Gilbert Needs to Build Team, Not Make Headlines.

Until a few years ago, the Los Angeles Clippers were the NBA’s poster child for a horribly run franchise.

They spent a great deal of time participating in the draft lottery, accumulating a bunch of high draft picks, and for the most part made the wrong pick, or the player they selected had injury issues.

They seemed always to be in a state of chaos.

Sound familiar?

Dan Gilbert needs to get his franchise in order, and he needs to do it quickly.

After giving David Griffin the keys to the kingdom in naming his as general manager a few weeks ago, it appears the owner tried to lure Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari to the Cavs with a long-term deal and lots and lots of cash.

Perhaps Griffin was the guy who made the suggestion to hire Calipari, but it doesn’t seem like his style. It looks as though it has the fingerprints of the team’s owner all over it.

It’s time for Gilbert to start building a solid franchise and stop trying to make the quick fix, big splash move.

And as a franchise, the owner, GM, whoever the coach is, and everyone else who works at Quicken Loans Arena has to give up on the notion that if they make one move, then LeBron James will charge back to Cleveland on a white horse and rescue the Cavaliers.

Instead they need to put the pieces together to build a squad that can make the playoffs and start the process of contending for a high seed and eventually a spot in the conference finals. That will come by making the correct personnel decisions, hiring a head coach the players respect and developing an organization that expects to win.

If you look at what has happened since James departed, they spent the first couple of seasons not really trying to win, trying to follow the “Oklahoma City model”, which is basically stinking for a season, being able to draft Kevin Durant, and hitting the jackpot with future first round picks in Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka.

That requires a lot of luck, which the wine and gold have had in getting the top selection three times in four years.

They did draft an all-star type player in Kyrie Irving, who it remains to be seen if he has the toughness to be a franchise player. They picked Dion Waiters, a player much like Irving, Tristan Thompson, who looks like a journeyman big man, and Anthony Bennett, who was a wasted pick in his first year.

Why? Because when the front office hired the coach after Byron Scott, they hired a guy who has no track record of developing young players, despite having a roster full of them.

So now, they hire a new GM, and it appears the owner undermines him just a month after giving him the gig.

Again, maybe Griffin was part of that decision, but since he is interviewing assistant coaches like Tyrone Lue and Alvin Gentry, it doesn’t seem likely.

Gilbert is approaching joke status among national basketball writers. They can’t wait to see what happens next in Cleveland.

What needs to happen is for him to step back and let David Griffin run the organization. This team has some talent, but they need to get some players who compliment each other in exchange for all of the point guards and power forwards they currently have.

Cleveland basketball fans deserve more from the Cavs’ organization.

Three Thoughts on the Cavs

Over the past couple of weeks, since they won the NBA draft lottery, there has been much discussion about the future of the local professional basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Some of the discussion has come from national sources and some from the Cleveland media. Here are our thoughts on a few issues regarding the wine and gold…

Kyrie Irving’s contract. Should GM David Griffin offer the former Rookie of the Year a maximum contract extension or not, that is the question?

The problem here is the monumentally horrible decision to bring back Mike Brown as head coach last season. It is almost as if you have to treat last season as a throw away for Irving and several other young Cavaliers.

We don’t know what to think about the MVP of last season’s All-Star Game. Is he selfish? Is he willing to play defense? Can he co-exist with Dion Waiters?

Brown didn’t do anything to help any young players on the Cleveland roster, so we think we need to see how Irving plays under a new coach, one that can put the players in an offensive system where he can thrive.

However, if he doesn’t have any inclination to sign here long-term, then Griffin should look to get what he can for the former first overall pick.

Getting Kevin Love. Love wants out in Minnesota, and the Cavs certainly have the assets to get the all-star forward. However, fans should temper the idea of getting the power forward.

Why? First, because unless Griffin can get Love to agree to a contract extension, it doesn’t make sense to deal a whole bunch of assets for one year of Love, even as good as he is. And we don’t think Love will do that for a couple of reasons.

One, he can probably get more money by going out on the open market as a free agent. Second, this isn’t a basketball decision for Love, it’s a “brand” thing. Love wants to be famous and be someone who can get huge money in endorsements.

He can’t maximize that earning potential in Minnesota, nor can he do it in Cleveland.

If it was strictly a basketball move, why would he be talking about going to the Lakers, a team currently in shambles?

This is the new NBA, which is starting to resemble the WWE. It’s more about other things than basketball.

The Search of a New Coach. It appears Griffin is talking to a lot of people, which is good. The disturbing thing is that their are reports that the GM and owner Dan Gilbert want to be “involved”. That will probably restrict who will accept the job.

