First move: Get back into the running for small forward Matt Barnes.
Matt Barnes makes sense for the Cavaliers, Terry Pluto writes.Updated at 5:05 p.m. to clarify Cavs' offer to Barnes; adds Jamario Moon's name as only small forward on roster.
If I ran the Cavaliers, I'd find a way to sign free agent Matt Barnes to a two-year contract. He had hoped to play for Toronto for $10 million over two seasons, but that deal apparently has fallen apart. He supposedly has a two-year offer from the Cavs, for considerably less than the Toronto offer.
So the Cavs should sign Barnes, a defensive specialist who played last season with Orlando. They need a small forward, and Barnes can play that spot. Right now, they have no small forwards except Jamario Moon.
Barnes is no LeBron James. No one available is close to the talent of the two-time MVP.
So after I signed Barnes for two years, maybe paying $8 million over that span, here's what I'd do . . .
Not much of anything.
Not this year. Not even with plenty of room on the salary cap. Not even if they could have been able to overpay for free agents such as Brad Miller or Richard Jefferson to win a few more games.
Attracting free agents to Cleveland was hard with James, and it will be nearly impossible without him -- unless the Cavs plan to pay role players like stars. That's the last thing the Cavs need to do.
There's no need for any more contracts such as the four-year deals given to Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones or the maximum five-year contract handed to Larry Hughes. That was in the summer of 2005, when the Cavs were desperate to make the playoffs and convince James to sign a contract extension in the summer of 2006.
It worked to retain James until this summer, but hurt in terms of adding more talent for a championship run as those guys ate up salary cap room. The last four years have all been short-term, win-now thinking.
They need to add as many draft choices as possible. They need to look at the game entirely differently than they did in the James Era, adding young players through the draft and trades rather than signing veterans to win right now.
Starting over?
No one from the Cavs wants to say it, but that's the wisest road. The temptation for the Cavs is to try to be "competitive," to make good on owner Dan Gilbert's promise to win a title before it happens with James in Miami. Gilbert also has about 16,000 season ticket holders who paid big bucks assuming James would be back.
It's hard to sell rebuilding to them, but that's the real story.
So don't even mention Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady or Shaquille O'Neal. Don't forget what happened from 1994-2002.
The Cavs of Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance, Hot Rod Williams and Craig Ehlo were aging as the team moved from Richfield Coliseum downtown to what is now Quicken Loans Arena. They sold a lot of seats and suites based on contending, but the team wasn't prepared for that.
But instead of breaking down the roster, they tried to stay "competitive." In the first eight years of the downtown Cleveland Era, they made the playoffs four times -- and won a grand total of two postseason games. They'd win 40-some games, exit quickly from the playoffs -- then come back and do it all again.
They were a team stuck in the middle, the worst place to be because it yields no high draft picks.
The Cavs have been trying to add young players such as Kyle Lowry (Houston matched the Cavs' offer) or Ramon Sessions (an attractive point guard). Any move they make should be not so much about winning this season, as being a part of a plan to improve the team over the next few years. It's their only real option since James has left.