<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Cleveland Cavaliers missed out on top free agents Ray Allen and Michael Redd, so their immediate plans now include courting Heat free agent Udonis Haslem. Sources indicate the Cavaliers are interested in setting up a meeting with Haslem to convince the third-year forward he can be part of the team's future, and they could be prepared to offer Haslem more than the five-year, $33 million deal the Heat can offer. Word among players is that LeBron James has become a Haslem fan after watching him the past two years and playing with him in the Rookie Challenge games the past two All-Star weekends. Having failed to lure Allen and Redd from their current teams, the Cavaliers and new general manager Danny Ferry need to provide James with reasons to stay in Cleveland past his current contract. Cleveland already has come to terms with free agent Larry Hughes, and signing a young, workhorse power forward such as Haslem could be another measure taken. With about $28 million of space under the salary cap, the Cavaliers can still afford to sign Haslem and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas after signing Hughes. The Heat has been in negotiations with Haslem, meeting with the free agent the first day negotiations were allowed, but an agreement is still not in place, leaving the door open for a team such as the Cavaliers to pursue Haslem. Haslem's agent, Jason Levien, wouldn't comment on negotiations. Should Haslem, a restricted free agent, sign an offer sheet with the Cavaliers more than the amount the Heat can offer, it is believed the Heat would have to forfeit the use of its mid-level exception to match the deal (final word on that rule won't be official until the new collective bargaining agreement is completely written later this month).</div> Source
We could have a rotation of Haslem and Gooden at PF and Z and Vareajo at C. There have been rumors that Gooden is on the trading block though. Possibly for a tough, defensive oriented PJ Brown type of big man.
Gooden is a power foward, so his Haslem, I don't want to see either of them shifting postions, especially Gooden because he's had WAY TOO MUCH of that throughout his short NBA career, his production has suffered. Haslem and Hughes? Alright. Trade Gooden though and get yourself a point guard, than resign Big Z if they're not going after Curry. Man, Cleveland's offseason has just been FUN TO WATCH. The Final Product should be interesting...
The Cavs are going to be a completely different team from next year. If they sign Haslem, I can see the Cavs sliding Gooden to the 3 and having Hughes or LeBron play PG. I still think re-signing Big Z is the key for this team. They need that post threat, especially in the playoffs, and Big Z is the best player left on the market in the post, with Eddy Curry being second. Last year Big Z had a monster first half, but slowed down in the second half. Next year if they bring him back, they need to monitor his minutes and keep him fresh for the post-season. Feedback on this lineup ... PG - Hughes SG - James SF - Gooden PF - Haslem C - Ilgauskas They would have shooters off the bench Jackson, Pavlovic and possibly add another guy like Piatkowski or Person for cheap. Newble and Varejao will be solid defensive substitions and Snow gives them some decent minutes at PG. This Cavs roster can do some damage in the regular and post season if they can grab Haslem and Big Z. I also like how they are weakening their competition also by stealing Hughes away from the Wizards and Haslem from the Heat.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">The Cavs are going to be a completely different team from next year. If they sign Haslem, I can see the Cavs sliding Gooden to the 3 and having Hughes or LeBron play PG. I still think re-signing Big Z is the key for this team. They need that post threat, especially in the playoffs, and Big Z is the best player left on the market in the post, with Eddy Curry being second. Last year Big Z had a monster first half, but slowed down in the second half. Next year if they bring him back, they need to monitor his minutes and keep him fresh for the post-season. Feedback on this lineup ... PG - Hughes SG - James SF - Gooden PF - Haslem C - Ilgauskas They would have shooters off the bench Jackson, Pavlovic and possibly add another guy like Piatkowski or Person for cheap. Newble and Varejao will be solid defensive substitions and Snow gives them some decent minutes at PG. This Cavs roster can do some damage in the regular and post season if they can grab Haslem and Big Z. I also like how they are weakening their competition also by stealing Hughes away from the Wizards and Haslem from the Heat.</div> I think that Gooden can play short stretches of a game at SF, but from what i've seen of him, he doesn't have the quickness to play SF for a lot of the time. A lot of SF's, who for the most part are much quicker than him, would eat him up in a game. Plus if they got to the hole that would instigate a problem of foul trouble for Big Z and Haslem. I think that they could play Gooden there sometimes, or trade him. We'll just have to see how things go down.
This will test wether Haslem really is serious about taking less money from the Heat. I would expect that the Cavs will offer Haslem anything from 5.5 to 6 million over 5 years. It's would be real tempting for Udonis.
Haslem will look into this offer. I hope he stays loyal to the Heat but like Allnet said this will be very tempting for him. If they can land Haslem and re-sign Illgauskas Cleveland will be loaded.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllNet:</div><div class="quote_post">This will test wether Haslem really is serious about taking less money from the Heat. I would expect that the Cavs will offer Haslem anything from 5.5 to 6 million over 5 years. It's would be real tempting for Udonis.</div> Well for the Cavs to get Udonis, they would have to offer more than what the Heat can offer (5 years/33 million) which is 6.6 million a year. So if the Cavs want him, he'd be getting around that kind of money or more.
I dont understand why the Cavs would do this.Is Haslem really that much better than Gooden?I dont think so.They should use this money to sign a point guard whos a 3 point threat (Damon Jones?).I think if they did something like that theyd be ridiculous.
Stats would prove that Gooden is infact better than Haslem, however Haslem is much more consistent and certainly much more tough and rugged player in the paint, he's a more traditional power foward which should be good for this team. But Please Cleveland, no more Gooden at Center and no more Gooden and Small Foward. He tried Small Foward in Memphis, he fell on his face and was traded. He tried Center in Orlando and basically got sent to the bench for the rest of the year. This guy is a power foward, THATS IT, his numbers are pretty solid and he'll remain at that production level and possibly improve if he can continue to be a power foward. You start shifting him around the lineup again and your simply ruining his game and his ability to produce at a consistent level. End of story.
