Best move/worst move: Cleveland Cavaliers

[loserX]

As the offseason starts to wind down, I thought we could do a quick team-by-team runthrough and see where they succeeded and perhaps where they...not-succeeded. What did they do (or not do) that deserves the most mention?

- what's the best move they made this offseason?
- what's the worst move they made this offseason?

All opinions welcome! And yes, "worst move" is inherently going to be critical in nature...but as Chuck says, don't make it personal, don't take it personal. If you disagree with someone else's post about your team, what do *you* think was the worst move they made?

(And yes, I know the offseason isn't over yet We can update these if any team does something particularly good or bad!)

For the time being I will be posting two of these per day. Proceeding alphabetically, next up are the Cleveland Cavaliers.

[loserX]

Cleveland Cavaliers transactions

Front office
none.

Draft
Drafted Evan Mobley at #3.

Trades
Traded Taurean Prince, 2022 2nd rounder and cash for Ricky Rubio.
Traded Larry Nance and future 2nd rounder for Lauri Markkanen in an S&T, 4/$67M in a 3-team deal.

Free agency
Re-signed Jarrett Allen, 5/$100M.
Received Lauri Markkanen in an S&T, as above.

[loserX]

Best move: honestly there isn't a lot to talk about here. So I'll go with not getting cute and just drafting Evan Mobley. There were rumblings about moving down in the draft, but Cleveland still needs transformative guys and it sounds like Mobley is one of the guys in 2021 most likely to become that.

Worst move: when Cleveland drafted Garland after Sexton, a lot of people raised their eyebrows. It didn't bother me at all: the Cavs were just kicking off the rebuild and needed to look for talent everywhere, even where they already had it. Just get it, evaluate it, develop it. Now things have moved along a bit and roster construction is going to start becoming an issue. This team has awful shooting and just traded one of the few guys who could do it for Ricky Rubio of all people. There are too many bigs and not enough wings. Sooner or later the Cavs will need to build a roster that can help their young guys flourish.

[Larry_Russell]

I honestly am not sure what Cleveland is doing at this point.

I assume they are hoping to make alot of trades, but to me at least, it seems like they are just loading up on Centers and Point Guards.

[gswhoops]

Best: not overthinking the draft and taking Mobley at #3

Worst: tie between not trading Sexton and giving Jarrett Allen $100 million at the very start of free agency. That contract is going to look bad quickly

[jbk1234]

Best: Drafting Mobley.

Worst: Failing to pull the trigger in the Sexton for Herro swap.

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[Texas Chuck]

Worst is a tie: Paying Allen stupid money and passing on Suggs for Mobley.

Best is Rubio. The overselling of Prince on this board was laughable as this marksman who could not be moved. Rubio is going to give them a real veteran professional to provide leadership and stability the team has been lacking since Lebron left the 2nd time.

[Niko23]

Best: Drafting Mobley.

Worst: Failing to pull the trigger in the Sexton for Herro swap.

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Just to confirm, Miami proposed the deal and we did indeed turn it down? Yikes if so.....

[daoneandonly]

Best is drafting Mobley, think that kid will be special
Worst, i think Allen is overpaid, but they had to do it, and its not a max, so not sure there's one that stand sout

[Chicago-Bull-E]

Best: Drafting Mobley

Worst: Rubio trade doesn't make a lot of sense to me, with Sexton still there as well. Will be kind of a funky 3 guard rotation this year, I'd imagine.

[gswhoops]

Best is drafting Mobley, think that kid will be special
Worst, i think Allen is overpaid, but they had to do it, and its not a max, so not sure there's one that stand sout

Did they? Allen is a fine player but he’s by no means a guy you can’t afford to lose, especially for a rebuilding team. $20 million a year for a non-All Star 5 is a pretty significant overpay and I don’t think he would have commanded that on the open market. Unless he makes a big leap that contract is going to veer into negative value pretty quickly. Richuan Holmes got $12 million a year and while Allen is better and younger than Holmes, it’s not by enough to make him $8 million per year more valuable.

And even if you come into free agency thinking we’re not gonna let him walk no matter what, at least see if the market will bear $20 million a year before you offer it to him on day 1.

[Revenged25]

Best: Drafting Mobley.

Worst: Failing to pull the trigger in the Sexton for Herro swap.

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Just to confirm, Miami proposed the deal and we did indeed turn it down? Yikes if so.....

Why? Herro is worse than Sexton and if the idea is to put a bigger SG next to Garland, then the better option is to move Okoro to SG and trade Sexton for a better fit at SF.

[Revenged25]

Best is drafting Mobley, think that kid will be special
Worst, i think Allen is overpaid, but they had to do it, and its not a max, so not sure there's one that stand sout

Did they? Allen is a fine player but he’s by no means a guy you can’t afford to lose, especially for a rebuilding team. $20 million a year for a non-All Star 5 is a pretty significant overpay and I don’t think he would have commanded that on the open market. Unless he makes a big leap that contract is going to veer into negative value pretty quickly. Richuan Holmes got $12 million a year and while Allen is better and younger than Holmes, it’s not by enough to make him $8 million per year more valuable.

