For Cavs fans, it's been six weeks of waiting for any hint of good news as the deadline to sign LeBron James approaches.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The date was May 7, 2010. The place was Boston, where the Cavaliers ran the Celtics out of their own building.
Final score: Cavs 125, Boston 95. The Cavs had a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference semifinals. Then, it seemed like someone pulled the plug, sucking the life out of the team and setting up an anxious, sweaty free agent summer.
The team lost three straight, including by 32 points at Quicken Loans Arena. Many fans wanted coach Mike Brown fired, and that happened. Then General Manager Danny Ferry departed, replaced by his assistant, Chris Grant.
Owner Dan Gilbert tried to do his best sales job on Tom Izzo, but the Michigan State coach turned him down. It seems Gilbert hoped to lock up Izzo as part of a magnet to convince LeBron James to stick with the Cavs. Now, the best coach available is Byron Scott, who has put the Cavs on hold until he sees if Lakers coach Phil Jackson decides to take next season off.
The draft came and went. No trades. No picks. Nothing.
The Cavs can insist they are a good team, a 60-plus win team in each of the last two seasons. But that's only with James. Since May 7, fans have been waiting, hoping and maybe even praying for their team to do something to put the franchise in better position for next season.
Instead, they watched Chicago, Miami and New York clear more salary cap space. New York and Miami can definitely sign two maximum contract free agents, Chicago may be able to do so with one more move.
All of the salary cap shedding is not just about James. Other free agents are Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer. Amare Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki are expected to opt out of their contracts and hit the market, although Nowitzki will probably remain in Dallas.
While Chicago wants James, it also will push hard for Wade -- a native of that city. Miami has made lots of salary room to keep Wade and add at least another maximum free agent (Bosh?), and possibility a third relatively high-priced player.
The Knicks also lurk with room for James and possibly another major name. The Nets have room for one maximum player.
It's easy to see what those teams have to sell James. They all took major steps backward in the last few years to open up salary cap space off the court, losing on the court in the process.
The Cavs spent big to win big on the court, and convince James to stay. If the Cavs failed to boldly deal for Shaquille O'Neal and Antwan Jamison, then James could have said the team was not willing to pay the price for a championship. And yes, James was aware of these trades before they were finalized.
The Cavs won a lot, but not it all. Now, the case against them is they can't take huge steps forward because of all their high priced-players. Furthermore, they don't even have a coach or an experienced general manager.
It appears Lakers assistant Brian Shaw could be the next coach, if Scott ends up with the Lakers' job. Shaw is well liked and respected in the league, but never has been a head coach before.
So how do the Cavs convince James to stay?
They can honestly say they have lots of expiring contracts -- Delonte West, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, Sebastian Telfair and Leon Powe -- to paste together and deal for a player such as Bosh in a sign-and-trade. They have worked major summer deals after the draft before and can do so again. Especially if James signs first and helps them recruit a significant free agent.
They can demonstrate that Dan Gilbert has been smarter than the owners of Knicks, willing to out-spend ownership in Chicago or anywhere else. They can talk about the comfort zone of being home.
No matter what the Knicks do, they've had the NBA's worst record over the last nine years. The Cavaliers can show that new GM Grant has been active in every major move by the Cavs in the last five seasons. They also can pay James more than anyone else, and that could be significant a year from now when the NBA negotiates a new labor agreement.
Will that be enough to keep James? Only the MVP knows.
But the Cavs better realize they have to work harder than ever before if they want to keep James in Cleveland, because so far, nothing in this off-season has helped their cause.