George Karl would seem to be a great candidate, with proven success and a great basketball mind, but it is doubtful with that track record that he would want to have the GM and owner quizzing him daily.

The same is likely true for any high-profile coach, and we are putting Lionel Hollins in that category as well.

That means the Cavs are probably looking a current assistants and others who can’t wait to get back in the head coaching gigs in the NBA, like Alvin Gentry and Vinny Del Negro. Do either of those people excite you?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have talent, it just doesn’t fit together. Bringing in the right coach, and trading some talent and/or draft picks that don’t fit for ones that do, and they should be in the playoffs next season.

After a few seasons of moves that don’t make much sense, it’s time to start a new streak of decisions that will work.

Griffin’s First Move is the Right Move

You can’t accuse Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert of acting rashly this time.

The season has been over for about a month, and today the wine and gold announced that interim GM David Griffin now has the job permanently, and his first act in that position was to fire Mike Brown as head coach.

If you’ve read this blog over the past few months, you know that we are celebrating that move because Brown was the wrong fit for the job here.

When we heard the Cavs were considering giving Griffin the job full-time, we thought a first and only question he should be asked would be should Brown continue to be the head coach. If he answered no, he would be hired.

Here’s hoping that Gilbert talked to several basketball people since the regular season ended and came to the conclusion that Griffin was the most capable person to run this franchise.

We still would love Gilbert to hire another experienced basketball person (we would still favor George Karl) as a consultant for the new GM to bounce ideas off of.

If former GM Chris Grant was the guy who wanted Brown back and sold Dan Gilbert on the idea, how can anyone blame Griffin for bringing in his own man?

The once and again former Cavs’ coach didn’t pick up any new ideas on offense since he left the first time and has never had a history of developing young players, of which there are plenty on the Cleveland roster.

Just because Brown signed a five-year deal last summer was no reason to keep him. Keeping him would have been a hindrance to what Griffin’s vision of what this basketball team will be. To be succinct, Griffin was just correcting Grant’s mistake.

However, let’s hope Griffin does his due diligence in regards to hiring the next head coach of the Cavaliers.

There are plenty of people making the connection that since Griffin used to work in the Phoenix Suns’ organization, he may look at bringing in recently fired Laker head coach Mike D’Antoni to replace Brown.

That would be a mistake in our opinion.

Just as Brown and his defensive philosophy proved to be a one trick pony, so would D’Antoni’s total offensive approach.

The Cavaliers owe it to themselves and to the fans of this basketball team to find a coach who understands and can teach the entire game, not just one side of the floor. There are coaches who can do just that.

Griffin also needs to find someone who the players will listen to and respect. That appeared to be a problem with Brown. It didn’t appear the players respected him and they didn’t play hard for him.

The new boss needs to find someone who the young Cavalier players can relate to and they will listen to.

The former Golden State coach, Mark Jackson, would seem to be appealing in that regard. He turned around the Warriors, who had won less than 30 games two years ago into a playoff squad.

Plus, he’s a former color analyst for ABC/ESPN, which like it or not, gives him credibility with a young roster like the Cavaliers have.

Forget what happened over the last year with the Cavs. It was the wrong move to bring Brown back and they simply corrected it.

Now, it’s time to move forward for the Cavaliers’ organization. Today’s hiring of Griffin and dismissal of Brown is the first step towards getting back to the playoffs.

Forget Last Ten Games, Cavs Need to Examine Organization

With the recent surge of good play over the last week or two, many basketball fans around the area have thrown out the idea that enough progress has been shown by the Cleveland Cavaliers to keep the status quo.

That would mean keeping acting GM David Griffin is his position and bringing back Mike Brown as head coach.

Those people are also ignoring the first 65 games of this NBA season, and focusing instead on the last ten.

That is a dangerous mistake.

Remember where most experts thought the Cavs would be when the season started, and that is the playoffs. Instead, the wine and gold will be watching the post-season again, and will once again be a part of the draft lottery, although not with the probability of getting one of the higher picks.

With the maturation of third year players Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and the experience gained last year by Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller, along with the return of Anderson Varejao and the signing of Andrew Bynum, most people had the Cavaliers ready to make a decided leap in the standings.

Bynum didn’t work out here, but then-GM Chris Grant dealt him to the Bulls for two-time all-star F Luol Deng, and Griffin added another quality big man in Spencer Hawes at the trading deadline. Still, the wine and gold will be on the outside looking in when the playoffs arrive.

