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Chris Grant - Cavaliers GM

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Never heard that and I can't believe he wouldn't jump on it if true. He wasn't a max guy, but he was worth what he got, imo(I believe it was 10.5).

Umm...reported by Joe Freeman of The Oregonian

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/i...ers_building_blocks_nicolas_batum_the_ga.html

The site below loads quicker but the above link is the whole article

http://www.blazersedge.com/2012/10/...fered-nicolas-batum-52-million-in-free-agency


Joe Freeman of The Oregonian has a season preview piece on Portland Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum, who says he's not feeling pressure now that he has a new contract and offers some insight into this summer's machinations, which included some tense back-and-forth moments after he expressed a preference for signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves instead of the Blazers.

By the time the day [July 1] ended, Batum says, 16 teams had called his agent, Bouna Ndiaye, to express interest. Minnesota, New Orleans, Toronto and Cleveland were most aggressive. And despite what you might think, Minnesota did not offer the most money. A source with knowledge of Batum's free agency says Cleveland offered a whopping $52 million.

"That was exciting," Batum says. "At this time, I didn't know what the rest of the league was thinking about me. I knew the Blazers loved me, wanted to keep me, but I didn't know what the other teams were thinking about me. I wanted to know who I am in this league. On July 1st, I was like, 'Wow.' "
...
Olshey had said on multiple occasions the Blazers would match any offer sheet for Batum. But was he bluffing? Batum didn't know.

"The thing is, I wanted to challenge them," he says. "Because I'm European. And when people say, 'We love you,' they show you they love you. That's a stupid European, French thing. But it's true. After what happened in January, I wanted them to show me they loved me."
 
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I'm just highly doubting that's true. If it was, Batum would have signed the sheet, even if he didn't want to come to Cleveland. Portland would have matched and he'd be making more money today.
 
http://www.realcavsfans.com/showthr...atum-the-max&p=1447663&viewfull=1#post1447663
@realcavsfans
I call Shenanigans on @BlazerFreeman sources saying the Cavs offered 52 million for Batum. I use Shenanigans because bullshit is too harsh.

http://www.realcavsfans.com/showthr...atum-the-max&p=1447666&viewfull=1#post1447666
Ben said:
"Exploratory talks with his agent. Agent wanted a max deal and the Cavs politely hung up the phone".

http://www.realcavsfans.com/showthr...atum-the-max&p=1447876&viewfull=1#post1447876
Joe Henderson said:
Just watch this become part of Cavs fan lore, like not wanting to trade Hickson for Amare'...
 
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I'm just highly doubting that's true. If it was, Batum would have signed the sheet, even if he didn't want to come to Cleveland. Portland would have matched and he'd be making more money today.

Ya, that's pretty much a guaranteed assumption. Even if he didn't want to play here, the Blazers still would have probably matched. Although I'm glad Grant didn't offer the max to him, I'd have a hard time believing a guy like Batum would walk away from it. As much as I wanted him here, I never wanted him here for the max.
 
Ya, that's pretty much a guaranteed assumption. Even if he didn't want to play here, the Blazers still would have probably matched. Although I'm glad Grant didn't offer the max to him, I'd have a hard time believing a guy like Batum would walk away from it. As much as I wanted him here, I never wanted him here for the max.

Agreed. Plus, Chris Grant had that big interview piece recently where he explicitly stated part of his plan was not overpaying for free agents this early in the rebuild. Offering Batum the max would have been doing exactly that, which is why I don't buy it.
 


Time to open Pandoras box..if agent hadn't insisted on max deal ,would Grant have bit??
That would be your starting SF..
 
Fixed ..but to further the thought, would Grant have bit and signed him?
People are saying not to add talent in order to stick to the plan.
If you add a player like that,it puts Gee on the bench or not even resigned. But it accelerates the growth quicker.
Some don't want that.
 
Fixed ..but to further the thought, would Grant have bit and signed him?
People are saying not to add talent in order to stick to the plan.
If you add a player like that,it puts Gee on the bench or not even resigned. But it accelerates the growth quicker.
Some don't want that.

As far as contracts go, I really don't like the idea of paying non-stars over ten million a year. Batum is definitely not a star right now, and while I think he's a solid player, I don't think he'll ever be a star. Those contracts in the area of ten million to good but not great guys are the contracts that kill teams.

The only guys making over ten million should be foundation guys. The rest should be making the MLE or less.

There are exceptions, of course. Like if a team intentionally takes on a bad contract to gain an important asset. But I see that as taking advantage of a team that previously gave out a stupid contract like the one Batum got. The Ben Gordon trade is another great example, where the Pistons had to give up a first-rounder to Charlotte just to get Gordon off their books.
 
