Revenged25 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:How much smoke is around Lavert? He is not my #1 choice but dumping Rubio for him seems ill-advised.
Ive been begging to get a guy like Rubio on this team since 2007 and we finally have one (albeit hes injured) and we want to dump him for a average player who would fight for mins with Okoro/Stevens/Cedi?
I just dont see it as a clear enough upgrade to basically demote Okoro/Stevens.
This offense/team fires on all cylinders when Garland/Rubio are on the court together. I would like to continue that for the next 3 years or so until Rubio is fried. His impact on this team is immeasurable as we have seen the Cavs struggle to win games against bad teams since his injury and the defenses can hone in on Garland.
I would much rather package Sexton + protected 1st for a good player rather than getting rid of Rubio.
The question is.....what could we get for Sexton + protected 1st? It better be somebody better than Lavert lol
If Sexton had a higher salary to match with the players then sure, but the problem is that any trade involving Sexton + protected 1st to get a better player would likely still include someone like Rubio to match salaries. Also Sexton is a better version of LeVert, just shorter. The Cavs aren't winning a title this year unless they avoid bad match-ups the entire run, so they'd be better off just letting the guys learn and then next year making a move at the deadline if they are still competitive. Also the only reason it makes sense to trade Rubio now is if they don't plan on trying to resign him in the offseason.
I'm not enthralled with LeVert but he does check some important boxes in that he can create offense, create his own shot, and as a scorer is better than Rubio ... and he's not a PG that would be trying to play SG ... he is a combo guard with solid height/length.
He's also run point before if we decide we like how that looks, or he can be paired with Rondo when Garland is sitting. And if you're looking for a connection, it's that he and Allen played together in Brooklyn and are presumably friendly/friends.
Also trading Rubio does not prevent us from re-signing him this Summer (or after he recovers), it just means we can't use Bird rights. In fact, if he's not ready to play well in to next season we can incentivize him re-signing with us by committing to him before he's recovered. We should have all the medical information to at least consider taking calculated risk that other teams may not. Double ACL surgery to the same knee is going to scare teams off of a player with a lot of mileage.
If the price is right, I'd love to see Altman try to shore up the roster. There's plenty of reasons why we may not be ready to make any noise in the post season, but things don't always happen as you expect; and failing to exploit an opportunity because we didn't bother to make some small tweaks would be sad.
Also, in every possible way these guys are hitting well above their weight and a playoff series often comes down to how the refs decide to call the games. The faster we gain the respect of the refs in comparison to that of our opponent in a series - the faster we will make a dent in the playoffs. The seed is being planted ... the idea that Mobley and Allen can't be scored on in the paint is growing.