The current situation is one where Lebron has been complaining about a lack of playmakers for over 6 months, has been teasing whether he's actually committed to the team past next season, no one in the league is particularly interested in any trades involving their third best player, and now the second best player on the team wants to jump ship before the best one. The Cavs could bring back the same team, remain favorites to win the East, but will most assuredly be significantly bigger dogs to win the title.

not only has GM LeBron's track record there been sketchy from a pure results perspective

He's been to 7 straight NBA Finals.

I think there are a ton of teams that would love to be "held hostage" in this case. Sounds like you're Gilbert is trying to go back to the good old days of being the armpit of the NBA in the days before James and his losing ways came aboard.

No he is hemorrhaging money because of LeBron James and he realized that it had to stop. They have 55 mil tied up in 3 guys J.R. Love and Thompson that you can't get shit from come playoff time. Those were moves that James wanted.

Gilbert’s massive commitment to spend whatever’s necessary to win a title led to a loss of $40 million last season by Forbes’ count in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Forbes is wrapping up its annual look at the business of the NBA scheduled to be released Feb. 14, and the Cavs are one of only a handful of teams to lose money last season. Their loss was nearly four times greater than any other franchise, despite the windfall from hosting 10 playoff games.

No he is hemorrhaging money because of LeBron James and he realized that it had to stop.

Go read what I posted. He ain't losin' a fuckin' dime in the aggregate.

Go read what I posted. He ain't losin' a fuckin' dime in the aggregate.

It's a Reddit article. Dubious source. Even if the article is accurate it still doesn't exclude the fact that the Cavs outspent by at least 20 mil every other team in the league. They probably have seen an uptick in revenue since James has been back but at the end of the day he is still an employee. Gilbert has spent the money. I wonder what G.S's revenue has been during the same span?

We study the local economic spillovers generated by LeBron James’ presence on a team in the National Basketball Association. Mr. James, the first overall pick of the 2003 NBA draft, spent the first seven seasons of his career at the Cleveland Cavaliers, and then moved to the Miami Heat in 2010, only to return to Cleveland in 2014. Long considered one of the NBA’s superstars, he has received the league’s MVP award four times, won three NBA championships, and been a part of two victorious US teams at the Olympics. We trace the impact a star of Mr. James’ caliber can have on economic activity by analyzing the impact his departures and arrivals had on business activity close to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat stadiums. We find that Mr. James has a statistically and economically significant positive effect on both the number of restaurants and other eating and drinking establishments near the stadium where he is based, and on aggregate employment at those establishments. Specifically, his presence increases the number of such establishments within one mile of the stadium by about 13%, and employment by about 23.5%. These effects are very local, in that they decay rapidly as one moves farther from the stadium.

Where was this analysis when they won the title in 2016? They lost 40M that year due to moves James wanted. I'm sure a Cavs team run by you wouldn't have lost 40M in one year because you'd tell Jamea to STFU. But you'd also never win a ring.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenh ... ca24d07699

Not surprised you ignored this post:



It's on LBJ to win basketball games and draw crowds and on operations to figure out how to make money. LBJ is following through on his end of the deal. The luxury tax is the cost of winning games. The Warriors will also hit the tax this year after the Curry deal. You seem to be saying the ring wasn't worth the losses. I'm sure the entire city would disagree.

This is fallacious. James is more interested in being the GM. He has already gotten one coach fired, a No. 1 pick traded and contracts for at least 4 guys that are stiffs. He seeks to own the franchise without having any skin in the game. Those aforementioned contracts which you conveniently ignored will hamstring that team for years.

I know you are anti ownership. That is sort of your deal but Gilbert didn't pump the brakes on LeBron until this year. Barkley had it right. Cleveland exceeded the payroll of the rest of the league by 25-30 mil. It's stupid to bitch about payroll and personnel with that being the case.

They have been in the luxury tax every year he has been back and everyone agrees that they have no shot against a healthy Warrior team going forward. It's ludicrous to keep throwing money away with that being the case.

GMs are not responsible for the business side of things. I agree LBJ has been de facto GM. Can you state the final results of the last three seasons and give your grade for each.

They also have had the highest payroll by a wide margin in each of the past 3 years and 2 of the guys that James had to have Love and Thompson are often benched during key stretches of games. J.R. Smith has been an utter disappointment past 2 off seasons too.

James had nothing to do with acquiring Irving, a guy you incessantly bash. Without Irving they never win the ring you covet so much. If James was 1 he was clearly 1A. Can you address any of these points? If so I address yours. Actually I already have.

Winning the East is really no great shakes either. You consistently make the point that it is a terrible conf. Yet laud the fact that James the GM wins the conf. WYC?

He gets a C at best for any of the years listed.،

Spriegsbwas talking about the Cavs last couple of days. He was going strong that the owner was a jerk and you have to do what James wants. I found this weird and can't believe how much power the players have.

Lebron being both the best player in the league and a huge source of revenue for the Cavs does not automatically mean catering to his every whim in terms of personnel gives the team a better shot at a championship. In fact, keeping him happy by giving Tristan Thompson $82 million last offseason for instance may have ultimately made sense for business reasons due to his drawing power in the area but I'd say hurt their long-term ability to compete, especially since it didn't even seem to placate James enough to commit past this season.

I tend to side against owners as a general rule and despise Gilbert in particular, and I've been accused of being too easy on Lebron in the past, but I really don't understand exempting him for the current paralysis of the franchise given the amount of support he's received. What great moves were the Cavs kept from making because of Gilbert being too stingy or the GM being too incompetent? And if no one can answer those questions, then why exactly is he so unhappy that he's being coy about jumping ship next year to such an extent that Kyrie wants to leave first?

I didn't even see this post. With a win-now team centered around a 30+ year old LeBron there is no "long-term" plan. They are perpetually in win-now mode until LBJ runs out of gas. Again they'd be in paralysis with or without Thompson locked up - that's simply the cost of doing business in the NBA as a win-now team. The Warriors will also hit the luxury tax and Houston may as well, especially if Melo goes there. All those teams will be similarly constrained, just as the Cavs are. I think you're editorializing a bit about Kyrie's motives for leaving - there are reports that he wanted to leave right after they won it all because he wanted more shine. Likely the same case now, not because of LeBron playing around.

Btw, you need to get an avatar man. I'd suggest this one:

I think most people agree Kyrie wouldn't make this demand if LeBron was committed long term.

Irving has said that he wants to play in a situation where he can be more of a focal point and that he no longer wants to play alongside LeBron James, sources said.

He has vacillated at times over the past three years about working as a secondary star to James and the original plan of having his own team.

He discussed the challenge during last month's NBA Finals.

"Having just a tremendously great player like that come to your team, and you see yourself being one of those great players eventually, and then he ends up joining it, and then now you have to almost take a step back and observe," Irving said. "Finding that balance is one of the toughest things to do because you have so much belief and confidence in yourself. ... Selfishly, I always wanted to just show everyone in the whole entire world exactly who I was every single time."

With this in mind, Irving considered requesting a trade after the Cavs' championship last year but decided against it, sources said.

Like FF said tho