Despite their 16-23 record, the Cleveland Cavaliers actually seem finally to be recovering post-LeBron.
Kyrie Irving has burst on to the scene faster than most people would have expected and is already looking like one of the league’s best point guards. If they can get a few more pieces in place, they might rise back to the level of Eastern Conference contender in a few years.
For now, they have to figure out what they can get for veteran power forward Antawn Jamison’s expiring contract, which might not be much.
Even though Jamison is leading the Cavs in scoring, his less-than-stellar reputation definitely makes him unattractive to other teams.
He scores his fair share, he is actually the Cavs’ leading scorer. But that is mostly because he takes a lot of shots. No playoff teams really want to take on an aging veteran’s contract when he is going to come in and start heaving the ball from anywhere on the court and not play a lot of defense. Not to mention, Jamison is due $15 million this year.
So if the Cavs were hoping to get a first-round pick for Jamison so they can continue to build their solid young team, they may be out of luck, but they definitely need to continue to be a long-term team.
Jamison, most likely, will only be of use to them for the rest of this year.
At this point, they are definitely better off not getting into the playoffs and being a lottery team rather than sneaking into the eighth-seed and losing in the first round. So they do not need help this year, they need help down the road.
If they can get any draft pick for Antawn Jamison, they should probably take it. This year’s draft should be much stronger than last year’s so you never know what you can get, even if it is a second round pick.
The Cavaliers are definitely going to be one of the hot, young teams to watch in the future. The more pieces they can get in place for that, the better.
