A major trade went through yesterday, reportedly 1 minute before the trade deadline. This really shakes things up for the Cavs. They bring in Wally Szczerbiak, a former all star who can contribute offensively, and Ben Wallace, a former all star who can contribute defensively, along with the underrated combination of Delonte West and Joe Smith. The Cavs sent away Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Ira Newble, Shannon Bown, Donyell Marshall, and the disappointing Larry Hughes. They dumped a bad contract, and shipped away other expiring ones, yes they picked up 2 fairly horrible contracts, but the Cavs upgraded at every position. Truthfully, I would rather have every player the Cavs got on my team than other player in the trade. This makes the Cavs very formidable.
The amazing thing about this team now, with much thanks to LeBron’s versatility, is the different lineups they can play. They can go big, LeBron, Wally, Anderson Varejao/Joe Smith, Wallace, and Big Z, where the smallest player on the court is Wally at 6 foot 7. Or they can go with a smaller lineup, Daniel Gibson, West, LeBron, and 2 of the previous big men. They now have flexibility in who they can have on the floor, allowing them to match up favorably with a lot of elite NBA teams right now. If you were to examine a lot of other rosters player for player, the Cavs would lose 4 to 1 a good portion of the time, and yet you still like their team because LeBron is at the helm.
At the very least, come playoff time there will be a lot of exciting NBA matchups. For now we have a few weeks of interesting basketball to watch and see some new teams learn how to gel and play together.
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