So long, David Griffin

[shoes22]

I’ve been saying this all year long, but there’s a 50/50 chance that Griffin walks away this offseason.

Being GM of this team is a pretty thankless job, and after winning a championship it’s not like he has more to prove.

 

[cavsfever]

Well, Lebron publicly supporting him definitely helps with the "thankless" part.

I think he'll stay, yeah it must be frustrating to be capped out with few or no draft picks, but it's a pretty interesting professional challenge to every year be trying to find the missing piece for a team that is high in the mix for an NBA championship.

 

[shoes22]

Well, Lebron publicly supporting him definitely helps with the "thankless" part.

I think he'll stay, yeah it must be frustrating to be capped out with few or no draft picks, but it's a pretty interesting professional challenge to every year be trying to find the missing piece for a team that is high in the mix for an NBA championship.

Yeah, it's a cool challenge if you're someone who thrives in that sort of environment, but sometimes I think after a certain point, being GM of this Cavs team the risk becomes greater than the reward.

If you think about it from Griffin's shoes, he's in a constant high pressure situation with a win-now team, and because he has no real assets or draft picks to work with, the positive or negative impact of the few deals he does make get magnified tenfold.

If any move he makes (or doesn't make) causes the team to struggle, he will be slammed mercilessly for it. And if they do well, LeBron will get all the credit anyway. It really sucks that in this business, a GM is doing a good job when you barely notice that they're there. When was the last time anyone heard from San Antonio's GM? How many non-diehards even know his name? People know head coaches in this league, both good and bad. But for GMs people only know the shitty ones, and they get paid less even though they have a higher responsibility for the team's long-term success than the coach.

I've gone on record for years now as having fundamental disagreements with Griffin's roster construction philosophy, but I don't envy his job at all and he's done a great job navigating the pressure aspect and the built-in distractions that come with being GM of this team.

 

[rastamon87]

I’ve been saying this all year long, but there’s a 50/50 chance that Griffin walks away this offseason.

Being GM of this team is a pretty thankless job, and after winning a championship it’s not like he has more to prove.

Hopefully, he doesn't walk away... I could only imagine how hard it is to deal with lbj, rich paul and gilbert and keep everyone happy....

He may be also be looking for a new challenge and want to build a team from scratch with his fingerprints all over it... there should be a bunch of teams willing to take him in...

Wish he would stay, given the overall situation... regardless whether the Cavs win a title this year or not, it's hard to argue that Griffin did not do a pretty nice job as a GM... somethings are just out of his control...

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[dark2332]

I really like David Griffin. I think he's shrewd, and a great fit as our GM. I want him here.

That said, if I'm him, I would walk away this offseason, 100% to the highest bidder.

Currently, he doesn't get enough credit for what he's able to do with a barren chest of assets. When he pulls off a good move, it was "LeBron being GM" and when a move doesn't work as planned, it sets us back big-time due to our cap situation.

He already did the unthinkable and was a part of bringing a title to the cursed city. It's time to get off the boat before she goes a capsizin'.

Everyone is getting older. The Warriors will be a force for the next 4 years. If he re-signs this offseason and the Cavs fail to win a title the next two years, he'd be fired out of desperation as the pressure to take advantage of LeBron mounts.

If he goes somewhere rebuilding on a long contract, he would have a chance at seeing the end of it. Here? Once LBJ declines even slightly, so do our chances. It's going to be an ugly transition at some point. Luckily, not for a few seasons.

Now, even with this LeBron, we must admit that it's a tough road to continue to battle for a championship. We are certainly no favorites. This team can play good basketball and still not win it. Not to mention, I'm not so sure we have enough left on the roster or in the asset-bin to swing in deals and greatly enhance our talent-level.

This is the core of the group, all what's really left is to sit back and let them do their thing, aside from a few role moves here or there. We certainly can win again. We were underdogs last year, too. But make no mistake, we are underdogs for the remainder of his tenure, even though we have "Goliath."

 

[Cassity14]

Let's talk about reasons why Griffin could possibly want this job over the vast majority of GM jobs around the league:

He has a big 3 that he assembled. He lucked into LeBron's return, but he was the one who signed Kyrie at 12:01 am to an extension and made the Love trade. To those advocating he may want to build a team with his ideal image in mind, I'd argue he already has.

He runs a desirable franchise. People want to play here. This gives him a lot of options when filling out the roster. He isn't having to do much convincing of free agents.

Money isn't really an issue. Obviously Gilbert has a spending limit, but that limit is astronomical compared to a lot of franchises around the league. Gilbert can also be convinced to shell out a few extra bucks when it's clearly worth it.

Professional leeway. It' pretty clear to me that Dan isn't as involved with Griff as he was with Grant. Griffin was allowed to fire Blatt midseason and make the roster moves he's made.

Name recognition. If this is something Griffin enjoys, his name gets out there because of this job.

