How Game 6 Could Shape Future of the Cavs, LeBron and His Legacy
The Future of the Cavs
Look, it’s no secret that if LeBron does indeed leave Cleveland, the Cavs would immediately enter a state of rebuilding. Without arguably the greatest player to play this game, the Cavs plummeted to the bottom of the division and hung around the bottom of the conference the first time he left.
With LeBron leaving, the team would be led by Kevin Love, George Hill and Tristan Thompson. If you include Love’s player option for the 2019-20 season, all three players would be locked in for two more years with role players such as JR Smith, Jordan Clarkson and Cedi Osman behind them. Love would instantly be the team’s number one option and best player, but he did not garner much attention in the trade market, meaning the team would have to keep him and swallow his $24 million contract for next year. It’s clear the team would need to somehow attract free agents to come to Cleveland and without the star power of The King, this is where that coveted Brooklyn Nets draft pick comes into play.
The NBA Draft Lottery last week ended with the Cavs owning the number eight pick in the upcoming draft and that’s not all that terrible. This year’s draft class is pretty deep and with a variety of players from different positions available in this draft pool, the team can still manage to find good talent at the number eight spot. DeAndre Ayton and Luka Doncic are both rumored to be worthy of the number one, but after them, players like Trae Young, Collin Sexton and Michael Porter Jr. will be waiting to be picked.
Of course, the other option is to trade the pick as fans have called for before the trade deadline. At this point, not many players, if any, are worthy of being swapped with the number eight pick. Most free agents like Paul George have already announced where they would like to go and that drops the leverage any team would have in making a trade. Kawhi Leonard has been rumored to be at odds with the San Antonio Spurs but Leonard has already said that he would like to stay in San Antonio. Players of his caliber will warrant more than the number eight pick and Cleveland does not have many top draft picks at their disposal due to the team’s win-now culture with LeBron on the roster.
A last ditch effort could be to make a change a the head coach position, too. Ty Lue had his fair share of ups and downs this season and his strategy in the Game 5 loss received criticism throughout the city. As far as we know, LeBron likes Lue and he may want to keep him, but don’t be surprised if Lue sees his exit as an attempt to keep LeBron, echoing the efforts of the team in 2010 when they fired Mike Brown before LeBron announced “Decision” to take his talents to South Beach.
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