CLEVELAND: Thirty-one thoughts for 31 minutes from Kyrie Irving in Thursday’s 106-95 win against the Chicago Bulls on an active trade deadline day…
1. When the Golden State Warriors flipped the momentum of the Finals last season by benching Andrew Bogut and going small, the Cavs were left with two options: Leave Timo Mozgov on the floor and try to exploit the mismatch or pull their rim protector and match the Warriors’ small ball lineup. They initially tried the former before resigning themselves to the latter. Ultimately neither strategy worked. The Warriors won three straight and drenched the visitors locker room at the Q in champagne.
2. The Cavs at least in part had the Warriors in mind when they acquired Channing Frye on Thursday. This wasn’t a move based solely on Golden State’s personnel, but it certainly helps. Now they can go small and keep a (near) 7-footer on the floor. Now they can play with five shooters when necessary. Now they hope they’ve addressed their problem of inconsistent bench scoring.
MORE: Cavaliers acquire another shooter in Channing Frye, lose a fan favorite in Anderson Varejao
3. This deal isn’t without risk. The Cavs were already running low on assets, then they went and sacrificed their most valuable remaining draft pick (2018) simply to dump Anderson Varejao’s contract on the Portland Trail Blazers, who have already placed him on waivers. The Cavs have tried most of the season to move Varejao and knew all along no one in the league was interested in him because of his contract. It was always going to cost a first-round pick to unload him.
4. Varejao was the starting center when the Cavs signed him to a three-year extension (only two years guaranteed). Then came the Achilles injury, followed by the addition of Mozgov. Suddenly that contract became an anchor.
MORE: Cavs-Bulls box score
5. There was no wiggle room left in the budget now that Dan Gilbert is on the hook for about $170 million in payroll and taxes. In order to swallow the remainder of Frye’s $8.2 million for this season, Varejao’s contract had to go.
6. Are they better today as a result? Sure. How much? Remains to be seen.
7. The Cavs may reach a point in the near future when they could really use that 2018 pick in another deal to acquire an asset. But it’s gone now, sacrificed in a salary dump that was necessary to obtain Frye. Right now the Cavs have little to show for trading away their first-round picks in 2015, ’16 and ’18. The ’16 and ’18 picks were both used in money dumps, but to be fair, they used the ’16 pick to clear enough cap space to bring LeBron James back to Cleveland. And if guard Cedi Osman is ready to contribute in the next year or two, the ’15 trade with the Timberwolves will ultimately look fine.
8. To be clear, it’s not so much that the Cavs would find a player where they are drafting who would fit into the rotation and help – they probably wouldn’t without some incredible luck. It’s more a matter of maximizing the asset and getting a usable piece in return rather than giving them away.
9. Even late Wednesday night, Cavs officials were pessimistic on their chances of landing Frye. They correctly figured the Los Angeles Clippers had more to offer, but the Clippers backed out in the hours prior to the deadline. The Orange County register reported the Clippers were scared off by the two years and $15 million remaining on Frye’s deal, while Cavs GM David Griffin cited that contract as one of the positives to the deal – particularly once the salary cap spikes next season and salaries soar.
10. “The cap changes are going to make players under contract more valuable,” Griffin said. “Having (Frye) under contract for that length of time was something we felt good about.”
11. Frye is shooting a tick under 40 percent this season from 3-point range and he’s a career 39-percent shooter. Being that Frye will be a reserve, it’s unclear how much time he’ll spend with the starters. However, it’s evident by this point shooters who play alongside LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love tend to get wide open looks. That’s good news for Frye, who is shooting 52 percent from 3-point range this season (31of 60) when the nearest defender is at least 6 feet away.
12. James Jones played one season in Portland with Frye a few years ago and called him a great shooter and a smart player. Although he’s 6-foot-11, Frye is by no means a rim protector or even a stout one-on-one defender. But most everyone seems to agree he’s a good team defender who knows where to go defensively.
13. “This is a very smart, team defensive player,” Griffin said. “His value to us both in Phoenix in the playoffs and on every team he has been on has been greater than people have anticipated and we hope that continues. This is a complementary piece that fits our existing group very well.”
