Luol Deng

[The Cav Sloth]

I totally agree. It is like the harder he tries to earn his next big contract the worse he looks. He looks so unathletic. He forces everything and gets blocked or takes a bad shot. I can't imagine what he will look like in three years. I loved the idea of having him on our team when he was first traded but now I really hope we don't re-sign him. I'm still not mad about giving up the picks we did to get him. It was worth the chance of it working out. Unless something changes with him soon, I hope some other team out bids us.

 

[godfather]

Any team that pays him big money will look really stupid in a few years. Even if his achilles injury is slowing him down, why would any team feel comfortable giving him a big contract, given his age, and history of injuries? It has that bad Josh Smith/Joe Johnson written all over it.

Let him walk, don't even think about throwing money at him. I don't think he's literally this bad. Part of its probably Mike Brown/health, but that only proves the point why we shouldn't want him back. Not at his asking price.

 

[oasis05]

You can't just let Deng walk. this is Cleveland. You retain your talent. no one is going to come here. We have no more top draft picks coming with this talent infusion. If Deng, and Hawes walk you are back to the drawing board, and Irving is leaving. No way he signs an extension when the team is going to be right back in high lottery with the exodus of the free agents.

If Deng walks we're back to not having a small forward. That was not a fun time.

 

[shukle]

Yep that's the problem... We have no small forward. But as everybody said, we should in no way throw max or near max money at Deng. 30mil/3yr sounds like the most I'd give him and I wouldn't even feel comfortable doin it. Since he turned that down for the Bulls, it prolly takes AT LEAST 12mil/yr from us to keep him. He is no worth it.

Look, Chicago is doing just fine without him (Thibs being Thibs might be part of the reason), we aren't that much better with him around. He is obviously miles better than anything we have though...

Hopefully, playing for Brown has dropped his value around the league and we get to keep him at like 9/10mil/yr, but I highly doubt it. If we loose Deng, I have no clue what freakin SF we are gonna find honestly.

 

[Toph]

We do run an offense. The problem is that it's just a series of pick-and-rolls/pops

Exactly. It's pretty sad when your head coach is quoted laughing about how simple the offense is. Funny and depressing at the same time.

 

[AvonCavsFan]

Seriously, how bad has MB's offense made Deng look on offense? Honestly, if I had a guess, I would say Deng is shooting around 35% with us... Does anyone know what he really is shooting with us?

I don't want to be totally rude, but this is just lazy. You can google and get the answer in a minute. Instead you want others to do it for you?!??

http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/

 

[AvonCavsFan]

Hmm... I wonder why.. :detective

I agree a lot of this is our crappy offense.

But that does not excuse Luol from forcing shots and drives that are just not there. He has done this constantly recently.

I warned that we should temper our enthusiasm right after we traded for him. Part of it was he is/was not a good outside shooter, and I really didn't think MB's offense would help him at all.

 

[Baseline Runner]

Deng is the premier defensive stopper at the SF position, look how he did against Durant the other night. Having Deng is no small matter when the league's top teams all feature offensively gifted SFs whether Lebron, Paul George or Durant. And for those dumping on his offense, he still looks great to me. He has a good jump shot, he is crafty around the basket and he is a good passer. He hasn't forced the offense as much since we've had Hawes. And since we've had Deng all we've done is won, whether the 6 game win streak or defeating OKC on the road. I'm not sure where the negativity on Deng is coming from.

 

[supermario21]

My negativity is the feeling that I don't think he wants to be here next year. I'd be thrilled if we could retain him and Spencer. He is undervalued here because even if he is having an off shooting night, his defense tends to make up for it. Adding Hawes reduces his workload on O and I think with an offseason here in Cleveland he could get healthy. I think if we finish strong he stays.

 

[Kizzle]

It's not fair but Deng is a guy I think WE have to pay 10+ mil to keep or I bet a team like LA or MIA signs him for fucking MLE. People wonder why good teams are always good well this is why folks. Free agency has pretty much become a competition between like 4-6 fucking teams to get talent. Deng has played really bad tho he's driving his price down with every failed drive attempt. We don't want that but if his market value falls so much we WILL slightly overpay for him so that could help us. From what Iv seen Deng is still a starter caliber player but man he needs to accept he can't drive and make more open jumpers

 

[D-westfan]

Deng had his best game as a cav imo last night.

 

[Soar]

The teams that miss out on Lebron and Melo, assuming they even become free agents, will be engaging in a bidding war for Deng. That is a war I'm not sure we can win and a war that I'm not sure is worth fighting.

 

[DatDudeZ3]

Hell no, it's not worth fighting for... I would rather throw that money at a younger SF that is pretty solid and has room to grow.

 

[CavsFanJapan]

The teams that miss out on Lebron and Melo, assuming they even become free agents, will be engaging in a bidding war for Deng. That is a war I'm not sure we can win and a war that I'm not sure is worth fighting.

If it comes down to a bidding war then that would be great. If a team wants to pay him and he doesn't want to stay here then we could possibly do a sign trade. It does not bother me one way or another if we keep him, trade him or he walks as long as we don't overpay him.

 

[kovanovich]

I no longer have ESPN Insider, but a few days ago Amin Elhassan wrote an article on what the 2014 free agents should get paid this year. He says Deng is worth 3 years/$22.5 million. Again, I have not read the actual article, so I am not sure if he is using PER or some other metric as the basis for determining "value," or "contribution to winning." Obviously, he does factor in age and injury history.

http://www.slcdunk.com/nba-free-agency/2014/2/27/5454292/nba-free-agency-2014-lebron-james-carmelo-anthony-chris-bosh-dirk-nowitzki