Hts121

Funny, Michael Gross.

I think our expectations are not nearly as high as they were during the building boom of the early-mid 90's. Tempered hope might be the right term.

Love him or hate him, Dan Gilbert is who he is. His passion is both his greatest strength and greatest weakness. Did anyone expect any less of a reaction from him?.... especially that late at night after he probably had drowned away his sorrows in a bottle. When you lose $150 million in assets (at least), and burn significant past investments, in the manner he did then you can take the high road and tell me you would have not lashed out at the person who made "The Decision".... not to mention he did not have the courtesy to pick up the phone and tell you like a man. Windhorst said during the whole process that if Lebron leaves everybody better watch out because "Hell hath no fury like Dan Gilbert scorned." I don't agree with Gilbert's words and I don't believe it was a wise course of action. But that doesn't mean I don't sympathize with him. I'm still glad he is our owner.

^Keep in mind that he was signed to an offer sheet because he is a restricted free agent. Meaning... the Rockets have 7 days to match the offer. I wouldn't be shocked if they did because I know they like him, but that is an awful lot to commit to a backup point guard.... especially when your starter is so young.

Like my old sig line used to read - one of God's own prototypes... never even considered for mass production.

Soil erosion. There.... I said it.

I will be really conflicted IF the Heat make it to the Finals. I would be truly pleased to see Z get a ring. I'm not upset at not getting Al Jefferson. He is a good power forward in a half-court set team. We already have our power forward and Scott wants to run. Jefferson would not have been a good fit IMO. I hear we have signed Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet. I like it. We'll see if Houston matches but I doubt they will if the numbers reported are correct. They already have their starting PG. Lowry is a tough defender who has never really been given the chance to start since coming out of 'Nova 4-5 years back. Cavs started their Summer League yesterday. JJ looked good. He nailed some jump shots. Like AC said all season, JJ is an All-Star if he can master the 15 foot jump shot. It would change the way teams have to guard him. Also looking good was last year's 1st Round draft choice, Christian Eyenga ("Kid Congo"). Athletic freak who has the potential to be a lock-down SG in the league. He has a couple real nice blocks and showed dramatic improvement from last summer. Still very raw though and got into foul trouble early. He will be on the Cavs roster this year. Bank on that.

^They want "attached" parking.... for both clients and employees. That is it.

Make no mistake about it, Calfee would not have signed the lease (which led to financing for the re-purposing) if not for the guarantee of attached parking. I highly doubt they were thinking of a move to the suburbs though, so I doubt that the parking garage kept them downtown. All of the major firms are downtown for obvious reasons. I can't think of a single suburban firm with more than 20 lawyers. On a related note, I wonder what is going to happen to the space they use at the McDonald building. I believe they occupy several floors in that building.

We should retire Z's jersey at his first game back. LBJ can "witness" the event.

Probably. If for no other reason than that just about any team we do a trade with is going to want his non-guaranteed contract

(gasp).... it's "Boobie" Agreed though. Unless they start dumping some of their veterans and go on a youth movement, they are a playoff team. All depends on how they deal with this adversity. Individual stats will increase. They need someone to step up as the #1 option though. There is a lot of debate over whether they should build on what they have or whether that is going to lead them down a path to prolonged mediocrity. I think they have a shot at a 50 win season as the team stands now, but I am not sure that would be good for long-term success and the ultimate goal of a championship.

Good bump. Chagrin Falls has been mentioned multiple times but it really is what this thread is all about. Geneva-on-the-Lake is right up there. Burton and Middlefield for Amish Country visits. Granville near Columbus. Beautiful, new england style town with a college campus. Put-in-Bay

The team was not built to play without James. It was constructed over the years in a manner that would best compliment his abilities. No, we never got that true second superstar, but we improved every year from a talent standpoint. This year, prior to the collapse (for whatever reason) against Boston, there were many NBA analysts who said we had the best "team" in the league. I remember Van Gundy saying those exact words when we were whoopin' Boston by 30 on their home floor in Game 3.

Ah..... the parallels - YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!

He said on "The Decision" that he wants to keep living here. Rich Paul, one of the 4 horsemen - LRMR - already said that he (Rich) is not moving. I also have not seen any indication that Savannah and the two kids are moving with him.... although I don't think they lived at the complex anyways. I heard the boys are signed up for the Hudson school district. The article I posted above makes a good point of how neither Wade's nor Shaq's marriage lasted through their stints in Miami. You have to understand that there were a lot of people very close to LeBron who were against this move. Rich certainly was (not sure about Randy or Maverick), so were several of LeBron's high school teammates (the "More than a Game" guys). Rich said he cried and pleaded for Lebron to stay. DJ Steph Floss felt the same way. Brandom Weems too.