14. Richard Jefferson played 14 minutes Thursday against the Bulls. It could be awhile before he plays that many minutes again. Frye is expected to essentially replace Jefferson as the ninth man in the rotation, while also chewing into Timofey Mozgov’s minutes at center. James, however, said minutes shouldn’t be anyone’s concern.
15. “When you have a professional ball club, ego is left out the door,” James said. “When you’re trying to win a championship, it doesn’t matter. If I need to sacrifice three or four of my minutes for someone else to play in order for us to win a championship, I’ll do it. So it’s not even about that. That should be the last thing we should worry about.”
16. Coach Tyronn Lue has mentioned multiple times that the Cavs need to spend these last two months fixing a defense that has suddenly become incredibly leaky. Lue liked the physicality with which the Cavs played Thursday, but they were also facing a downtrodden Bulls team that is fairly dysfunctional. Still, they limited the Bulls to 95 points and 40 percent shooting, which has to be considered an improvement.
17. The Cavs are no longer the bruising, physical, defensive behemoth they were last season when they smothered teams all the way to the Finals. They still have all those parts and can play that way when necessary, but when Love and Irving are both right, they’re a team that is going to score a lot and give up a lot. It’s also part of the reason Frye was acquired. The Cavs believe they’re going to have to score a lot of points to win playoff games based on how they’re constructed.
18. If they really want to spread the floor, shoot and score, the Cavs can roll out a lineup of Irving, Smith, James, Love and Frye. If they want to play really small they can sub in Matthew Dellavedova for Love and still have 3-point shooters surrounding drive-and-kick guys like Irving and James.
19. “Now you can play small ball with having a 7-footer on the floor,” Lue said.
20. One Cavs official didn’t rule out revisiting the idea of flipping Shumpert and Smith, pairing Shumpert’s defense on the perimeter with the starters while adding Smith to a reserves unit of shooters that now includes Frye as well.
21. One problem the Cavs have with it, and the main reason why Shumpert and Smith haven’t flipped yet, is the belief that Shumpert hasn’t earned it. He just hasn’t had the type of season Cavs officials had hoped, while Smith has played great. Team officials fear it sends the wrong message to reward a guy who hasn’t earned a starting spot yet with his play.
22. Despite incessant rumors the last few days, Love (as expected) remained in Cleveland through the trade deadline. One league executive with knowledge of the trade discussions said the Cavs and Celtics never had a serious discussion involving Love. The Celtics never made a legitimate offer and the Cavs never gave them a price despite all the speculation.
23. “The fact is you guys are stuck with me,” Love joked. “I’m here. I’m happy to be here. I want to win.”
24. Love had to endure some of the same speculation last season and really has had his future questioned for about the last four years. Not even signing a long-term contract last summer prevented it from happening again. “I never believed it,” Love said.
25. James said both before and after the All-Star break that he didn’t like the timing of it because of the rhythm Irving was in. He closed the first half averaging 26.9 points in his last eight games and shooting 56 percent during that stretch.
26. Just as James feared, Irving missed eight of his first 10 shots Thursday before settling in, but insisted afterwards the All-Star break didn’t disrupt his rhythm. In fact, he believes it helped him “substantially.”
27. “(Thursday) was probably the best I’ve felt just in terms of my legs,” Irving said. “A lot of my shots were hitting the back of the rim and I was trying to figure that out. … I got a ton of shots up over break and just never stopped.”
28. Varejao was a classy professional who will be missed. I remember seeing him stretched out on the trainer’s table in Phoenix in 2011 shortly after learning his season was over. He injured his ankle running sprints during practice and missed the final three months. He was devastated. The Cavs were awful that year, but Varejao was playing the most minutes of his career and playing well. That injury was the first of many to follow. Every time, Varejao fought hard to come back The Blazers already placed him on waivers, but he is ineligible to return for one year because of league rules.
29. “That’s the worst part of the business right there,” said James, who quickly reached out to Varejao upon deciding to return to Cleveland two years ago. “You lose a brother, you lose a teammate. That’s the worst part about it.”
30. Varejao, incidentally, played more games as a teammate to James than anyone else besides Zydrunas Ilgauskas. James and Z spent eight full years together as teammates; James and Varejao’s partnership ends after 7 1/2 seasons.
31. Frye could be in Cleveland as early as Friday. He is expected to be available Sunday when the Cavs play at the Oklahoma City Thunder. Talk to you then from Chesapeake Energy Arena.