David Griffin Out of Cleveland

[jgoldstein34]

Pretty shocking, but David Griffin Out of Cleveland.

He's a really good GM, his whole contract situation recently has been weird. Dan Gilbert says it was a mutual decision.

Is it ever a good idea to fire your GM 3 days before the draft? Especially a good GM like Griffin.

[Crow]

Who will they go for?

[jgoldstein34]

Rumor is Chauncey Billups is the top candidate.

[Crow]

Hmm...

No front office experience. Yeah that is what they need.

[jgoldstein34]

It's all very strange. LeBron had publicly backed Griffin multiple times. Apparently LeBron didn't even know it was going to happen: https://twitter.com/ryenarussillo/statu ... 2867517441.

Not good to piss of your franchise player: https://twitter.com/HowardBeck/status/8 ... 0866367488

[rlee]

Griffin wanted and deserved a raise. Gilbert wanted him on the cheap. The other teams with GM vacancies were interested in him and wanted to speak with him. Gilbert refused permission in order to take away Griffin's leverage as the other jobs were filled. No surprise given Quicken Loans history, I guess.

[Crow]

Front offices are teams and there are other forms of experience but there is risk in having the #1 lack the immediately relevant managerial experience.

[jgoldstein34]

Griffin should be every team's 1st call when they fire their GM next season.

[Crow]

Phoenix, New Orleans, Portland...

or Milwaukee as "President"?

[jgoldstein34]

New Orleans would be fascinating. Finally get AD some more help.

[RyanRiot]

What does everyone here think of Griffin? I understand he's got a great reputation with the players (especially LeBron), but what do we think of his actual moves as GM? Obviously the Cavs have been successful in his tenure, but I think we all agree that that has much more to do with LeBron deciding to return than any moves Griffin has made. His best move was probably adding Love, but even then he had to give two #1 picks to get him. I also think it's regrettable that such large portion of his cap space is tied up in Tristan Thompson, JR Smith, and Iman Shumpert.

[Nathan]

As a Cavs fan, don't understand the love for Griffin. I don't think he was terrible, but the Cavs really failed to get above-average, or even average players to fill out the roster beyond their big 3.

By RPM, their 4th-best player was Frye at 90th, who didn't even play in the finals. Their 5th best player, Tristan, was 147th. Badly in need of a shot in the arm defensively, they gave up a first rounder for a 1-year rental of Korver of all players, who ranked 371st in RPM.

It's always hit-or-miss to an extent dealing with role players, but Griffin has missed, and missed, and missed again. Most of his moves have seemed reasonable, and he's gotten somewhat unlucky at times (e.g. with the Bogut injury), but I don't think he's an irreplaceable talent.

[Crow]

So bad or questionable moves:

Blatt
Releasing Seth Curry?



Eh...

Shumpert & Smith
Mozgov?



Good moves:

James
Love deal
Jefferson
Frye
Thompson deal
Delly signed
Delly not re-signed


Good. Good enough for one title.

[jgoldstein34]

I think you're missing the value of those fringe moves. You have 3 stars, you're not going to have the flexibility to make big moves. All of these small fringe moves Griffin did are why the Cavs have half way decent players around LeBron. JR becoming a complete shell this year and Shumpert regressing isn't exactly Griffin's fault.

[Crow]

Not all were small fringe moves. I considered context but your context evaluation may vary from mine.