First off, if you haven’t been updated on all the latest free agency moves, Chris Sheridan’s got all that for you over in our Top 25 Free Agents list. With LeBron and Melo off the market, the floodgates have started to open, and a lot of the second- and third-tier free agents (Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza, Gordon Hayward) are finding the markets a lot more friendly.
Here’s the latest news and rumors from around the NBA:
ANTHONY BENNETT IS SLIMMED DOWN, MAKING NOISE IN SUMMER LEAGUE
Taylor Bern of the Las Vegas Sun:
The game even did its best to live up to the hype, with Wiggins and Parker leading their teams with 18 and 17 points, respectively, in Cleveland’s 70-68 victory. Bennett finished right behind Wiggins with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting and seven rebounds with eight fouls.
Conditioning was a big issue in Bennett’s disastrous rookie season. That’s been a focus for him this offseason, and he appears slimmed down from his last game as a Rebel.
“It was a learning experience for me,” Bennett said of his first pro season. “I learned I’ve got to put in a lot more hard work, take care of my body and come prepared.”
Bennett gave the local fans something to cheer early on with a two-handed power dunk through the middle of the lane.
“It was fun,” he said of playing in Las Vegas again. “I think after the first dunk everybody was yelling ‘Rebels.’”
First-year Cavaliers coach David Blatt was on the bench — something you only see with new coaches — with team owner Dan Gilbert sitting directly across the court. Now that they have James, several more roster moves will likely take place before Summer League ends July 21, so it’s important for the higher-ups to be hands-on.
LANCE STEPHENSON MARKET HEATS UP
Sean Deveney of the Sporting News:
The Charlotte Hornets took a gamble by pursuing Gordon Hayward, making a max offer for the restricted free-agent forward, and it didn’t pay off, now that the Utah Jazz informed the Hornets they will match.
That leaves the Hornets with about $20 million in cap space, and a roster it’s seeking to upgrade aggressively, which a league source said will lead to the next big front in free agency — Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson.
According to the source, the remaining serious suitors for Stephenson are expected to be Charlotte, Dallas — if and when the Rockets match the Mavs’ offer sheet for Chandler Parsons — and Indiana. Several teams mentioned in connection with Stephenson, including Boston, Chicago and the Lakers, have not been serious in their pursuit, the source said, while others could register late interest.
CLOCK APPROACHING MIDNIGHT ON BOOZER
Unless Bulls have salary-cap trick no can see right now, looks like they will be forced to amnesty Carlos Boozer by Wednesday’s deadline
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 12, 2014
JASON SMITH DRAWING INTEREST
With Pau Gasol off market, there’s no shortage of interest in Jason Smith. Not expected to return to New Orleans (b/c of Omer Asik trade) — Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 13, 2014
CASEY ON CABOCLO
Dwane Casey, on @Bruno_Caboclo: “I love people saying he’s two years way from being two years away. They don’t know anything.”
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixSI) July 13, 2014
MIKE MILLER LIKELY TO CAVS
Cavs closing in on deal with free agent G Mike Miller, source tells @FOXSportsOH. “Unless something unforeseeable happens,” Miller will sign
— Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) July 12, 2014
Dan Malone has finally finished his journalism degree at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is now a reporter at the Bryan Times in northwest Ohio. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.
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Hey! Mr Sheridan can you give us an article solely about the Cleveland Cavaliers Re: Their current team roster including Lebron James, Assessment of individual strengths & weaknesses and how those 4 number 1 pick will have chemistry or how they work together to be effective team; those players that the Cavs are either negotiating or close to signing to be part of the Cavs and your suggestion/advice as to who are those other available players in the free agency market to add depth to the cavs and if the cavs are over the salaray cap or not and with that given their cap restriction who can they realistically add up in the free agency market available & affordable. I ask this because NO ONE is paying attention about the Cavs depht & strenght with other sports network even ridiculing and downgrading the cavs. Please do it if you have time. From a Cavs fan. Thanks brother
It will take some time for folks to break down just how the Cavs may look come tip-off time in October. The Cavs are not yet a finished product (few teams are, given the many free agents still unsigned) and the roster they have now will not be the roster that they have on opening day. If you just look at their team last year, however, it was nothing to write home about in terms of either depth or strength. There was a reason they missed the playoffs. Now they’ve lost two solid veterans (Deng/Jack) and have yet to resign CJ Miles. That means that they’ll be relying on Waiters/Irving/Delladova/Wiggins to eat up those minutes. While there is a lot of potential there, I would say the jury is out as to whether those are positions of strength. The proven “LeBron” formula is to surround him with shooters. Irving/Waiters/Delladova all to some degree can shoot, but at least in the case of Irving/Waiters, they’re more scorers than shooters. Looking at Irving’s entire body of work, you would conclude that he’s the best shooter, but he really regressed last year from 3-pt land. In that sense, you may even look at the rook Joe Harris and conclude that he fits better with James than the Irving/Waiters combo. So, the Cavs may have the “potential” for depth, but each of the guards needs to work on their spot up shooting and become automatic like Ray Allen. Otherwise, James will continually be frustrated by the lack of space to drive or post up because the defence will prefer to sag on him than let him shoot a layup.
Then, you look at the Cavs “bigs” with Varajao, Bennett, Thompson. None of those guys can shoot. The paint will be mighty clogged if you play any two of the aforementioned together. None of the other bigs that they have are guaranteed any minutes and/or any production. To me, they are awfully thin up front, and at present don’t really have the types of pieces that have worked well with James in the past.
So – advice for the Cavs:
– find a “big” that can shoot and space the floor (an amnestied Boozer, Rashard Lewis, Mike Miller)
– if you can upgrade from Bennett/Thompson on the cheap, do it (Kris Humphries likely can be had for pennies on the dollar right now; he produces when given minutes); you simply can’t give heavy minutes to both those guys if you want to be a championship-caliber team [my preferred scenario would be to trade Thompson who has higher trade value for something (anything!) and hope that Bennett develops]
– find a dead-eye shooter at one of the guard/SF spots (Ray Allen, Anthony Tolliver)
– tell Irving/Waiters/Wiggins to shoot 500 spot-up 3s a day until training camp (they can even practice shooting it wide open because that’s what they’re going to be if James is doing his job)
Use the 2014-2015 season as a development season to:
– come up with a coherent defence that hides Irving/Waiters and maximizes the versatility of Wiggins/LeBron
– teach all of the Cavs players to shoot
– find championship caliber pieces at each position (that probably means that ultimately both of Thompson/Bennett, and maybe even Waiters need a new home) [the test here is, if you imagined that they were on the Spurs, would they be able to contribute anything to the team in an NBA finals game? My answer to Thompson/Bennett is a resounding no, Waiters is a ?? but can you afford to wait on him during LeBron’s best years?]
Thanks for sharing!!