Grant said that in the early days of the rebuild that the Cavs would target young, overlooked veterans who for one reason or another hadn't really worked out yet. I must say that Grant's record in identifying good players this way has been mixed at best...Casspi, Miles, Harangody, Erden...I'll give Grant the benefit of the doubt and not include Hollins in this group and instead just consider him a throw-in in the Sessions trade. So, not much invested in these guys (basically just Hickson whom the Cavs had clearly given up on anyway), but also not much to show for it. We can also add Leuer to this list, though it's too soon to say any much on him at this point.

The other route Grant has explored to fill out the roster is the D-League/UFA pool. He's been marginally more successful here. Gee has been a plus (though he quite frankly hasn't been too good this year with his poor shooting efficiency and subpar rebounding). Sloan and the other D-League PGs who have passed through have been meh at best. The Cavs are now in the third year (hard to believe) of the Samardo experiment, and he still hasn't amounted to much. Micheal Eric and Kevin Jones were given guaranteed money and couldn't even make the team.

He has not even bothered to use a second round pick.

I mean, you can't expect these routes to yield front line players, but we might have expected a bit more at this point.

Grant has definitely been building with delayed gratification in mind. The beginning of Jim Paxson's tenure as a GM was very similar. It was a minor miracle that he flipped 46 million dollars of crack -namely Shawn Kemp's remaining contract- into expiring contracts, cash and a first rounder. Lamond Murray turned into Yogi Stewart and a first rounder from the terrible Raptors. Even Wes Person for the Matt Barnes draft rights made some sense for a rebuild. Paxson started off Chris Grant-esque.

Paxson fell apart when it came time to turn those delayed gratification moves into a talented team. He wasted draft picks on reaches, he traded first round picks for white swingmen, he fell in love with players other teams drafted who showed warning signs as rookies (Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic, JR Bremer to name a few).

So I can nod an agreement to Chris Grant's blueprint to the beginnings of this rebuild, but he needs to impress with the middle game. How is he going to use these assets? How attached is he to projects that show limited upside (Samuels, Harangody, etc)? Why has only one of Grant's young low-risk investments in coaching time paid off (Gee)?

These are factors some fans need to begin considering. It's year three of the rebuild.
 
I give CG a 9.

Look at where we have come from in 2010. No future assets, zero young talent, large contracts for players on the decline (Mo, Antwan, etc.), and the best player in the league just left your team.

2.5 years later we have a slew of future picks (probably the most in the league and we owe nothing to anyone else), a superstar at argubly the most important postion, 4 VERY young players with lots of upside, a top big man that he has the option to flip for even more picks/youung players, a respected and experienced coach, and probably the best situation in terms of cap space in the league. Oh yeah he has also set this team up to be in the lottery one more time,which is something we definitely need. I really think the playoffs would only hurt us this year.

Every trade he has made, we have won. (How good does the Justin Harper trade, which I hated at the time, look right now?) The guy would be a beast on Barter Kings. We are a LeBron deciding to come back decision away from being the best team in the league.

I don't think you could ask for more. If you would have told us 2.5 years ago this is where we would be at the start of the 2012 season, everyone here would take it. The only thing you could possibly say he was wrong about was Danny Green. But I mean, it's not like it's hard to find a player like him.

I think we are in good hands with Chris Grant at the helm. I do trust he will make the right decision on Andy and the draft. This team has one of the brighter futures in the NBA.
 
Grant has definitely been building with delayed gratification in mind. The beginning of Jim Paxson's tenure as a GM was very similar. It was a minor miracle that he flipped 46 million dollars of crack -namely Shawn Kemp's remaining contract- into expiring contracts, cash and a first rounder. Lamond Murray turned into Yogi Stewart and a first rounder from the terrible Raptors. Even Wes Person for the Matt Barnes draft rights made some sense for a rebuild. Paxson started off Chris Grant-esque.

Paxson fell apart when it came time to turn those delayed gratification moves into a talented team. He wasted draft picks on reaches, he traded first round picks for white swingmen, he fell in love with players other teams drafted who showed warning signs as rookies (Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic, JR Bremer to name a few).

So I can nod an agreement to Chris Grant's blueprint to the beginnings of this rebuild, but he needs to impress with the middle game. How is he going to use these assets? How attached is he to projects that show limited upside (Samuels, Harangody, etc)? Why has only one of Grant's young low-risk investments in coaching time paid off (Gee)?

These are factors some fans need to begin considering. It's year three of the rebuild.

Grant sees himself in year 2 of the build and thats how he will approach the mid season and offseason.
 
Bump. Grant certainly develops into a trade genius... getting first round picks for Sessions and Leuer ;-) What's next, another 1st rounder for Boobie?
 
CG gets a solid 8 right now, all things considered. When this thread was started, people were still trashing Thompson. My how things have changed.
 
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