Cavaliers Links Roundup: An analytical debate about Kyrie Irving's potential extension, and much more

There are big decisions ahead for the Cleveland Cavaliers. We all know that. Who will they draft? Who will be their coach? Which players will they try to re-sign? Who will they target in free agency? Oh, and they also have to figure out what to do with their star player, who is soon going to be eligible to sign a contract extension.

About a week ago, Nate Silver wrote a long piece about Kyrie Irving and max contracts. It had all kind of numbers and charts and graphs and things like that, and his conclusion was this:

"A very, very good but not quite world-class NBA player - say, Russell Westbrook - is worth a little more than the maximum salary. But a guy who gets hurt or who burns out early - say, Steve Francis - can be a huge albatross. If Irving has a 50 percent chance of turning into Westbrook and a 50 percent chance of following the Francis course, the Cavs probably shouldn't sign him."

At WFNY, Jacob Rosen countered Silver by pointing out that he didn't factor Irving's age into his analysis:

"Silver decided to use the wrong principal data point when trying to make an argument about Kyrie Irving's potential. Certainly, it would seem initially valuable to look at season-by-season progressions when discussing max contract extensions. That's the easiest route. But it just isn't relevant to compare how former top picks like Derrick Coleman, Michael Olowokandi or Kenyon Martin, all 23 years old by their NBA debuts, regressed around the time of their fourth seasons2. Irving won't even turn 23 until next spring."

Bud Shaw thinks the Cavs should give Irving the max:

"That's not to say he deserves max money. There's a difference between saying he deserves max money and taking all factors into consideration and giving him a max offer. The Cavs should give him a max offer because of who they are and what he can become."

On Tuesday, Sam from Fear the Sword (have you heard of it?) commented on Peter Vecsey's "report" that Irving is not willing to sign a max extension.

Jason Lloyd had an update on the search for a coach:

"While the Cavaliers spent Thursday with Los Angeles Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue and prepared to host fellow Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry today, the early candidate pool can be divided into two clear categories: rookie coaches and veterans looking for one more job."

Sam Amico tweeted that the Adrian Griffin's interview was "fantastic."

According to Andy Katz, the Cavs are currently negotiating with Joel Embiid's representatives about when and where to conduct his physical.

According to Jeff Goodman of ESPN, Embiid is likely to be the pick if he's healthy:

"Cavs GM David Griffin has a difficult decision to make between the 7-foot Embiid and a pair of contrasting forwards: Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker. Multiple sources insist that the Cavs favor Embiid as long as the medical info regarding the back injury that kept him off the court in March checks out clean."

David Wood of Cavs: the blog wrote about how he thinks each of the three options that David Griffin conceivably has in the draft would play out.

Here's a mock draft from Right Down Euclid that has Jabari Parker going first overall.

And finally, do you guys like podcasts? If so, friend of Fear the Sword Ben Cox was on one with More Than a Fan.