There was a lot of activity in the NBA this week, and we're not just talking about the draft. Some of the NBA's big names and better teams were in on it.
Here's a quick look at the trades that went down and what they mean:
The Thinking: The Cavaliers get an aging O'Neal, with the hope that he can have a productive year playing alongside LeBron James. The only way this trade is a success is if the Cavaliers are the 2009-10 NBA champions. For the Suns, trading O'Neal means that they are beyond tinkering and are leaning toward turning over the personnel of a team that missed the playoffs last season.
The Cavaliers have successfully made the jump from "very good" to "elite" by absolutely destroying opponents on both sides of the ball. They've defied logic by proving that stingy defense and dominant offense can go hand in hand, allowing the fewest points in the league (90.4) while scoring the second-most (104.0). This isn't just a legitimate championship contender, folks; if they keep this up, it will go down as one of the best seasons of all-time.
But while the team has caught all the breaks so far, their depth will be tested in the short-term. Sixth-man Daniel Gibson sprained a toe last night and will rest for the next two weeks, at which point he'll be re-evaluated. Can the Cavs keep chugging along?
Considering their average point difference is +13.6 points, it stands to reason they can lose a guy averaging just 9.4 points a night without too much concern. Not to pile on, but Cavs might actually be better for it. Gibson has started to turn things around the last few games, but on the season he's shooting just .402, including .310 from beyond the arc. Statistically speaking, letting a combination of Sasha Pavlovic (.415 / .389), Delonte West (.472 / .411) and Wally Szczerbiak (.480 / .349) absorb Gibson's 24.3 minutes a game should make the Cavs even more efficient, especially when you factor his non-existent defense.
Whenever the mood strikes, FanHouse will break down the current leaders in the race for league MVP. Ground rules: injuries matter, and so do recent events.
1. LeBron James: Not only has LeBron dominated in two meetings over the player holding down the two spot in these rankings, but he's now dragging his bench to victory on a nightly basis. The Cavs are without -- get this -- Drew Gooden, Anderson Varejao, Sasha Pavlovic, and now Daniel Gibson, who combined have a scoring average of about 37 a night. They're being replaced by the likes of Ira Newble, who sounds like he should be LeBron's tax man, not his starting power forward. Even with all of these players missing, the Cavs are 16-6 over their last 22 games, and it's all thanks to LeBron.
2. Kobe Bryant: His scoring is down a little this year because Kobe's modified his style a bit for the team's greater good: and it's working. Before Andrew Bynum went down, the Lakers were among the league's top teams. With Kobe getting his teammates involved like never before (seriously ... Sasha Vujacic is good all of a sudden?), he may be more deserving then ever of his first MVP, even with the lower scoring average. And with the addition of Pau Gasol, that should only help Kobe's chances because the Lakers will likely be playing deep into the post-season.
The Cavaliers will make an annoucement [sic] today that Larry Hughes is expected to miss about a month with a bone bruise in his left leg. It stems from the collision he had with Leandro Barbosa on Nov. 3. He missed three games after it but when he came back he was limping and obviously not playing well. He went just 2-of-12 against the Orlando Magic Wednesday and left the game limping. In Los Angeles in his first game back, he sat out the fourth quarter limping.
It's unfortunate, sure, but it's also quite predictable: Hughes has played in more than 70 games in a season just once, and that was six years ago. Since joining the Cavs, he's appeared in just 64% of the team's regular-season games, which wouldn't be that big of a deal if only the Cavs were allowed to pay him 64% of his i$12 million annual salary. In Hughes' place, Sasha Pavlovic will join second-year point guard Daniel Gibson in Cleveland's starting backcourt.
On the eve of the regular season, Sasha Pavlovic finally signed a three-year deal to remain with the Cavaliers. A restricted free agent, Pavlovic had previously scoffed at Cleveland's qualifying offer of $2.8 million, suggesting he might even play in Europe if the Cavs don't up the offer.
Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal cites sources who report Pavlovic signed a three-year deal worth somewhere between $12-15 million. I'm guessing the annual salary isn't quite what Pavlovic had wanted, but the relatively short contract which will allow Pavlovic to chase bigger dollars in the not-so-distant future was probably a concession made by Cleveland.
So when will be ready to suit up? Well, first he has to get back to the states -- ESPN's Chad Ford reports that Pavlovic was still in Serbia earlier today. Once he arrives and passes his physical, I'm guessing the team will still want to run him through at least a couple of practices before they throw him out on the court, which means that he may miss the first handful of games. Conditioning, though, isn't expected to be an issue, as his agent Marc Cornstein told Ford that Pavlovic has been working out twice a day.
Getting Pavlovic back in the fold is nice, but getting restricted free agent Anderson Varejao signed would be even better. Without Varejao, the Cavs are lacking experienced big men on their bench. The Cavs had reportedly offered Varejao $20 million over four years earlier in the year, but he was seeking double that -- it'll take a lot of blinking on both sides of the bargaining table for the two sides to find an agreeable common ground, and Ford reports that talks haven't been very active of late. Until they get both of their restricted free agents back in the fold, it's hard to take the Cavs seriously as a contender.
Considering Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic are restricted free agents, you'd think that they'd be the ones feeling like their hands are tied right about now. Instead, it seems like Danny Ferry is the one whose negotiating position is eroding. Not only have the Cavs gone 1-4 in the preseason, but LeBron James is now starting to put public pressure on the front office. From the Akron Beacon Journal's Brian Windhorst:
Q: How do you balance in the short term of getting them signed versus the long-term value of keeping flexibility like the franchise is saying?
A: That's not my job to worry about. For me as a leader, you want guys around you that are going to help you win ballgames. I'm going to do what is best for the team. But at the same time you see teams regrouping and reshaping, and with our team we didn't do any reshaping, we didn't do any regrouping. You start to think a bit, 'How are we going to continue to get better?' Something is going to have to happen within the next week so we know for certain whether we have them or not.
I'll paraphrase: "that's not my job to worry about it ... but then I look around at other teams and start to worry." This is the second summer in a row that the Cavs have essentially decided to stand pat. It worked for them last year -- they won two more playoff series than the year before -- but it completely backfired this summer. Varejao and Pavlovic aren't just random rotation filler, they represent a huge chunk of Cleveland's depth and have combined to start 47 games over the last two seasons.
Cavs general manager Danny Ferry should be in the driver's seat. Restricted free agents have little bargaining power, especially this late in the game, when all interested parties have blown their salary wad. Restricteds almost always have to end up taking a smaller salary to get back into the game.
But Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic aren't budging. They've threatened Europe, and they've threatened to sit out. And by my calendar, it's October 15. With LeBron James plausibly unhappy two of his guys aren't in Cleveland and the Cavaliers ridiculously shorthanded... who exactly has that power again?
Maybe that explains why Ferry went to Brazil to talk to Varejao last week... reportedly. Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal checks in.
Several league sources said Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry went to Brazil last week to meet with unsigned forward Anderson Varejao. The Cavs were careful not to let word of the meeting leak out, and no one from either side was willing to talk about it. If there was any progress, it was minimal; the holdout continues.
In my experience, impromptu trips to South America rarely go unnoticed. Nice try though, Danny. We're spiraling in on the date when all this stops mattering and the season starts resembling a lost cause. As we saw with the end of the season battle between Chicago and Cleveland last April, every game counts... and home court advantage really matters, even in the East. And if Drew Gooden's the key to any major trade to bring in a second star, waiting on Andy's availability is a must. If Ferry's going to cave, he needs to do so ASAP.
Training camps have started, and all the juiciest names--Kobe Bryant, Shawn Marion, and Andrei Kirilenko--have shown up without a hitch. Not so for Cavs role players Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic. Neither one has come to the terms with Cleveland on an extension, even though the franchise can't really afford to lose them. Despite the acquisition of Devin Brown and Cedric Simmons, the Cavs remain a colossally thin team trying to keep a superstar in town.
