Links to the Present: July 3rd, 2012
2012-07-03
Sonny Weems
Just a few links today…nothing hot off the presses.  A little on Sonny Weems; he’s an extremely athletic, yet undersized small forward.  Turning 26 next week, he played in three NBA seasons, racking up 2800 minutes and an 11 PER.  Last year, he suited-up for Lithuanian power-house, Zalgiris, helping lead them to a Lithuanian League championship. In fifteen Euroleague games, his team-leading 15.5 points per game were somewhat marred by his three turnovers.  Based on the numbers at 82games.com and some anecdotal research, his defense appears as much maligned; in 1400 minutes in 2010 – 2011, he managed to block only two shots.  Anyways, he is better than Joey Graham or Mychel Thompson, the free agent small forward additions of the last two summers.  I am still hoping that the front office brings Derrick Brown to Ohio.
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The Cavaliers have about $20 million available in salary-cap space to spend in free agency. Â Don’t expect them to spend much of it. Â They’ll take a frugal approach to free agency this summer, even though they have several holes to fill. Â The free-agent class is comparatively weak. There are few good, young stars on the market. (Bob Finnan)
Cavs waive guard Manny Harris (Bob Finnan)
Cleveland has made it known that it hopes to bring back SF Alonzo Gee, who was one of the best bargains ($880,000) in the league last season, averaging 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds.  So it’s a bit of a surprise that, according to Sam Amico of FoxSports.com, the Cavs are showing interest in Raptors SF Sonny Weems.  Weems, 25, averaged 9.2 points and 2.8 rebounds a game with Toronto two seasons ago, and is a restricted free agent after playing in Lithuania during the 2011-12 season. One has to believe that if the Cavs can come to terms with Gee, their pursuit of Weems could end. (Joe Kaiser)
We do not need players like Ilyasova right now. He is the type of player that at best puts us into the Atlanta Hawks range of “play-off team but not championship team.” I would HATE to be in that position. Ilyasova is not a true difference maker or a star, he is a piece at bet that just clogs our big man rotation. He is not athletic enough to consistently get minutes at the three so he would take minutes from most likely Zeller (because Ersan would play the 4 pushing Tristan to getting more minutes at the 5). Also,… Read more »
At the time i expressed my concern, I was talking about the world in which the Cavs complete their frontcourt rotation by signing Ilyasova (another player who’s not quite capable of handling a post-up big). And after watching the Thunder self-destruct in large part thanks to Kendrick Perkins, I’m happy for the Cavs to bide their time and wait for a truly capable low-post center to come along, or even not get one at all.
“I agree that there aren’t a lot of dangerous centers around anymore, but Howard, Bynum, Monroe, Oden (kidding, kidding), Horford, and The Brow will all be in their primes or close to it during the Cav’s hypothetical championship window, and the prospect of facing them with Tristan as our best post defender scares me to varying degrees.”
Yeah, but the Brow isn’t really an offensively skilled player (at this point, at least) and Horford and Monroe aren’t very big. I think Zeller and TT could absolutely handle those two.
Cranky M,
To further support your point; at some point over the next 2 – 4 years, Cleveland has multiple opportunities to add a big 7-footer. A player like Festus Ezeli was available late in the first round this year and may turn into a totally capable back-up seven-footer. Roy Hibbert was drafted 17th. Kendrick Perkins 27th. Marc Gasol 48th. The Cavs have a lot of draft picks and cap space; it’s not like Zeller and TT are the end of the front-court-of-the-future.
For the record, I said “Zeller, Tristan, and Kevin Jones.” Zeller is only bigger by 2 inches and 15 pounds, which is even less significant when you realize how well Ilyasova cleans the glass, and how similar their games are. As for “no one in our frontcourt of the future can defend an NBA center,” I’m talking about Tristan and Zeller (and Ilyasova is we add him), not Varejao, and I may be wrong about Zeller. I agree that there aren’t a lot of dangerous centers around anymore, but Howard, Bynum, Monroe, Oden (kidding, kidding), Horford, and The Brow will… Read more »
“Also, he’d be eating up the minutes of Zeller.”
How exactly would Ilyasova, a SF/PF, be eating up the minutes of Zeller, who is a center?
Brandon Roy? Awesome. Maybe we can find some way to get Dejuan Wagner and Leon Powe, too. Knees are over-rated.
I am loving all these huge contracts going out to undeserving players. Hibbert Max? Batum 50 over 4? The cavs need to hold on to all that space and sign some short contracts for 3-6 million so we can package them off at the deadline or next summer when the luxary tax kicks in to teams bleeding cash
Kevin Jones is not too bad of a shooter and might see some time as a scoring 4. His shot selection was the cause for his declining 3 pt% last year at WV,where he tried to do too much. If he was taken at #33 as some mocks thought people would be more excited about him. he may have slipped out of the draft because he stopped doing workouts after receiving an unfulfilled promise from an NBA team to draft him.
