Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 9:20 am  |  38 responses

Cavs Beginning to Rebuild

The post-LeBron Era in Cleveland has begun, and the people in the front-office are doing their best to sell everyone on what James left behind. The News-Herald reports: “[Dan] Gilbert said now that [LeBron] James is history, the Cavs will do things the right way. ‘We weren’t as focused on the long term (before James left),’ he said. ‘We’ll build the right way. It’s absolutely refreshing and challenging and we’re all looking forward to building the Cleveland Cavaliers into a premier team. We didn’t achieve the ultimate goal (with James). It can’t be a one-person show. We have to have a team approach and a team effort to make it happen.’ Gilbert might second-guess himself as to what happened and why James decided to leave. But he’s ready for the challenge that lies ahead. ‘I think the organization is in a much better place than what the pundits think,’ he said. ‘We won 66 and 61 games the last two years. It didn’t happen alone. We still have lofty expectations. This wasn’t a one-man show. We have a lot of good, young, athletic players.’”

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  • Zabba Posted: Sep.7 at 9:25 am
    Great, you guys will start being professional now. Wonderful. Until that is the next big hype from high school signs in with you.

  • Zabba Posted: Sep.7 at 9:25 am
    And good luck on getting that title before Lebron.

  • Zabba Posted: Sep.7 at 9:26 am
    Or ever.

  • drosefan Posted: Sep.7 at 9:33 am
    I’m afraid Dan Gilbert messed it up for the Cavs for as long as he’s the owner. What star is going to want to play for him after what he said about LeBron? It’s going to take a long time for them to get back to relevancy.

  • Eboy Posted: Sep.7 at 9:36 am
    ‘We weren’t as focused on the long term (before James left),’ he said. ‘We’ll build the right way.” You’ll build the right way NOW? I thought you did everything to make the Cavs a power WITH Bron on the squad….but NOW you’re going to build the right way? Please die.

  • omphalos Posted: Sep.7 at 9:49 am
    To be fair, Gilbert was in a tough spot as Lebron only gave him 3 years to win a championship with his last contract. Its tough to build long-term when you’re franchise player is in a short-term deal. I hope this means they are trading away their older players and investing in their youth.

  • jusitn Posted: Sep.7 at 9:49 am
    dan shouldnt have dissed lebron it will hurt his chances of landing another superstar

  • IAMORANGE4EVER Posted: Sep.7 at 9:51 am
    **Tumbleweed blowing across the Q arena**

  • BETCATS Posted: Sep.7 at 10:14 am
    Such BS. They are going back to the basement of the NBA.

  • CLydeSays Posted: Sep.7 at 10:25 am
    You build AROUND your best player. Surround him with quality coaching, veteran leaders, etc. The Cavs seemed to think LeBron could score, shoot, pass, rebound, defend, lead AND coach them all the way to the Finals. Kobe couldn’t do it without Phil and a decent squad of players around. Neither could Jordan.

  • omphalos Posted: Sep.7 at 10:26 am
    Imagine what would have happened if Boozer stuck around. Anyone think Bron would have gotten that ring?

  • IAMORANGE4EVER Posted: Sep.7 at 10:30 am
    @omphalos: Most likely they win a championship if Boozer stays.

  • J Posted: Sep.7 at 10:31 am
    there’s a serious chance we fall at the bottom of the standings, but i’m expecting to win 35 games at max. we have good young players, and the only problem now is how to trade Mo and Antawn. I hope we’re a lot wiser now.

  • J Posted: Sep.7 at 10:43 am
    Mo needs to go.. But its gonna be also emotional seing him gone, since he wants to retire as a Cav.. Can you imagine that? This guy loves the team and have its back.. huh weird eh? lol.. But he needs to go, him and Sessions at backcourt is gonna suffer on D since neither could guard the “two” spot.. i wish we could trade him to great playoff team if that happens..

  • J Posted: Sep.7 at 10:54 am
    Omphalos.. VERY LIKELY.. shaq trade wont happen because it won’t work with Booz.. maybe we get a Camby/Haywood like for a center.. Larry Hughes won’t be signed since that cap was for Boozer in the first place, and so no Big Ben.. Also NO Drew Gooden!

  • Overtime Posted: Sep.7 at 11:08 am
    This is beyond comical, you cant go on about how its not supposed to be a one man show after making it into a massive one man show. Such hypocrisy.
    As for the title with Booz…im not sure, Detroit would have still been there, Lebron would have still needed time to improve, and ud still have players like IRA NEWBLE!

  • Hursty Posted: Sep.7 at 11:20 am
    Man, this guy makes me laugh. He needs some serious lessons on public communication.

