Cleveland Cavaliers Blog

  What is wrong with you people?  Seriously, what is wrong with Cavs fans/commentators and their combination of love for the Mitchell trade and hate for the Cavs team after the trade?  Yes I’ll use an example, and yes I’ll generalize from it. The Chase Down Pod, two (alleged) Cavs fans who blew up over the Mitchell trade and are thrilled with it just predicted the Cavs to win 50-52 games and win a, singular, playoff series.   Junk.  Garbage.  Inconsistent takes everywhere. Back up to last season.  Going into the All-Star break the Cavs were on a 49.5 win pace, and they had already lost Sexton 11 games in, and Rubio at game 34.  Darius had missed 11 as well, so this team had been hit with a pair of major injuries, several minor injuries and was still on a nearly 50 win pace.   The trade for a 26 year old, 3X all-star is going to make us roughly as good as we were with Rubio and Lauri and pre Garland’s leap (24/8 post all-star break) ...

  If you are one of my 12 readers (thanks btw) you know that I don’t like this deal, so let’s dispense with all that.  No breakdown, no rants, just a detailed look at what this move directly implies and if it realistically accomplishes its goals. This type of trade where the bulk of your assets are swapped for a single player, declares that you believe the team constructed now is a finals contender.  Anything else is a huge disappointment, because there is no next move to make, no way to fix a situation that isn’t working out.  You can make marginal decisions, which veteran FA for a piece of the MLE or the minimum you chase first, but you are constrained to the core as it is.  This is most clearly seen by looking at the Lakers and Westbrook.  The Lakers gave up less in value to land Wesbrook than the Mitchell deal, but proportional to their assets it is similar.  The 22nd pick, a handful of 2nds and three rotation players left them with THT and the slo...