Detroit reacts - www.freep.com/article/20100711/COL01/7110450/1005/NEWS03/After-LeBron-Clevelands-now-our-kind-of-town My favorite part - Let LeBron have Miami, Cleveland. Let him run with Dwyane Wade. Wade married his high school sweetheart, went to Miami, filed for divorce. Shaquille O'Neal had a wife, went to Miami, filed for divorce. See what Miami does to people? Too many starlets. Too many clubs. Too much disco music. Keep your dignity, Cleveland. Keep your ruddy looks. You're a lake and Miami is an ocean? Big deal. Oceans have sharks. Who can relate to Miami? The people in Miami can't relate to Miami. It's a place of charlatans, wannabes and men with too many buttons open. Cleveland is real. Cleveland is face-value. What you see is what you get.

Barkley adds to the criticism - http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2010/07/08/20100708_lebron_barkley.nba/

MH, good find on the Nate Silver article. The same guy who NAILED every state in the 2008 election I might add. The article just emphasizes what I have been saying about the "market size" for these two teams. I didn't realize that Miami actually is a downgrade in that regard by more than 3 million.

We are in better shape than the Knicks. We still have a team sans Lebron and a pretty decent one at that. We are missing the centerpiece though and who knows when we get another one. NYK on the other hand are a mess. They went all in on the Lebron sweepstakes and ended up with a player (Stoudemire) that no one else would commit significant money to because insurance will not cover the next injury to his eye or knee (either of which could end his playing career). I have to think that Stoudemire was option 4 or 5 for them at best. NYK also traded away several future draft picks in moves to clear more cap space so they could sign two big name free agents, which did not happen. We'll see, but moving forward I would take the Cavs' current roster over the Knicks',

^We improved virtually every year Gilbert owned this team from a talent standpoint. There were no indications that we were headed for a regression, rebuilding, etc. We would have competed for championships for years to come if he would have stayed. "Competed" being the key word and I believe that is what scared him. He is so concerned about being a great player without a ring, that he felt he needed to put himself in a situation where winning a ring is all but guaranteed (not saying that I agree with that line of thinking - Miami still has some significant holes they have to fill - but I do believe that was his thought process).

RnR - That's simplyfying it a bit. Although even with that simplification, I don't know of another example. Anyone? This wasn't just the hometown hero leaving. He is leaving a winning organization. He is leaving a fanbase that sold out every single game. He is leaving an owner who, for better or worse, catered to his every demand. He is leaving a supporting cast that enabled him to be the MVP of the league two years running. Did you know that we won more regular season games in the past two years than any other team since the Bulls' dynasty during the Jordan years? It is not like the future was bleak. It is not like fan support was dwindling. It is not like he was not making millions upon millions in endorsements. It is not like his friends and family were not taken care of (once again, for better or worse). He COULD have won a championship here, but it seems as if he always felt one should just be handed to him. That's what we call a sense of entitlement and it is insulting to an area of the country that has to scrape and claw for everything we get. All that said, he had every right to leave. I would have disagreed and would have been unhappy.... but "The Decision".... c'mon. With him knowing and often citing to "The Drive", "The Fumble", etc., this was a true spit in our face whether he realizes it or not.

My anger today is all about the way he did it. I have a hard time believing, at this point, that this was not always the plan. One of his new teammates, Chris Bosh, made clear that he was going to leave the Raptors before free agency even started. It allowed Toronto to weigh it's options accordingly. You have to understand how the salary cap works and that would take an essay to explain, but going about it the way he did took away options we might have elected to exercise. Personally, I believe he should have divorced himself from our franchise first. He should have done it the second he made up his mind. If that was yesterday morning (I doubt it) as he claims, then he should not have put us through that spectacle last night. Players leave their team because the team sucks, or the team won't pay as much as their suitors, or they want to be close to family. Nobody has ever left a franchise as highly successful as the Cavs have been over the past several years, which was willing to pay the most money, and also was the players' home team. Unprecedented. People's opinions are going to vary. If you are a casual sports fan, it really is no big deal. However, if you are invested, emotionally, financially, whatever, in Cleveland sports, then it is a much bigger deal to you. I'm still pissed today because I fall into the latter. I'll get over it, but I have every right to be pissed at the situation and at him. This team was built around him to win (and it did win A LOT) and, now, our options are very limited no that he removed the keystone to the entire foundation. He said several years back that he was not going to "ring-chase", that he was going to build a dynasty here in Cleveland, that loyalty was most important to him. Maybe he was being genuine, but I find that unlikely putting all the clues together. Whatever Lebron turns out to be (multiple championships, whatever), he will never be what many of us hoped he was (even if that hope was the result of turning a blind eye to his true character). Great piece by Wojornowksi BTW (bashing both LBJ and Gilbert) - http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AgiDRsCdAFLaMW4O67sXauA5nYcB?slug=aw-lebrondecision070910

There is a certain sense of relief, I must admit.... as disappointed as I am. With him on the team, there was always this sense that anything less than a championship was a failure. That if we fell short, he was going to leave. It was always over our heads. We literally had some of the best seasons in Cavs' history and were not able to truly celebrate that. The 2007 Finals being the exception, just because we were so shocked to be there in the first place. Great memories.... but yeah, I'm bitter. No way around it for me. It sucks that we had one of the best teams in the league, won more than any other team in the league these past several years and still had to beg our superstar to stay. Unprecedented.