Dan Gilbert.

[Gibbz]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

Don't turn this into another Lebron thread people.

Really? This was a Lebron thread from the beginning. The only reason a lot of NBA fans even know the name Dan Gilbert is a result of his burning hatred for James. Are we supposed to discuss Quicken Loans in here or something?

[wwharton]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

Really? This was a Lebron thread from the beginning. The only reason a lot of NBA fans even know the name Dan Gilbert is a result of his burning hatred for James. Are we supposed to discuss Quicken Loans in here or something?

The thread was bumped from 2 years ago. When it was created it had relevance outside of Lebron. If you've got nothing to add without it just being an extension of the huge Lebron thread that already exists then you could just not post in it at all.

Thread was already dead... it shouldn't need to be locked to return there if the new post doesn't generate legs.

[jcern23]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

If you really think about it, does anyone really think LeBron would have won a ring in Cleveland? Seriously, Dan Gilbert gets guys like a washed up Leon Powe & a declined Antawn Jamison and says they gonna help him win a championship?? Please. . .save your breath, I didn't agree with the way LeBron left, but I'm glad he realized what Gilbert was doing & left the Cavs. Now he has a ring, something he wouldn't have had in Cleveland.

You make a good point I have to agree. I mean even with Bosh and Wade the Heat really needed the efforts of Chamlbers and Battier to win it all. Those guys were huge all playoffs and he never had a supporting cast like that in Cleveland.

[Bolt957]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

Yawn, LeBron requested Antawn Jamison, and played on the high school team of Leon Powe and was signed for $800k in hopes his knee healed. There were a few playoff teams interested in Powe hoping his knee recovered. Everyone seems to know everything about Cleveland now that LeBron got a ring. Tell me, what's Cleveland's plans for the draft?

I hate these," We couldnt get talent around LeBron comments". After the 08 season, we got Mo Williams and had a 66 win season, followed by a 61 win season. I know we didnt go where we wanted to go, but Dan Gilbert did everything he could to try and build a championship team. LeBron did little if anything to help recruit players to our team, blaming Gilbert and Cleveland is a lazy argument IMO. We could have gotten Amar'e, but PHX didnt want to deal. We had a deal in place to get Bosh, he didnt want to come for whatever reason(mainly knowing he was going to MIA with Wade and LeBron). As soon as LeBron left for MIA, he already started recruiting for Z and Fisher, where was that when we were going after players.

As for Gilbert, Im glad he has learned that you cant let a player control your franchise like we did, as well as ORL. Hopefully we build a team with Kyrie and Thompson and continue to build through the draft to find our players. Use FA as a way to add to our depth. Having Kyrie is a great start for our rebuild, he will be a top 5 PG IMO very soon.

Well I appreciate your comment Thelorn, seeing as I didn't know this part of the story, but I believe Gilbert should have ignored the request to get both players & found other players that would have actually been beneficial for Cleveland in their quest for a ring, and IMO that was a decline in progress, but it doesn't matter any longer; the only thing Cleveland can do in the draft is to be vigilant & find gems in the draft; players that are versatile & have a high IQ of the game.

To cavsfan4life, I appreciate your comment too; my point was the players they had & the ones they got in the run for the title could have won, but I feel as though they relied too much on LeBron and they didn't have role players that could step up as the players in Miami did. 60+ win seasons mean nothing if your not stepping up in the Playoffs. I do hope the Cavs can rebuild a team that can potentially be in the run for the Playoffs, with Kyrie & Tristan being the team's bright spots & their future. We'll see how things go, but it'll be a long & hard process.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

So really. Why does Dan Gilbert have acknowledge LeBron and say congrats to him on winning in his tweets?

I should clarify that I've seen it mentioned on the shows today about Gilbert's tweet after the game and he's getting killed as classless for not saying congrats to LeBron or mentioning him by name and Cleveland fans are being told they need to move on. So my question is why? Why do they need to do all this?

[The 24th Letter]

People are really sayin he's classless because he didn't mention LeBron by name? That's hilarious but I'd wager its a very small number that feel that way...I personally hadn't heard anything like that...

He doesn't have to say s***

[Cavsfan4life]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

Exactly, its mainly BSPN spewing this though. Glad I avoid them other than sporting events.

[boritter]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

If you take LBJ off of the 2012 Heat, Miami would still be a playoff team. Obviously they wouldn't be a championship caliber team but Wade, Bosh, & the role players would be a 4-6 seed. If you take LBJ off of the James-era Cavs you have a terrible team. This was indisputably shown during the 2011 season. Gilbert and the Cavs GMs were never able to build a good (let alone great) supporting cast for LBJ. Would you want to play on a team that featured Wade, James, Chalmers, Battier, Miller, Haslem? Of course you would. Would you want to play on a team that featured Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, old & obese Shaq, Jamison, Big Z, Varejo (sp?), Anthony Parker, Delonte West, Drew Gooden, Pavlovic? Of course not. W/o James that is a horrific team. At the end of the day Gilbert & the GM are responsible for building the team. They did a terrible job. No one wants crappy co-workers. If our co-workers stunk for 6 or 7 straight years we would all look for a better job.

