Danny Ferry. Besides Lebron James, this guy is the face of the franchise. A superstar in college at Duke University, and the number two pick in the 1989 draft, he was supposed to be the next Larry Bird(the first in a long line of them). If you didn't look at any of his stats, you'd think he had a great playing career too. He spent ten years with the Cavs, and then after all the terrific contributions and lasting memories he made in Cleveland, management graciously sent him to San Antonio for the twilight years of his career to win a title, something he just narrowly missed leading the Cavs to during his prime. Shortly after his retirement from San Antonio and a token front office position(undoubtedly due to his living legend status), the Cavs bring him back to Cleveland for a long-awaited homecoming to make him their General Manager, hoping to see the same magic from him in the front office as he showed on the court. Am I missing anything here?</p> Obviously I soaked that paragraph in a good healthy bucket of sarcasm. In actuality, the Cavs mortgaged their present(star shooting guard Ron Harper) for a bout of salary-cap cancer that lasted a decade. Their payoff? Averages of 7.8 ppg and 2.99(no, not 3, he was 7 rebounds short, and I refuse to give him what he didn't earn) rpg. He was 6'10 and couldn't even average 3 rebounds per game! Even when he was starting in 1996 and averaging 32.7 mpg, he only averaged 3.8 rpg. Are you kidding me!?! </p>And talk about huge Koncaks(for those of you too young to remember, Atlanta hamstringed themselves from competing for a title with Dominique Wilkens by signing backup center John Koncak to a huge salary, more than guys like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were making, which prevented them from signing any other free agents for years. Hefty contracts handed out to undeserving players have thus carried the monaker Koncak as a not so subtle reminder of the player Atlanta fans not-so-affectionately nicknamed "John Contract."). During Ferry's rookie year, he was the second highest paid player on the team, making more than Cleveland's two best players(Mark Price and Brad Daugherty)combined! He remained the second highest paid player on the team for the next three years as well, and was the highest paid player on the team for the next four, finally becoming 3rd and 4th in his last two seasons, respectively. <div>Now after all those fond memories Cleveland has him back as their GM, and he's done NOTHING for this team. I mean, seriously, how much of Cleveland's success has been due to Danny Ferry's consumate dealmaking behind closed doors, and how much has simply been due to the on-court brilliance of #23? Besides, Jim Paxson put most of the important pieces together anyway. Now, the summer after the Cavs make the Finals to everyone's surprise(even you, Cav's fans), he is sitting back admiring his handywork while the rest of the East is going out and getting tougher, meaner, and just plain better. </div><div>I'm not even a Cavaliers fan, and it makes me mad to think that a guy barely better than Yinka Dare has been handed the keys to an NBA franchise due to some purported knowledge of the game(which he's yet to exhibit). Maybe its just me, and people in Cleveland actually like him. What do yall think?</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Am I missing anything here?</div> </p> You forgot to mention his threats to play overseas prior to entering the league.</p> I'm not sure how much blame he should take as GM. His first season he took over, the Cavs had a lot of cap room and the new owner Dan Gilbert, wanted to make commitment to winning right away. I would think coming from San Antonio, Ferry would have a better sense of managing cap space for a small market team. Instead Ferry went out and overpaid for one-dimensional talent in the likes of Damon Jones, Doneyll Marshall, and his biggest mistake Larry Hughes.</p> Not many teams had caproom that summer and a seasoned GM would have waited until the end to get bang for his buck. Ferry jumped the gun early (pressured by Gilbert?) and the Cavs are now paying for those mistakes. They will lose Pavlovic and Varejao this season or next, and the small amount of cap room they have next summer likely goes to Boobie Gibson.</p> </p>
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3028580</p> The Cleveland Cavaliers have moved into a swanky new $25 million practice facility and the team brought along its sense of humor, for the most part. </p> Pranksters painted the office of general manager Danny Ferry, who played for Duke before putting on the Cavaliers uniform, the colors of rival North Carolina. </p> And coach Mike Brown's office sported a girlish hot pink wall in time for Wednesday's showoff tour of the facility. </p> Prodded to stand in front of the UNC Tar Heels logo, Ferry managed a smile but wasn't budging. "I have no sense of humor when it comes to that," Ferry said. </p> "This is my office for one day. Tomorrow it will be fixed," said Ferry, who also promised payback for the pranksters. </p> And Brown's hot-pink office? "I'll have pink ribbons for you all when you leave so nobody feels left out," Brown said. </p> </p>
Personally, with hindsight, I think most of his moves where ridiculous. Currently, just over $20 million per year is being spent on Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones combined. This is awful, but if you look at the way the trio played before coming to the Cavs, their money can be justified. </p> </p> Hughes was coming off an incredible couple of seasons with the Wizards, Marshall jointly held (and might still hold) the record for most made three-pointers in a game, and Damon Jones had one of the top three point shooting percentages in the League. They have just been unable to perform in Cleveland.</p> </p> Remember also that Hughes was only the Cavs' third option for the SG spot, a spot which desparately needed to be filled. No matter what the Cavs say, they wanted Michael Redd or Ray Allen over Hughes, but the duo rejected them. Ferry still had to fill the spot, and was forced to overpay for Hughes, else risk not filling the spot at all.</p> </p> At the time of that off-season, I did think the moves were good. And so, too, did a lot of other Cavs fans. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it does show up Ferry for some bad moves. However, he is an expert at working under the radar, so you tend not to read about his deals until they go through. He is not the best GM in the World, but he does get unfair stick for what he does.</p>