Reports that the Cavs are interested in B. Roy and also Chris Wright from GSW. Wright has a nice PER in limited minutes. I love these kind of signings for the Cavs. Under the radar bench guys on other teams who are young, cheap and have some real potential. Oh, and I’m not crazy about the Roy rumors but I don’t see him signing with us regardless…
How about Robin Lopez as a a rotation big man? I know the Suns already made a qualifying offer and he’s a slightly less than dreadful option at center but think of the possibilities… the sheer volume of curly moptop in the paint in a Lopez/Varejao tandem would utterly overwhelm other teams… wow its a slow day.
Can we please change the title of the blog from
Cavs: the blog (fresh since 2008)
to
Cavs: the blog (It’s spelled VAREJAO)
Matt, I may have overstated my case, especially since both of our draft picks plug holes nicely offensively. I guess SF is a much more pressing concern positionally, in my opinion, especially since we need a guy who can guard the big athletic wings, while being competent enough offensively to play 30 minutes a game. This could be Gee, if he continues to improve, but I still see him as a “solid 7th-8th man on a contender” kind of player, and not necessarily a long-term starter. I’m a big fan of the San Antonio “Let’s accumulate a ton of cheap… Read more »
“Also, is it bad if no one in our frontcourt of the future can defend an NBA center?” How many legit centers are in the NBA these days? I count 3 or 4. I don’t see why that should be a huge concern. If anything, the league is trending away from offensively skilled big men (or bigs in general). Besides, Andy can do fine. Also, i don’t see why people are saying SF is more of a need than PF. Yes, we obviously need a SF (although less of one if we can keep Gee), but we only have 1… Read more »
Nathan, we added two more players who can stretch the court, Dion (47.5% from 17ft to the college 3 pt line, 36.2% from 3) and Zeller (a good jump shooter who just wasn’t asked to do it much by UNC, but performed well in limited attempts and shot 80% from the line) Also, last season our offense really didn’t look that bad (even with jamison’s highly questionable shot selection and holes at the 2-3) until Verajoa went down. TT with one more year should be better in the post (he better be) and add in Waiters and Zeller, and I… Read more »
Ah, my bad Nathan. Confused me
Cause they were tanking for the best lottery pick, Warren, and Lester was winning too many games.
Kind of off topic… But, why did the Cavs not try to keep Lester Hudson around?
Matt, my concern isn’t 3’s in particular, I also lump in the ability to post up and score, or score on the pick-and-pop (Zeller, hopefully). Right now, it seems like we have no centers or forwards who can do any of these things, which i think was part of the reason the Cavs struggled to find offense so often last season. I’m worried that right now, we have a lot of players who are at their best slashing to the basket (Andy, Tristan, and Gee, Kyrie & Waiters to some extent), and need players who can create other kinds of… Read more »
Nathan, you don’t need 3 players on the quart who are good at threes if you have otherwise good players. the Thunder rarely had more than two guys who were good at three’s on the quart at a time, and the heat more or less never did. Boston pretty much never does. I think we’ll be fine with Andy and TT on the court together, or with Zeller especially since he does have range, and Gee, as long as Waiters develops his 3 and two out of He, Kyrie, or Gibson are on the court. Will it be Ideal? No,… Read more »
He’ll get 30/night in Turkey
ErSan (Ilyasova) NOT NOT NOT ABSOLUTELY NEVER NOT Semih Erden
Nathan,
Why should Erdan be getting anywhere close to 30+ minutes a game?
If Ilyasova’s smart, he’ll take a wait and see approach, as he’ll be a nice consolation prize for teams that don’t pick up the premiere free agents they want (Dallas, New Jersey, Portland, etc.). If he comes to Cleveland, I think he has to play the 3 for 14 or so minutes a night, which would give 120 minutes to divvy up between Varajao, Thompson, Zeller, and Ilyasova, with a bit of scrub time left over which is about right. Ilyasova has the range to play there, and The Cavs could play zone if they were real worried about it.… Read more »
Correct me if i’m wrong, but if Toronto splurges on Steve Nash, Cleveland could possibly get Ilyasova at a reasonable price, right? Our frontcourt rotation could get congested, though, as Ersan and Andy should both be playing 30+ minutes a game, while Tristan and Tyler need time to develop with the starting backcourt. Would any 3-big lineups work on both ends of the court, given our relative dearth of SF’s? For instance maybe Andy and the opposing team’s center sub out, Tristan and Zeller come in for the Cavs? Speaking of SF’s, if Casspi and Gee still can’t shoot over… Read more »
Gee > Weems. Make it happen.