Brutus1;2312406; said:
I guess alot of talk for next season depends on team health. If Andy were to stay healthy for most of the season, we'd have a starting 5 of Andy, Kyrie, Dion, Tristan and (unfortunately) Gee.
Speights, Zeller and probably a rookie would be bigs off the bench. Ellington, maybe Livingston and maybe the second rookie would be guards off the bench. I think Livingston likes Scott and likes it here, even if Kyrie and Dion take most of the minutes.
Contract-wise, they're most likely under 30 Mil next season, then add in another 6/7 Mil if they draft a couple rookies and re-sign Livingston.
As far as long term contracts, Dion and Zeller are under contract (with qo's) until the end of the 16/17 season. Kyrie and TT are covered until the end
of the 15/16 season.
For the all important 14/15 free agent year, they only have 31.7 Mil committed to the six players and they're all team option contracts. If Andy and Gee were gone, that would only 18.6 Mil. Plus, add in rookie contracts from the 2013 and 2014 drafts to get back up to around 30 Mil. Really, though, does it matter? By that time, will good free agents want to come to Cleveland ? I'm not so sure. I'm sure some players would love to play with Kyrie, but would max players want to do it? Aside from LBJ, who are expected to be available at that time? I'm sure they'd take him back but they certainly can't be counting on it. Either way, Grant has shown me enough that he has
a pretty good idea how to shape the roster.
I posted this on another site and it is similar to what your are saying. IMO, the Cavs need to continue to do what they are doing:
Build through the draft and make smart trades (the Memphis trade this year for example). IMO, the Cavs are eyeing the 2014 FA class like some posters have stated and won't focus much on anyone other than position fillers to manage cap space for 2013/2014 season with the exception of Speights. At this moment, the draft is too fluid to determine where and who the Cavs will pick. IMO, it depends on whether they get the Lakers pick or not. However, both 2nd round picks will be used to help the Cavs move up in the 1st round.
For the 2013/2014 season the Cavs have $28,652,902M committed to 7 players with Ellington and Casspi being RFAs making it 9 and making it approximately $35M. It would not surprise me to see Casspi released or traded before or during the draft making the number 8. So knock that amount down to $33M. Which means the Cavs MUST spend $19M to round out their roster to reach the projected team cap (85%) should be around $52M with luxary tax rules projecting aroung $71 - 72M.
Here is how the roster will probably look after the season and before FA and the Draft:
PG- Irving; SG- Dion and Ellington; SF - Gee and Miles; PF - TT and Zeller; C- Andy
So that tells me the Cavs will go after in order of preference: C, SF, and PG in FA and the draft.
In FA, I hope they re-sign
Livingston at PG with a two year / 3M deal (1.5M per) and
Speights (PF/C) three-year / 16M (5.3M). Speights could get a $6M per year contract and I think the Cavs could do it for 3 years but no more than 3. He'll probably demand a min of 4 years though. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let?s assume we can get him at 3/16M.
Thanks exhawg, you reminded me about Oden. If they sign Oden this summer, I do not think they will attempt to resign Speights and go after best PF/C with their 2nd pick in the 1st round in the draft.
That puts the team at 10 players and approximately 39M in salary going into the draft which leaves $13-14M (min) to sign 2-3 draft picks.
Let?s say the Cavs get the Lakers pick which would be around 18 (which I think happens) and the Cavs draft position remains steady (approximately 6). This is what I would like to see happen. Personally, I believe one or both 2nd round picks will be traded. Just not sure what combination.
6 ? Porter/SF/Georgetown
18 ?Rudy Gobert/C/France
32 ? Brown/P/SG/NCST
34 ?Muscala/PF/C/Bucknell