[Sportsbuck]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

If you take LBJ off of the 2012 Heat, Miami would still be a playoff team. Obviously they wouldn't be a championship caliber team but Wade, Bosh, & the role players would be a 4-6 seed. If you take LBJ off of the James-era Cavs you have a terrible team. This was indisputably shown during the 2011 season. Gilbert and the Cavs GMs were never able to build a good (let alone great) supporting cast for LBJ. Would you want to play on a team that featured Wade, James, Chalmers, Battier, Miller, Haslem? Of course you would. Would you want to play on a team that featured Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, old & obese Shaq, Jamison, Big Z, Varejo (sp?), Anthony Parker, Delonte West, Drew Gooden, Pavlovic? Of course not. W/o James that is a horrific team. At the end of the day Gilbert & the GM are responsible for building the team. They did a terrible job. No one wants crappy co-workers. If our co-workers stunk for 6 or 7 straight years we would all look for a better job.

This has been rehashed over and over again on pretty much every thread on OS, so all I'm going to say is that it's hard to draw free agents and make moves when you have no idea whether or not your best player is going to be there in a couple of years.

[da ThRONe]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

This has been rehashed over and over again on pretty much every thread on OS, so all I'm going to say is that it's hard to draw free agents and make moves when you have no idea whether or not your best player is going to be there in a couple of years.

The Cavs front office had more than just a couple of years to build around LeBron. They just failed to get it done. Not to let LeBron off the hook. If he played as efficient and as focused as he did this lost season there's no telling if he could have gotten over the hump in Cleveland. However he spent 7 years with that organization and the supporting cast was most certainly subpar. Which even if you want to say LeBron wanted some of those players ultimately the responsibility of building a team rest with the FO and they failed at putting enough around LeBron.

I'd say the same with CP3. We as a organization failed to put the pieces around him and he left.

[JWaLL]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

If you take LBJ off of the 2012 Heat, Miami would still be a playoff team. Obviously they wouldn't be a championship caliber team but Wade, Bosh, & the role players would be a 4-6 seed. If you take LBJ off of the James-era Cavs you have a terrible team. This was indisputably shown during the 2011 season. Gilbert and the Cavs GMs were never able to build a good (let alone great) supporting cast for LBJ. Would you want to play on a team that featured Wade, James, Chalmers, Battier, Miller, Haslem? Of course you would. Would you want to play on a team that featured Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, old & obese Shaq, Jamison, Big Z, Varejo (sp?), Anthony Parker, Delonte West, Drew Gooden, Pavlovic? Of course not. W/o James that is a horrific team. At the end of the day Gilbert & the GM are responsible for building the team. They did a terrible job. No one wants crappy co-workers. If our co-workers stunk for 6 or 7 straight years we would all look for a better job.

i agree, in his 7 years there, did anyone other than LeBron make an all star team? i don't think so but i could be wrong

[Sportsbuck]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

The Cavs front office had more than just a couple of years to build around LeBron. They just failed to get it done. Not to let LeBron off the hook. If he played as efficient and as focused as he did this lost season there's no telling if he could have gotten over the hump in Cleveland. However he spent 7 years with that organization and the supporting cast was most certainly subpar. Which even if you want to say LeBron wanted some of those players ultimately the responsibility of building a team rest with the FO and they failed at putting enough around LeBron.

I agree, they made several poor draft selections and weren't able to put something around him.

However, it's hard to build something when you are continually forced to make short-sighted moves for the short-term to try and keep LeBron happy and wanting to stick around.

[wheelman990]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

They thought Lebron could win with some older players around him. He couldn't. I think he could have, but I do believe he lost confidence in big moments. They needed to bring in some young promising talent and develope the team. I just don't think lebron can do it without players taking up the slack so to speak.

Lebron wasn't the best leader in Cleveland either. Not the way the team needed anyway. He made that clear the way he left, and the things that were said. You never burn bridges, and you should always remain humble. How he left showed a little of what was going on behind the scenes...

[da ThRONe]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

i agree, in his 7 years there, did anyone other than LeBron make an all star team? i don't think so but i could be wrong

Mo Williams but I wouldn't say it was a true All-star appearance he was in alternate.

[DemiGodzillla]

Re: Dan Gilbert.

The Cavs front office had more than just a couple of years to build around LeBron. They just failed to get it done. Not to let LeBron off the hook. If he played as efficient and as focused as he did this lost season there's no telling if he could have gotten over the hump in Cleveland. However he spent 7 years with that organization and the supporting cast was most certainly subpar. Which even if you want to say LeBron wanted some of those players ultimately the responsibility of building a team rest with the FO and they failed at putting enough around LeBron.

I'd say the same with CP3. We as a organization failed to put the pieces around him and he left.

Not only did they fail to build a decent team around him, they made the same mistakes over and over, bringing in players past their prime that were being paid too much money, along with giving poor contracts to younger players and then failing to fix them.

Ben Wallace, Wally Sczrerbiak, Antwan Jamison, Shaq and the list goes on.

And, by the way, they let Boozer walk for his best years in the midst of all that.

2010 showed no promise of any difference, they were looking at at least another year or two before being able to make substantial free agent moves with Varajao, Williams and Jamison all eating cap space and LeBron's not getting any younger like the rest of us.

All this was happening while LeBron saw other team around the league trading for Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, winning championships, other teams mortgaging their futures to make a play at him and another superstar and ultimately giving him a chance to make the biggest splash in the history of the sport with Wade and Bosh or stay in Cleveland for at least two more years and hope things start going better.

I didn't/don't like the way the decision/debut party/NBA 2010 Summer went, but I never did feel much sympathy for the Cavs, who always seemed like they felt obligated to retain LeBron even after not building a proper team around him.