And you can’t forget the embarrassing losses to Sacramento and New York on the road, and to the Lakers at home, when Los Angeles had to play with a player who had already fouled out to end the game, and the Cavs still lost.

This is not to say that owner Dan Gilbert should clean house, but he should do an overview of the entire organization to see what the front office should be and should do going forward.

The first step would be to hire a basketball lifer and let him run the operations of the franchise, and it turn let that person decide who should be the GM and the coach. This is something the owner has proven to be too emotional to handle.

Our suggestion would be George Karl, who learned the game from Dean Smith and has spent an eternity in the professional game. But, anyone else with that type of background will do, and preferably no one with Piston ties (there is that emotion again).

That person should pick the GM, maybe Griffin, maybe not and let the GM pick the head coach.

We have been critical of Brown since he was hired, and let’s face it, he’s not an elite NBA head coach. The organization needs to at least look and see if there is someone more qualified to be on the bench guiding this young team.

Let’s face it, outside of Waiters, has any of Cleveland’s young talent thrived under Brown? There is no question that Irving, Thompson, and Zeller aren’t better than a year ago, and at their ages, they should be getting better.

Out of the rookies, only Matthew Dellavedova has seen significant playing time, while first overall pick Anthony Bennett and fellow first round choice Sergey Karasev will really be spending their rookie season in year two. Their development has been delayed by one year.

No matter what happens the rest of this season, the worst thing Gilbert should do is overlook the first half of the season because of the last month. That’s what bad organizations do. They take one good thing and project it over everything else.

Yes, it is difficult to make changes after one year, and Gilbert will set him up to look foolish by making a change. However, if in the end it makes the franchise better, then it will be the right thing.

That’s why you bring in a basketball person (again, not Isiah Thomas or Joe Dumars) to run things. Then, it is their decision to make changes to move the team forward.

That’s the wisest course of action for the Cavaliers.

Cavs Continue to Push for Playoffs By Getting Hawes

If you are one of those fans in Cleveland that is always looking toward next year, it was a bad day for you yesterday.

Acting Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin decided to continue the team’s pursuit of a playoff spot by acquiring 7’1” center Spencer Hawes from Philadelphia. The price wasn’t extravagant either, as the wine and gold parted with two second round draft picks and two players who aren’t currently in Mike Brown’s rotation: C Henry Sims and F Earl Clark.

Why would anyone complain about that price?

Second round picks in the NBA are like lottery tickets. Sometimes one will pay off, but most times, you throw them away because they are useless.

On the other hand, Hawes is just 25 years old, and averages 13 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, and he definitely can be used as a stretch big man, hitting almost 40% of his shots from outside the arc.

As the owner’s son has been known to say, “What’s not to like?”

Yes, Hawes can be a free agent at the end of this season, so he could be a rental player for the rest of the season. But, neither Sims nor Clark was probably going to be on the roster next season, so really, what did Griffin give up?

Besides, maybe the Cavaliers continue to play well and Hawes wants to stay with the Cavs. We realize the doomsayers can’t fathom that, but it is possible.

Our first thought when the deal was rumored is that Anderson Varejao must be hurt worse than the team is letting on. The newcomer gives Brown another solid big man to go with Tyler Zeller, Tristan Thompson, and Anthony Bennett.

If Varejao can return soon, it means that the coaching staff can cut down on his minutes to around 25 per night, which may just keep him healthier, and should have been the plan for him all along.

And Hawes outside shot should open things up for those guys and Varejao, when he comes back to operate near the basket. Too often, both bigs are in the paint clogging things up so it is difficult for Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters to go to the basket.

Hawes should help immediately, and also provides another veteran who has been around the league for years, like Luol Deng.

Speaking of Deng, there were plenty of rumors about the Cavs shopping him, but no deal was made, which is also a good thing. Mainly because Cleveland still doesn’t have an alternative at the small forward spot.

Yes, we understand Deng is also an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and has made comments, which appear to show he is unhappy here, but if Griffin has a chance to sign him this summer, they have a better shot with Deng spending the balance of the season in Cleveland.

Besides, if the wine and gold can stay hot and make the playoffs in let’s say, the 6^th seed, maybe the former Bull looks at a pretty good future here with a lot of young talent, and stable leadership.

Deng would have looked crazy if he would have said he liked it here among all the chaos when he first arrived.

Things change in team sports.

Just a few weeks ago, Irving and Waiters couldn’t stand to play together. Chris Grant gets fired and Dan Gilbert and Griffin have a “come to Jesus” moment with the players, and they look like they actually like each other.

A lot can change by the end of the playoffs, and here’s hoping the young Cavaliers can get their first experience in the post-season.