I'm not saying that the reasons above this post aren't valid and/or potentially true, or that Griff isn't under arguably the most stress of anyone in the organization, but this specific job has its perks too.

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

@Sir'Dom Pointer since you said I only ever make positive posts this one is for you

I genuinely don't care if Griffin is back next year. I think he is an average GM. I think there are easily better GMs out there, but I also think there are easily worse GMs out there. Which is why I wouldn't mind sticking with Griffin. We've had so many God awful GMs that I think Griffin is propped up on a pedestal because he isn't atrocious.

But I mean really the amount of praise given to this guy for the Bogut and Deron signings is laughable. Cuban is just a tremendous player's owner and everyone wants to play with LeBron. How the fuck are those at all shrewd moves attributable to Griffin?

I'll give him some credit for Derrick Williams because he wasn't really on anyone's radar, but then I also detract credit from him because his hand picked coach is too shortsighted to ever use him.

The Korver trade was great. Like I said he is average. I'm not making him out to be an awful GM. He has made some good trades.

The Shumpert trade: The gem of the trade was the guy that was bringing the price down because of how much he wasn't wanted. LeBron even had to vouch for JR. I'm not giving Griffin credit for JR Smith. Shump was good for a season, but he got paid and completely mailed it in since.

This guy is given the most financial flexibility of any GM of all time and his depth is overwhelmingly reliant on people wanting to play for LeBron.

But Griffin will live and die by his Lue extension. And right now it's looking questionable.

I think the whole super shrewd playing everyone in the league narrative is merely because of how bad our previous GMs have been.

 

[Rich]

I thought the Deron Williams pickup was a no-brainer, as was Bogut. They haven't worked. But they were still the right moves for the situation we were in.

Now, as to why we were in that situation...I'll save that for after the playoffs.

But the idea that he's a super genius GM that has done things no one else could do....no.

 

[rastamon87]

I thought the Deron Williams pickup was a no-brainer, as was Bogut. They haven't worked. But they were still the right moves for the situation we were in.

Now, as to why we were in that situation...I'll save that for after the playoffs.

But the idea that he's a super genius GM that has done things no one else could do....no.

I think this is more of a coaching and player chemistry issue... but at the end of tge day the coaches should be able to figure it out, DWill no matter how you feel about him is no scrub...

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[shoes22]

I think this is more of a coaching and player chemistry issue...

This is one of the responsibilities of the GM to determine beforehand.

 

[rastamon87]

This is one of the responsibilities of the GM to determine beforehand.

imho, it is more of a coaching issue... they were clamoring to get another pg/ballhandler and they got dwill... what did they do next? They made him a spotup shooter, which is not really his strenght... the chemistry thing is a result of the losing, they are starting to get into each other nerves because of losing...

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[Jordan]

I thought the Deron Williams pickup was a no-brainer, as was Bogut. They haven't worked. But they were still the right moves for the situation we were in.

Now, as to why we were in that situation...I'll save that for after the playoffs.

But the idea that he's a super genius GM that has done things no one else could do....no.

When LeBron signed we had a fuck-ton of assets. He has burned through literally every one, and now, we have a roster that goes eight deep and may not be the third best in the NBA. A lot of that has to fall on Griffin.

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

This guy is given an unlimited amount of swings and misses

I mean I guess I'm happy that we are able to cut our losses, but holy shit. People talking about how hard Griffin's job is, can you give me a list of owners willing to sign a guy for a month, cut him, then sign a multiyear deal on a complete unknown who has played 13 games in the NBA who, let's be honest, has a risk of suffering the same fate as Larry?

Liggins, Bogut, McAss, Sanders, Birdman

I get two of those were injuries you can't do anything about, but Griffin is extremely fortunate Dan basically gives no fucks. It's time to stop pretending Griffin is playing against a stacked deck. The deck is stacked in his favor

 

[inliner311]

Im amazed by all the roster turnover this year. If Griff is back next year, hopefully he has learned from this wait and see approach. I wonder if there is a real disconnect between Griff's vision to develop players and Lue inability to trust young players.

Lue really has refused to give minutes to young players even in throw away games. I wouldn't be surprised if Sanders asked to be released after getting 2 minutes in the heat game. It's sad that all the youth on this team with potential has been jettison. I feel like Felder would be gone too if Gilbert wasn't such a fan.

 

[Tornicade]

Im amazed by all the roster turnover this year. If Griff is back next year, hopefully he has learned from this wait and see approach. I wonder if there is a real disconnect between Griff's vision to develop players and Lue inability to trust young players.

Lue really has refused to give minutes to young players even in throw away games. I wouldn't be surprised if Sanders asked to be released after getting 2 minutes in the heat game. It's sad that all the youth on this team with potential has been jettison. I feel like Felder would be gone too if Gilbert wasn't such a fan.

uh Sanders would of been fouled out in 5 minutes.
he wasn't ready for NBA speed. He needs more d league time or a full training camp.