What are the Cavs going to do at C?

NarlCavs said:

Cavs also need an influx of talent so having too many rookies shouldn't be a major issue either.

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It all depends whether we've got minutes for them. Young players tend to bitch & moan when they don't get consistent minutes because they feel like you're costing them their chance to earn millions - and of course they can drive the coaching staff nuts, if there aren't enough veterans around to show them how to act and how to play.

6 developmental players is probably pushing it as that lets you work 2 of them in to 2 different rotations while 2 others rotate in; but we've currently got 8.

As long as Tristan is starting, the Cavs are going to have to get a center with some kind of serviceable jumpshot. That's easier said the done though. That or TT develops a jumper over the year I don't see a frontcourt working with a PF/C with no range. OKC's offense stalled a lot in the playoffs with Perkins/Ibaka out there.

Pavlovic3Ball said:

As long as Tristan is starting, the Cavs are going to have to get a center with some kind of serviceable jumpshot. That's easier said the done though. That or TT develops a jumper over the year I don't see a frontcourt working with a PF/C with no range. OKC's offense stalled a lot in the playoffs with Perkins/Ibaka out there.

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OKC should of started Harden instead of Thabo, once they got Perkins.

Pavlovic3Ball said:

As long as Tristan is starting, the Cavs are going to have to get a center with some kind of serviceable jumpshot. That's easier said the done though. That or TT develops a jumper over the year I don't see a frontcourt working with a PF/C with no range. OKC's offense stalled a lot in the playoffs with Perkins/Ibaka out there.

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What if OKC added somebody like David West. Each player is good enough to be a starter and each would get 30+ mins but one has to come off the bench, it really doesn't matter which one. The Cavs have to believe they drafted their Kenyon Martin/Serge Ibaka type player and then find at least 2 other bigs to complement that, one being a scorer or shooter. And the shooter doesn't neccessarliy have to be a center...plenty of teams play 2 PF's together for decent stretches of games.

I'm baffled when I hear that we need this stretch C or scoring C thats hard to find... Can somebody explain why a defensive PF, defensive C, and scoring PF frontcourt wouldn't work?

*shrugs* Hopefully Tristan continues to improve on his jumper, and then we can move on to complaining about something else.

Rist77 said:

I'm baffled when I hear that we need this stretch C or scoring C thats hard to find... Can somebody explain why a defensive PF, defensive C, and scoring PF frontcourt wouldn't work?

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Agreed. To take the point one step further, I can't understand why this notion of a jump shooting front court player is such a recurring issue of contention right now. I think we've established that at least one big man with the ability to knock down a mid-range jumper is a necessity to seriously contend, but why are so many worried about it right now? At this point in the game, I think the entire franchise understands that this will not be a one or two year process, but rather one that will take multiple years to complete. We're not supposed to have our complete front court rotation (or even what type of players we want to fill it out) figured out for the next X amount of years yet. There are MANY drafts, trades, signings, etc yet to come. Those drafts, trades and signings (with regard to our big man rotation) will be directly impacted by the development of Tristan and possibly even Samardo. Lets worry about teaching this kid/kids what kind of consistent effort it takes to be a good NBA player, see how they develop over the next year or two, then revisit the long-term plan at C. Hell, I don't even think we necessarily need to look at Cs next year (unless there's a can't miss type of guy that comes out of nowhere)... For now, lets roll with AV, Erden, and Hollins, pick up high draft picks, and see what our new guys have over the course of a season or two.

Here is what happened on draft night.
1. The Cavs liked Kyrie best and drafted him.
2. The Cavs had a deal in place with the Kings where they would take either Jonas or TT.
3. The Cavs thought Jonas more likely to slide to 7, based on his buyout, so they drafted TT at #4, even though they had TT rated higher.
4. Toronto drafts Jonas and totally blows up the Cavs plan, as they are left with TT who they had ranked lower than Jonas.

This is what I get from reading an insane number of articles. The Cavs gambled that Jonas would slip and he did not, huge mistake.

JimmyJazz said:

This is what I get from reading an insane number of articles. The Cavs gambled that Jonas would slip and he did not, huge mistake.

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You obviously missed the one article on this forum by W&G where he said that deals like that are made in advance. The teams agree to the trade, we take the guy the Kings want, and then the Kings take the guy we want. The only case it doesn't happen is if the guy the Kings want isn't there when we're on the clock, or if none of the guys we want are guaranteed to last until when the Kings are picking. You see, it doesn't work unless there are multiple guys we'd be happy taking with their pick.

