Cavaliers gave Chauncey Billups a low-ball offer for President opening

Chauncey Billups declined the Cavaliers five-year offer to become the team’s President of Basketball Operations, and Chris Haynes and Marc Spears of ESPN.com are reporting that Dan Gilbert’s offer was well below market value for the position.

The Cavaliers reportedly had a $2 million per year offer on the table for Billups after opening up negotiations with an offer of $1.5 million. This is a problem, as Haynes and Spears report that the starting point for a President of Basketball Operations role typically begins at $4 million.

This is, sadly, par for the course for owner Dan Gilbert. Gilbert doesn’t appear to value the general manager role in either compensation nor power. David Griffin was reportedly making under $2 million per year on his prior deal with the team and when he approached Gilbert for a raise and an increased role, Gilbert refused to do so.

Gilbert has never signed a GM to a second contract and appears to be looking to increase his day-to-day involvement in basketball decisions while pinching pennies on paying management. It does not bode well that the Cavaliers are so rudderless, seemingly without a plan moving forward, in the year prior to LeBron James entering free agency.

But you didn’t need me to tell you that.

If Dan Gilbert is playing chicken with LeBron by reneging on a deal to spend whatever it took, it’s a bad move. The team needs leadership, and they needed it two weeks ago. The team is already putting out vibes that Koby Altman could be the guy.

This isn’t particularly surprising, and given the lack of literally any other candidates that are public, betting money should likely be placed on Altman just taking the mantle as David Griffin and Chris Grant did before him.

We’ll see what the Cavaliers do. God knows, it won’t be boring.