I'm a positive and optimistic Cavaliers fan. I love the Kyrie Irving led future the team has. But I absolutely cannot get behind this trade.
I understand why Sessions was shipped out but there simply is little value in anything returning.
Yea, it's fine that this money doesn't technically matter because it's not going to cause us to miss out on free agents. I still don't feel it's necessary to pay all this money to players for no reason though.
Sure, it's nice to get a draft pick and have the option to trade spots with the Lakers in the future.
But, I've got some problems with it overall and you can find out about those after the jump.
1. We're taking on a bunch of money to simply get a late first round draft pick. We took on something like $8 million last year and eventually got Kyrie Irving. We're taking on more than that this year and we're getting a mid-20's pick. What?
2. Ramon Sessions is so underrated. The man boards, passes, shoots and runs the offense. He is a complete point guard and we gave him up for someone who may someday potentially become a rotation player. Yuck. Am I the only person who appreciates his skills?!
3. I don't want to hear your myths about some super deep draft. It's just simply not going to give us anything more than a 7th or 8th man at best.The 2011 Draft was widely considered weak. So, let's look at the 2010 one:
20. James Anderson
21. Craig Brackins
22. Elliot Williams
23. Trevor Booker
24. Damion James
25. Dominique Jones
26. Quincy Pondexter
27. Jordan Crawford
28. Greivis Vasquez
29. Daniel Orton
30. Lazar Hayward
Which of those guys do you want? Wasn't Christian Eyenga a late first round pick?
4. I don't care at all about finding rotation players for the future. It's all about finding another star. Sure, your team can become a mess if you don't have rotation players around your stars (I'm looking at you New York, New Jersey and Orlando) but you still have to find the star first. And the pick isn't going to accomplish that.
5. Los Angeles gave up a late round pick, which I still think is less valuable than you do, shipped out money and got the best player in the deal by far. They win, easily.
*Of course, the best part about the deal though is we're likely to lose more although we've still likely won too much to get into the coveted top five spots like I'm hoping. But, since I rate Sessions so highly I do think we're in for a definite drop off. If only Antawn Jamison could have been sent out too. Then I would have overlooked all this craziness. I only hope there are enough games left for a couple teams to pass Cleveland.
*I also realize what his deal had left on it and all but I'm still underwhelmed by ultimately what the Cavaliers took back. I think this was a fantastic deal for the Lakers and a marginal one for the Cavaliers at best. Derek Fisher is my least favorite player in the NBA so I'm glad to see him booted out of his job by real starting point guard. It should have happened five years ago. I don't like the Lakers and this trade makes them better. That's not good.
Lakers: A
Cavaliers: C
Come to Cleveland, Jeremy Lamb.
Conrad and I will have more thoughts in the upcoming days on this move along with our reaction on the other big trades around the league.