let it go.
Well, and it's not like Sekou is lighting up the league, either. It's just that the Pistons have taken it a lot slower with him and have had a quick trigger when he hasn't played well. They're not force feeding him minutes like we are Garland even though he actually has an NBA body/athleticism.
The player the Piston's has turned to at the moment to fill the vacuum left by Drummond isn't Sekou let alone Henson, it's a player I mentioned in a thread as a possible cheap UFA target this Summer: Christian Wood.
He might just play himself right out of that cheap category ...