But as we know the deal didn't happen, neither did a deal with the Wizards, or the Bobcats ... so the only thing that tells you is that the player *they* wanted was not there at #4, or they were just blowing smoke screens and felt confident the guy they really wanted would fall to them.

Now maybe you're saying the goal was to trade JJ such that we ended up with Jonas and TT? And that we got cold feet because Jonas was off the board? That too seems unlikely because getting the #7 pick in this draft seems pretty good compared to getting a future non-lottery or late lottery pick in the unknown future - even if we didn't get the pair of players we wanted.

And if we're going to believe all these draft sites that had Jonas rated over Tristan, why don't we believe them when they say that Thompson was going to last until the #7 (Sacramento) or #8 (Piston's) pick?

And finally, how does any of this make sense when the Kings had already traded the #7 pick before the draft?

Are we supposed to believe that we were actually going to get the #10 pick that the Kings used to take Jimmer?

If that's the case, then how could any sane GM do the deal expecting JV to slide all the way to #10?

JimmyJazz said:

Here is what happened on draft night.
1. The Cavs liked Kyrie best and drafted him.
2. The Cavs had a deal in place with the Kings where they would take either Jonas or TT.
3. The Cavs thought Jonas more likely to slide to 7, based on his buyout, so they drafted TT at #4, even though they had TT rated higher.
4. Toronto drafts Jonas and totally blows up the Cavs plan, as they are left with TT who they had ranked lower than Jonas.

This is what I get from reading an insane number of articles. The Cavs gambled that Jonas would slip and he did not, huge mistake.

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Its very possible the trade portion of this could have been JJ to another team, for a pick that resulted in Jonas. Forgot the Kings traded from 7 to 10. Anyways Jonas should have been the pick. The great thing is that without basketball, we can argue back and forth over an over and over and over because there is no basketball to talk about. I am not hating TT, I think he could be a solid pro, I do think he will be a limited offensive player.

JimmyJazz said:

Here is what happened on draft night.
1. The Cavs liked Kyrie best and drafted him.
2. The Cavs had a deal in place with the Kings where they would take either Jonas or TT.
3. The Cavs thought Jonas more likely to slide to 7, based on his buyout, so they drafted TT at #4, even though they had TT rated higher.
4. Toronto drafts Jonas and totally blows up the Cavs plan, as they are left with TT who they had ranked lower than Jonas.

This is what I get from reading an insane number of articles. The Cavs gambled that Jonas would slip and he did not, huge mistake.

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1. Yes
2. Yes and No
3. Did you mean they had TT lower? If so then no but not by much...
4. No

If it is true that Tristan has some insane work ethic (a thousand jumpshots a day?) there will be no problem for him to improve his game.

If the Cavs had a deal in place to add pick #7 if one of the guys they wanted fell to that spot, and they had Jonas higher on their draft board, you think they would have grabbed Jonas at #4 since everything seems to point to Tristan staying on the draft board longer. Now they may have been making a play for both guys, but I have to think the reason why they took Tristan first was because he was higher on their draft board.

maomaopukspuks said:

If it is true that Tristan has some insane work ethic (a thousand jumpshots a day?) there will be no problem for him to improve his game.

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Shooting touch and a jump-shot can only be improved so much when it doesn't come natural to someone..

Douglar said:

If the Cavs had a deal in place to add pick #7 if one of the guys they wanted fell to that spot, and they had Jonas higher on their draft board, you think they would have grabbed Jonas at #4 since everything seems to point to Tristan staying on the draft board longer. Now they may have been making a play for both guys, but I have to think the reason why they took Tristan first was because he was higher on their draft board.

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Totally agree with that. I think Grant can be faulted for placing Tristan above Jonas on the draft board (or for having different priorities), but I can't imagine the Cavs would have picked Tristan at #4 if they had Jonas rated higher (just hoping he would fall to them later). There's no evidence (yet) that they tried to get fancy and somehow forgot to take Jonas when they really wanted him "more". They chose Tristan because they wanted him -- I don't think that part is too tricky.

My question is: what does the Princeton offense typically ask for of PF/C? We never really saw it run last year, and I'm wondering if PF/C have different responsibilities, and if Tristan's other skills will fit in.