Taking the Next Step: Part 3

Cleveland Cavaliers
66-16 in 2008-2009
Lost to Orlando 4-2 in Eastern Conference Finals

I'm not really picking any particular order to do these in. Anyways, next on my list is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who after having a league best record, and numerous pundits lauding them the up and coming team, were embarrassingly and soundly routed by a superior Orlando Magic squad. Obviously Mo Williams wasn't enough, not enough to stop Dwight Howard from yanking the welcome mat to the Finals out from under the MVP. So, obviously things had to be done, and things were done, are they the right things though?

Shaq

The first obvious big move was to move the contracts of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic for that of Shaquille O'Neal. Wallace and Pavlovic would then be traded and bought out respectively, where ever they do end up. How does this work though? Is this just another trigger happy reaction on the part of Danny Ferry to make a big splash? My gut instinct tells me yes. Why is that? Well, simply put, for all the low-post help that LeBron needs, Cleveland is a team built on defense. While Shaq provides a more legitimate post presence than say Zydrunas Ilgauskas, he definitely is a significant defensive downgrade from Ben Wallace. Perhaps Shaq's offensive contributions overcome any loss of Ben Wallace on the defensive end, okay, I can live with that. However, Cleveland was decimated by Orlando's high pick-and-roll with Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard. So what does Danny Ferry do? Trades for one of the worst pick-and-roll defenders ever? Maybe Hedo's not coming back with Dwight next season, but Jameer Nelson is, equally effective if not more so. Now you throw on a 325 lb colossus that won't show on the guard? A guard whose effective field goal percentage was in the mid 50s and whose true shooting percentage was like 61%? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Okay, perhaps I'm making too big of a deal about this, I mean, the Cavs might not even play the Magic again in the post season, but wouldn't it make sense to plan for the reigning Eastern Conference champions to be right back in the Eastern Conference Finals? For all the problems that having Shaq on the team does portend (especially on the defensive end for a defensive minded team like the Cavs), it does solve the problem of an interior presence. For all the problems both on and off the court that Shaq brings, he at the very least is a force in the paint, and one of the better passing big men in the league. While he won't dominate anymore, you can still probably expect him to put up comparable numbers to the 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game that he did last season. Having Shaq platoon time with Zydrunas Ilgauskas ensures that the Cavs will always have an above-average, albeit old, big man in the pivot at all times of the game. Furthermore, since Shaq is an expiring contract, he's minimal risk, and will enable the Cavs to still be players in the long-awaited 2010 free agency. The biggest problem would be if the Shaq thing doesn't work out and LeBron gets fed up with Cleveland and bolts for New York or something.

Now that Anderson Varejao has opted out, the roster probably looks something like this:

PG - Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson
SG - Delonte West
SF - LeBron James, Tarence Kinsey
PF - JJ Hickson, Darnell Jackson, Jawad Williams
C - Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Unless for some reason Mike Brown decides to start starting big Z at the PF spot that's one of the most obvious needs there is. Additionally, they need a backup wing. Cavs had shown interest in Charlie Villanueva, but they wouldn't have the resources to bid against the massive amounts of cap space that Detroit seems willing to spend on him. With pretty much only the MLE available to spend, the Cavs will definitely have to bolster their roster significantly as they lost significant depth with the trading of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic as well as the expiring contract of Wally Sczerbiak.

Some murmurs around have Lamar Odom being takeable at the MLE simply because Lakers will have to overpay to keep Trevor Ariza. It's hard to imagine that a talent like Odom would fall to just a simple MLE, but it'd be a dream come true for the Cavs should it happen. Odom is a versatile PF who can score like a SF but also rebounds well. Within the Cavs system he wouldn't have the pressure of being a go-to guy, especially with both LeBron and Shaq in the picture. He's versatile not only offensively but defensively as well and would add a ton of length to the frontcourt. Further down the list, were I Danny Ferry, I'd look at Chris Wilcox for cheap, or even Shawn Marion.

In terms of wing players, I'd keep an eye open on vets like Anthony Parker or Dahntay Jones or Flip Murray. Backup wings are generally pretty easy to come by. Cavs still lack a major scoring punch next to LeBron, and the ideal position for someone like that would be the PF slot on this Cavs roster. We'll see what happens here.