On Saturday night, with a bunch of off-the-court nonsense hanging in the air, Kyrie Irving played one of the games of his life in front of 18,179 fans at Quicken Loans Arena. Irving scored 44 points on 16-31 shooting, to go along with eight assists and seven rebounds.It wasn't enough.
The Bobcats topped the Cavaliers in overtime. Irving, as brilliant as he was, missed a pretty open three in the final seconds that would have given Cleveland the lead and possibly the game.
With the loss, the team's playoff chances (which were already quite long) basically ended. Not that we should be too disappointed with that; I'm still amazed that they had any playoff chances at all after everything that's happened this season.
Now it is time to really begin thinking about next season. There will be a lot of discussion about Irving's future with the team this summer. The front office will almost certainly offer him the maximum extension possible. Whether he takes it, or negotiates something shorter, remains to be seen. Either way, Irving will almost certainly be back next season.
Dion Waiters will most likely be back as well. We saw bits of how he and Irving could co-exist this season, but not nearly enough to make me feel great about this backcourt going forward.
Luol Deng is a free agent, and indications are that he will go out and sign with a contender. Spencer Hawes is free as well, and while I'd love to see him back, I doubt the Cavaliers will be willing to pay the price that it will probably take. But we'll see.
Anderson Varejao could very likely be back, but his contract offers the team a lot of flexibility.
There's also the issue of Mike Brown. It seems like he may have saved his job by turning things around a bit of late, and his contract certainly would make it tough to let him go. You can just never be sure of anything when it comes to Dan Gilbert, though.
Before any of these questions are answered, of course, Gilbert needs to decide who his General Manager is going to be. David Griffin certainly deserves a hard look, but I get the sense that Gilbert will want to try and lure a bigger name.
Whoever ends up taking the job will have to make a few moves to get the Cavaliers into the postseason next year. The current roster certainly offers some hope, as all of the young players will have another season under their belts. And there will be yet another lottery pick who is brought into the fold.
But just relying on development from Waiters/Thompson/Bennett/Zeller and another pick won't be enough. This team needs shooting, interior defense, and a real small forward.
Getting into the playoffs in the East shouldn't be so hard, but they can't expect it to happen automatically.
No comments:
Post a Comment