Cleveland Cavaliers at Top of LaMarcus Aldridge's Destination List

[mhi]

All this means is that we can easily round out the rest of our roster, when we exorcise the Perkins, Marion, Haywoods of the roster.

 

[Bob_The_Cat]

If Splitter is healthy, he would be an amazing back up to Mozgov. We won't be the only team trying to pry him away though.

That would be a really solid big rotation. Love, TT, Andy, Mozgov, & Splitter.

The thing that really scares me about that rotation is the lack of another floor spacer at the 4 or 5. I really like Splitter, and if the Cavs can't/won't resign TT, Tiago would be a good replacement.

However, playing any two of TT, AV, Mozgov, and Splitter together would just destroy the floor spacing. The Cavs need a big on the floor at all times who can stretch the floor to fully take advantage of the abilities of Kyrie and LeBron.

To really have this make sense for the Cavs, I'm assuming they'd have to find a way to do an S&T involving Thompson. A move to get a guy like Ryan Anderson from the Pelicans could potentially make a lot of sense combined with a Splitter trade.

Anderson + Quincy Pondexter = $11.6 mill

Right in the range of what TT wants. Pondexter would give the Cavs another guy who can swing between SG/SF (37% career 3P shooter, 43% after joining NO this season) and a pretty good defender as well.

Those two trades would make way more sense to me than flopping Love for Aldridge or just adding Splitter on his own. It'd make the Cavs much deeper and also give them the ability to really throw some crazy lineups out there. This is what the depth chart would look like following those two trades:

PG: Kyrie, Delly
SG: Smith, Shumpert
SF: James, Pondexter
PF: Love, Anderson, AV
C: Mozgov, Splitter, AV

Throw in some ring chasing vets and you have a far more versatile roster that is not only more balanced but also better able to regulate minutes.

Think about some of the lineups Blatt could throw out with a roster like that. Need a 3 ball lineup or some instant offense? Have LeBron play point-forward with Kyrie, Smith, Love, and Anderson and watch opposing teams have nightmares trying to deal with the floor spacing.

 

[ThirdWorld]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of trading with San Antonio.

Haywood, Harris, pick compensation for Splitter and Mills.

Boom.

We fill our holes and the Spurs get LA.

Can Cavs just get Danny Green back instead of Patty Thrills especially if Pops retire?

 

[AMC]

I like the idea of Ryan Anderson; always have thought he would be a great fit next to LeBron (other than Love) at the 4.

I am also curious as to what kind of goodies the Cavs could get if we sent Haywood for Channing Frye's contract. He is playoff experienced, can stretch the floor when Love is resting.

Perhaps a future pick and Moe Harkless. Harkless has the potential to be a great defender, and a pick could be used in future deals.

 

[Hydroponic3385]

I'm hoping the Cavs prioritize a SF/PF type combo player who can knock down some jumpers and play solid D (whether it's using Haywood's contract, the mini-MLE and/or our draft pick). Delly at back-up PG & Shump or JR as back-up SG/SF seem fine to me. TT & Andy is a great bigs duo off the bench. But a SF/PF to spell Lebron would be huge (and it would also contribute to our bigs rotation, which is important since we don't know how much we'll get from Andy). I'm thinking someone like the Heat's version of Battier (esp. 2012/13 version), or Marion from a couple years ago. I'd consider a guy like Anderson as well since he can obviously be a great backup for Love's shooting, but can he play SF at all?

 

[Cavsfan1985]

I like the idea of Ryan Anderson; always have thought he would be a great fit next to LeBron (other than Love) at the 4.

I am also curious as to what kind of goodies the Cavs could get if we sent Haywood for Channing Frye's contract. He is playoff experienced, can stretch the floor when Love is resting.

Perhaps a future pick and Moe Harkless. Harkless has the potential to be a great defender, and a pick could be used in future deals.

I think this is what we do. We don't need another star player, we have 3 star players, and when healthy the top 8 players on the team are a great balance and fit great. We need to add some depth on the bench and find a way to get a few assets. I we could make a trade like this we would have a ton of depth all of a sudden. We would get Andy back plus pick up Fry, we could run a 5 man big man rotation in the reg season to keep guys fresh.

Lets face it, the reason we have no depth this year is we have Miller, Jones, Haywood, Perk, Shawn taking up 5 roster spots. We will lose 3 if not 4 unless we keep Perk. I we can replace them with NBA players we all of a sudden have a deep bench.

