Lets go back to the pre-Decision era. Now, I know that during last season and into the beginning of the summer that every Cavs fans believed, or at least hoped that LeBron James would stay a Cavalier. Of course we were also on a championship run that almost completely ruled out the possibility of a trade. But you cant help but wonder with the recent Carmelo Anthony trade talks that some of these offers would not sound tempting.
Now i'm not comparing Anthony to James. One has came out and said he wanted to leave, making this what has to be a difficult "lame duck" season to watch if your a Nuggets fan. The other, James said nothing of plans other than he wanted to make it a long, drawn out process to fulfill his self-centered egotistical personality. But, just for shits and gigs. lets imagine that there were trade talks last year.
The thought, "lets play this safe and not put all the chips in the pot" had to have crossed through the head of owner Dan Gilbert. What if the Cavaliers were offered the ridiculous deal that was just offered by the New Jersey Nets to the Nuggets. The current package that sources confirmed was that the Nets offered prized rookie Derrick Favors, former All-Star Devin Harris, the expiring contract of Troy Murphy, and Ben Uzoh. Oh and I almost forgot. FOUR FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICKS. The Nets would receive Melo, Chauncey Billups, Sheldon Williams, and a couple of no names. Tell me thats not putting all the chips in the pot. If Melo couldn't win one in Denver with Chauncey what makes you think he can in New Jersey/Brooklyn. They are basically mailing in the drafts for the better part of the next decade, banking on only free agency to help.
But back to the point on the Cavs. I personally think that Dan Gilbert should have given James some sort of an ultimatum. Sure hindsight is 20-20 and we can play 'should've, could've' about last year. But if there was some sort of deadline imposed by Gilbert for James to at least say hey, i'm either going to stay, or test the waters of free agency and not rule out the Cavs. That would allow Gilbert to open the phones and take some offers. Though it would look like we as a city and organization would be giving up on our "hometown" boy, a trade like that would put is in a much better position than we are now. I'm sure the Nets would have offered us the same if not a better offer than that for LeBron.
Put Favors and Hickson in the front-court plus four 1st round picks. Ya, we might still have a pretty bad year. However, the sad thing about the way the NBA is set up is that its almost better off for your organization to be in the bottom 3 than be and 8th seed and get the shit kicked out of you in the 1st round of the playoffs. Better yet, just being mediocre and missing the playoffs but then having the middle pick in the draft. There isn't going to be a game changer outside the top 8 picks if that.
Four 1st round picks. Assuming that at least two of those are lottery picks, plus another decent one. Ya its a step back for the organization but at least its avoiding what just happened to us. We as a city end up in the same if not better position than we are currently in and save ourselves from the embarrassment that has happened to us this past summer.
Whether you agree with me or not, the question still remains, "Would a LeBron trade similar to the Melo trade not be better than what we have now?"
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