In Varejao's case, the two sides are still far apart on a number. From the Sporting News:
The Cavaliers, a source says, made an initial offer to Varejao earlier in the summer of four years and $20 million. But that's a far cry from the five years, $45 million Varejao had considered from the Grizzlies before Memphis signed Darko Milicic (who reportedly got three years, $21 million).
I'm no expert, but Darko is a largely unproven mess, while Varejao helped take a team to the Finals with his rebounding and hustle. You can't fight the market, especially when there's external pressure to make the signing.
Certainly, the two free agents are trying to get their way. Their leverage? Threatening to return to foreign leagues, thus depriving the Cavs of their services. But as Ziller notes, that doesn't really do them any good. If they were to follow this route, they'd still return to the Cavs as restricted free agents. Then again, it does mean LeBron will have a lousy time this season, which is the most important factor in any Cavs-related decision. It may not help Varejao and Pavlovic, but it could hurt the Cavs long-term.
Brown didn't get much national notice (save Kelly Dwyer's midseason threats), but he had a terrific stretch near the start of last season. He's a guard who can score score efficiently and rebound. Cleveland only needs one of those traits (2nd best defensive rebound team last year, and 3rd on the offensive boards). But damn does it need another scorer around LeBron James.
Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall were always the right role players for LeBron in theory. If they hadn't fallen completely off the table (to varying degrees, and with varying signs of life intermittently emitting), the Cavs would get more talk as repeat East champs. But when you're 22nd in team shooting and 18th in total team offense -- the questions about who scores besides LeBron will always come up. Devin Brown, not a budding star by any means, is a good answer for that going into the season. (Bringing back Sasha Pavlovic -- who's talking about not showing up to camp -- would be nice, too.)
Restricted free agency is a wonderful thing for team executives, and a terrible thing for restricted free agents. It might sound good for the players -- being able to 'test' the open market, but it's a mirage. Right now, players from Anderson Varejao to Sasha Pavlovic to Mickael Pietrus are on the verge of being forced to play for a pittance after a failed market test. And that seems to be the norm... look at Charlie Bell's lesson. He tried to decide where he wanted to go, and now he's stuck in Milwaukee for five more years.
Teams have all the power, especially considering the lack of cap space around the league. Few teams have even their mid-level exceptions left over; for all intents, that's the most a fellow like Varejao or Pavlovic could command by way of offer sheet at this point. No less a talent than Gerald Wallace had to take his qualifying offer last summer, and that might as well be an extension of the rookie contract (in other words, it's a far cry from market value). The collective cap is too bloated with the leftovers of early millennium excess and recent wonton mid-level spending. So in reality, many above-average first-rounders get locked to low wages for five years, unless their agent gets them in early come their restricted summer or they work out a long-term deal with their scared team after Year Four in the league.
Pavlovic and now Varejao have threatened Europe, like Bell before them. If these players have any designs on returns to the NBA, though, that threat will ring empty. Why? Because players who flee the NBA as restricted free agents retain their restricted status upon re-entering the league. So if Pavlovic plays a year in Europe and decides to come back next summer, Cleveland would still have the right to match any contract he signed. In essence, it puts off unrestricted free agency one more year. So the best bet for these disgruntled restricteds, again, is to play for chump change one more time and pray they have a good year.
There was a lot of activity in the NBA this week, and we're not just talking about the draft. Some of the NBA's big names and better teams were in on it.
The Cavaliers have successfully made the jump from "very good" to "elite" by absolutely destroying opponents on both sides of the ball. They've defied logic by proving that stingy defense and dominant offense can go hand in hand, allowing the fewest points in the league (90.4) while scoring the second-most (104.0). This isn't just a legitimate championship contender, folks; if they keep this up, it will go down as one of the best seasons of all-time.
Well, that didn't take long: 
On the eve of the regular season, 
Considering 
Cavs general manager 
Restricted free agency is a wonderful thing for team executives, and a terrible thing for restricted free agents. It might sound good for the players -- being able to 'test' the open market, but it's a mirage. Right now, players from 