 

[theSwayze]

I expect the Bulls to make a hard run at LMA. They should offer everything that isn't a Rose or a Butler.

 

[AMC]

I expect the Bulls to make a hard run at LMA. They should offer everything that isn't a Rose or a Butler.

I don't think the Bulls are under that certain cap level to make a S&T.

Otherwise a deal around a combination of Noah, Gibson, Snell, or Mirotic would be nice for Portland.

 

[gourimoko]

I don't think the Bulls are under that certain cap level to make a S&T.

Otherwise a deal around a combination of Noah, Gibson, Snell, or Mirotic would be nice for Portland.

They need to reduce their salary obligation below the apron post-trade. So it's more important to think of what trades bring them below the apron, rather than where they are now.

 

[Dr. Gymbo]

I'm all for helping Chicago trade Noah to Sacramento or Minnesota.

 

[DougHeil]

I think any talk of trading TT or allowing TT to walk because we won't pay him what's offered out there needs to be trashed. TT will be a Cavalier next year. Guaranteed. Just ask LeBron.

 

[OhioSlayer]

TT dominated the Bulls. I'm fine with him being on the Cavs long term with his work ethic.

 

[gourimoko]

I think any talk of trading TT or allowing TT to walk because we won't pay him what's offered out there needs to be trashed. TT will be a Cavalier next year. Guaranteed. Just ask LeBron.

Why?

This is dangerous thinking..

What if Thompson is overperforming? How far do you expect him to continue to develop?

If this is a time where we can sell high, and I'm talking max contract sky-fucking-high. Count me in on trading him.

Yes, he's a great, fantastic, specialist. He's developing into something quite a bit more special, but, we're at a crossroads where time, Father Time, is looming large over our best player.

I don't think anyone can say with a straight face (as they were a month ago) that James hasn't regressed. I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that Irving is not injury prone (and I say this as the biggest Kyrie fan on this site). I'm not even going to address Kevin Love.

Now is the time to make moves. Not once we realize it after the fact.

 

[MirORich]

Why?

This is dangerous thinking..

What if Thompson is overperforming? How far do you expect him to continue to develop?

If this is a time where we can sell high, and I'm talking max contract sky-fucking-high. Count me in on trading him.

Yes, he's a great, fantastic, specialist. He's developing into something quite a bit more special, but, we're at a crossroads where time, Father Time, is looming large over our best player.

I don't think anyone can say with a straight face (as they were a month ago) that James hasn't regressed. I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that Irving is not injury prone (and I say this as the biggest Kyrie fan on this site). I'm not even going to address Kevin Love.

Now is the time to make moves. Not once we realize it after the fact.

Appreciate your "cover every angle" approach. It's the sound way to look at things. But you have to acknowledge that regardless of what IS possible, the far most likely scenario involving Tristan is that he stays here for a contract in the 11-15 million per year range. For so many reasons. It's easier for us as fans to look around the league and compare contracts and assign values to players, but at this point, the Cavs are looking at this from a sustain/grow excellence and culture viewpoint. Unless Gilbert decides he has a numeric value he won't go above, the edict from LeBron and Blatt will most likely be to just bring all the main guys back and add to them, focusing on young, athletic two way players

The most likely avenues of us adding depth and versatility to this roster(besides Love and Andy returing healthy) are:

24th pick

Taxpayer MLE(I think this is around 2.7-3 million per year)

Haywood contract(could see the pick, Harris, or a future pick bundled with this)

 

[MirORich]

Also, in regards to Tristan receiving a close to MAX contract from another team.

It's one thing for a team to decide to use salary cap space to sign TT to a max offer sheet as an RFA.

It's another thing entirely for a team to not only give TT a max deal but also deal out draft picks or talent to get him.

To me, for our team, TT is worth a high value because of what he does and because that since we have his bird rights and are already past the point were we can acquire players via FA with cap space, we:

A: can keep him without losing other players
B: if we let him walk for nothing, we can not sign someone else in at that pay value

So while I con't doubt another team might extend an RFA offer of somewhere starting at 13 million per all the way up to the Max for a 2nd contract, I find it pretty unlikely that a team will do that with a trade in mind where they also have to give up players and/or picks to bring him in at that price.