SH Blog: Pacers sign Andrew Bynum; Bennett wouldn’t mind a D-League assignment

Right now, the whole basketball-watching world is in Bash the Cavs mode. They took Anthony Bennett #1 overall, and for the production he’s given them, they might as well have taken Nerlens Noel. Kyrie Irving, depending on who you want to believe, either can’t wait to get out or just hasn’t made that decision yet. Dion Waiters went at #4 last year and this year he’s been linked with every team needing help at shooting guard. Tristan Thompson changed his shooting hand. Even when it seemed like they hit, by signing Andrew Bynum, who showed glimpses of his all-NBA past, he was dumped unceremoniously for attitude problems. Then they gave the Bulls what the Bulls wanted most, cap relief, and in return got a very good veteran in Luol Deng, who, according to one of today’s top news stories, can’t believe how awful it is in Cleveland.

Basically, it seems like the Cavs are really living out the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video.

Now let’s get to the latest NBA news:

• This piece from Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix implies some not-so-great things about the Cavaliers organization: “There would appear to be a simple solution to Bennett’s playing-time problem: the D-League. An assignment to the NBDL would give Bennett the playing time he needs to get in shape and a chance to rebuild his confidence against lesser competition. Bennett is open to that option. “I heard it helped out Shabazz [Muhammad] real well,” Bennett said, referring to the Timberwolves’ rookie who was drafted 14th. “Any way to help, I’m with it.” The Cavaliers, somewhat mysteriously, are not. Brown offered little specifics when asked about a D-League assignment, saying staying up with the Cavaliers will help Bennett “get to know the league.” But rival executives believe there is another reason Bennett hasn’t been sent down. Bennett would be the highest pick ever sent to the D-League, and there is widespread belief that the Cavaliers view a demotion as an admission of failure. The Cavaliers can’t afford that. The years since LeBron James left have ended with lottery trips that too often have not yielded results. They landed a franchise player in Kyrie Irving with the first pick in 2011, but missed on an impact player with the fourth pick that year, Tristan Thompson, leaving Jonas Valanciunas and Klay Thompson on the board. They pulled another surprise with the fourth pick the next year, taking Dion Waiters, who this season has been on the trade block. And they drafted Bennett and Sergey Karasev (No. 19) last June, two players who have had virtually no impact.”
• And rather than implying, Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News comes right out and says that the Cavs are a dysfunctional team: “It’s been a true culture shock for Luol Deng since he’s been a Cleveland Cavalier over the past 26 days. Not in a good way, either. Deng has seen how a team mired in losing since LeBron James left town wrongly caters to its young star players, even as they continue to undermine head coach Mike Brown at almost every turn. In Chicago, where Deng broke in and played nine-plus seasons, there is a winning culture where players are expected to act like professionals and understand that they will suffer the consequences if they step out of line. As Deng recently told one close friend, “the stuff going on in practice would never be tolerated by the coaching staff or the front office back in Chicago. It’s a mess.” Deng was brought in to help clean it up when he arrived in a deal for Andrew Bynum on Jan. 7. But since then, he’s seen players get thrown out of practice, take off their uniform tops at halftime and threaten not to play, mouth off to Brown and generally act like spoiled brats. Entering Saturday’s game at Houston, the Cavs had lost seven of their last 11 games since the Deng trade.”

• Bynum: “It really wasn’t a hard decision, I think it’s the right fit for me & in all honesty, I think we’ve got the best chance of winning.” — Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) February 1, 2014

• Tepid reaction of Indiana’s players to Bynum signing speaks to how invested and driven this group is. Message is simple: Help or get out. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 1, 2014

• The Bulls may be full-on sellers at the deadline this year. Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune has more on what they’re doing: “Less than three weeks from the NBA’s Feb. 20 trade deadline, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau knows executives John Paxson and Gar Forman are receiving calls. “The way that works is, when something gets close, they will come to me,” Thibodeau said. “But every conversation they’re having I don’t know about, nor do I want to know about. It’s important for me to focus on the guys we do have.”Veterans Kirk Hinrich and Mike Dunleavy are considered the most likely to go. Hinrich looked sharp Wednesday in San Antonio after a four-game absence for a hamstring injury. Dunleavy is averaging 11.2 points in 28.9 minutes and shooting 40 percent from 3-point range. “We’ll get calls because we have good players,” Thibodeau said. “They have to take those calls and weigh whether something makes sense. If they think it does, they’ll get my opinion on it. That’s all I can ask for.””
• The Denver Post’s Christopher Dempsey has some concern about the Nuggets’ PG situation: “With a full compliment of remaining point guards, the Nuggets could sit back and let the league shake itself out. Initial trade offers for Andre Miller weren’t to the organization’s liking, so general manager Tim Connelly was doing the prudent thing – not pulling a quick trigger just to get the whole situation behind him. Now? Things have changed a bit. A move one way (a trade) or another (a Miller return) might need to be made sooner than later. A lot of this hinges on the availability of Ty Lawson. He equalizes the equation if he is able to return to the team soon from a shoulder injury. Then, the point guard situation stabilizes and the Nuggets can be a little choosier about the offers up to the Feb. 20 trade deadline. Two things are clear now that Robinson is out. First, a Miller deal now almost has to include a guard in return. There was a time when that wasn’t a necessity, but now it will be. The Nuggets could deal him for not much and go the D-League route to fill the open position, but that’s not a better option than getting a player already on an NBA bench in return.”

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Dan Malone is in his fourth year as a journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent this summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.