  • T-Money Posted: Sep.7 at 11:22 am
    So the Cavs couldn’t build the right way BECAUSE they had LeBron on the team? I’m confused. It’s kinda pretentious to make it seem like they were entitled to a championship just because they had a good run. They got beat by better teams in a head-to-head setting. I mean, Utah were a terrific team in the late nineties and they came up short. The wounds are still fresh but I think Cavs fans will eventually remember fondly the few years they had in the spotlight.

  • J Posted: Sep.7 at 11:25 am
    Overtime.. We also mean we have Boozer until lebron’s last two years in cleveland.. Where lebron is mvp, detroit is nowhere near what they were and newble was gone..

  • Spaceship Jay Posted: Sep.7 at 12:03 pm
    Co-sign Eboy.

  • Overtime Posted: Sep.7 at 12:31 pm
    @ J. Only if Boozer was happy enough to stay for the entire 7 years. They probably would have still not got past Boston, but shoulda had a finals appearace in 09…

  • The Nupe Posted: Sep.7 at 1:17 pm
    I understand what he’s saying. Because they were trying to meet LeBron’s demands (not necessarily a bad thing), they lost focus on long-term building strategy and only focused on a very tight window of time. How I interpret what he’s saying is that he has learned and matured from what he did/didn’t do in the LeBron era and now trying to take a more holistic approach going forward. It reminds me of some of the people I work with, they talk about when they were in their 20′s they didn’t contribute much to the 401k plan because they wanted the immediate benefits of the money (nicer car, better electronics/games etc), but now that they are older they realize that if they would have have maxed out their 401k’s from early on (and not spent immediately thinking about current year), they would have been much better off in the long-run. Gilbert was a somewhat new owner who only thought to spend and win immediately. Now he’s (hopefully) matured and is taking a longer term strategy in builiding the team. Not sure how this will play out, but I get his point about what HE did because of LeBron – not that it was LeBron’s fault, but now Gilbert has learned.

  • J Posted: Sep.7 at 1:37 pm
    cosign Nupe..

  • total scrotal implosion Posted: Sep.7 at 1:40 pm
    Cleveland sucks

  • JD Posted: Sep.7 at 2:46 pm
    too bad he couldn’t think like this before

  • JTaylor21 Posted: Sep.7 at 2:54 pm
    FU*K CLEVELAND

  • The Nupe Posted: Sep.7 at 4:03 pm
    JD: I agree, it is too bad he didn’t think like this before. Maybe he’s learned from his mistake. Again maybe not. There isn’t one formula to build a contender, he put all his eggs in the LeBron basket so we’ll see how he goes about creating a holistic team going forward. They are now young and athletic, and I’d argue have a much better coach. It will be interesting to see how they try to put things together now.

  • Ryan D Posted: Sep.7 at 4:14 pm
    WOMP WOMPPPPPPPP

  • total scrotal implosion Posted: Sep.7 at 4:54 pm
    How come its become so standard to characterize bad teams as young and athletic?. Only bad team that wasnt young and athletic was eddy curry knicks.

  • WangChung Posted: Sep.7 at 5:58 pm
    Cavs fans and Gilbert really need to stop using this 66 or 61 wins as indicative of future success.

  • The Philosopher Posted: Sep.7 at 6:31 pm
    LONG… LIVE… THE KING.

  • LA Huey Posted: Sep.7 at 6:34 pm
    ** yawn **

  • J Posted: Sep.7 at 8:53 pm
    again cosign Nupe.. though Lebron also put the team in a situation to do what they did, salvaging most of the future, that’s past now anyway so… Byron Scott is a great rock solid coach, though success like sneaking into a 7th or 8th seed is very unlikely and just a waste of time and a better position in the draft.. i like to stay competitive so again 35 wins max, trade for young assets and a whole lot of draft picks.. no playoffs and hopefully at least a top 7 in the lottery.. Also cosign Wangchung

  • Eduardo Posted: Sep.7 at 9:40 pm
    People don’t understand the position that Dan Gilbert was under the last few years as LeBron wouldn’t commit so that had to build in the short term. Cav’s attempted to get more people for the long-term to build around LeBron but shame LeBron wouldn’t commit to the franchise then (as we all now know why, because he wanted to leave years prior). Notice how LeBron never greeted potential free agents off the airplane like he’s doing in Miami?

  • The Philosopher Posted: Sep.7 at 9:58 pm
    @Eduardo:
    Interesting points.

  • jammal o Posted: Sep.7 at 10:36 pm
    nobody wanted to go to cleveland, period

  • Jos Posted: Sep.8 at 9:49 am
    Even lebron thinks cleveland is a mistake by the lake hahaha

  • IAMORANGE4EVER Posted: Sep.8 at 9:51 am
    Antawn Jamison has to be psyched for the season to get underway.

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