And even if you come into free agency thinking we’re not gonna let him walk no matter what, at least see if the market will bear $20 million a year before you offer it to him on day 1.

Depends on the structure and projections of Allen. If they front loaded it as well as projected him to improve to around Capela level, then it's a perfectly fine deal.

[MoneyTalks41890]

I thought the Allen deal was too much. I think they probably still need to (and can) move Sexton. But to me all of that is minor compared to taking Mobley. Yes, it was consensus, but they did the right thing by taking the guy with the tremendous ceiling and not overthinking it for OKC's volume package or another package of lesser parts. They needed a star talent and I think they got it.

[giberish]

Best: Taking Mobley

Worst: Allen contract. IMO in a year or two it's going to look that Mobley is best at center and a different tier than Allen. Looking to trade a good but non-elite center making $20M/yr long-term can be tough. If they only gave him a 4 or 3 year deal that wouldn't be much of an issue.

[gswhoops]

Best is drafting Mobley, think that kid will be special
Worst, i think Allen is overpaid, but they had to do it, and its not a max, so not sure there's one that stand sout

Did they? Allen is a fine player but he’s by no means a guy you can’t afford to lose, especially for a rebuilding team. $20 million a year for a non-All Star 5 is a pretty significant overpay and I don’t think he would have commanded that on the open market. Unless he makes a big leap that contract is going to veer into negative value pretty quickly. Richuan Holmes got $12 million a year and while Allen is better and younger than Holmes, it’s not by enough to make him $8 million per year more valuable.

And even if you come into free agency thinking we’re not gonna let him walk no matter what, at least see if the market will bear $20 million a year before you offer it to him on day 1.

Depends on the structure and projections of Allen. If they front loaded it as well as projected him to improve to around Capela level, then it's a perfectly fine deal.

Sure, but “if everything breaks right this will be an ok contract” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement in the moment.

[Revenged25]

Did they? Allen is a fine player but he’s by no means a guy you can’t afford to lose, especially for a rebuilding team. $20 million a year for a non-All Star 5 is a pretty significant overpay and I don’t think he would have commanded that on the open market. Unless he makes a big leap that contract is going to veer into negative value pretty quickly. Richuan Holmes got $12 million a year and while Allen is better and younger than Holmes, it’s not by enough to make him $8 million per year more valuable.

And even if you come into free agency thinking we’re not gonna let him walk no matter what, at least see if the market will bear $20 million a year before you offer it to him on day 1.

Depends on the structure and projections of Allen. If they front loaded it as well as projected him to improve to around Capela level, then it's a perfectly fine deal.

Sure, but “if everything breaks right this will be an ok contract” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement in the moment.

I mean even if he only slightly improves, it makes the deal only a slight overpay. Plus that's only if they want to move him that it matters much. I think Mobley so far in SL shows that he'll end up staying at PF as his primary position.

[toooskies]

Worst: Inaction. No progress on any of the issues from last year. A team that was bad due to inexperience, injury, lack of depth, team drama, questionable fit, poor 3-point shooting, and poor 3-point defense has no reason to believe any of those problems will be less of a problem next year. They still have some options, but not a lot of good ones left.

Best: Rubio trade. Prince was never going to be a core guy or veteran leader with the Cavs and having an experienced PG should keep the second team together a lot better than Sexton playing out of position at PG. He should also have plenty to teach the young guys about running the team and playing defense. And if Sexton (or Garland) gets traded or hurt or needs to be benched to learn some lessons, you still have a respectable starting lineup.

[Devilanche]

Best : not going all in and trading sexton or trying to bring in some vets to chase the playoff . I think they should be challenging for the play in though this season at least with internal improvements .

Honorable mention : the Rubio move . I think he’s a pretty good vet to have around . Just to teach the kids how to play and to set up the team etc .
I think he might be able to help out sexton a lot . But that could be me overly optimistic .

Worst : I think they need one more steady vet around to push the team to at least challenge for the play ins . And they traded/ sign for nobody that might help them get there.

[toooskies]

$20 million a year for a non-All Star 5 is a pretty significant overpay and I don’t think he would have commanded that on the open market.

There's no reason to believe that Allen isn't going to be in the Myles Turner/Clint Capela range of value, and this contract is basically the same as theirs when adjusting for the increasing cap.

Whereas all-star centers (Gobert, Embiid, Jokic, Vucevic) are making $25m+ annually, with all but Vuc on or heading to supermax deals that will pay them more than double Allen's contract.

Don't get me wrong, the Cavs paid retail price here. But that's fine for the first young guy on a long-term commitment during a rebuild.