Bill Simmons Wandering Article Reviews Cavs Off-Season

Jun 28, 2013; Independence, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers first round draft pick Anthony Bennett (right) sits with second round pick Carrick Felix (center) and head coach Mike Brown during a press conference at Cleveland Clinic Courts. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Bill Simmons, of ESPN and Grantland.com, regularly comes out with wandering, rambling but somehow well connected articles on a regular basis. As a writer these articles are sure to take him a long time to put together, and then often need to be split up into 2 or more just to make the reading manageable. Simmons’ primary role in the writing world is to entertain, facts can often get in the way of a good story. Simmons’ style of entertaining is oft focused on what he thinks or what he would want done, such as suggesting the Cleveland Cavaliers should trade their 2014 1st Round pick and Anderson Varejao for Pau Gasol. Simmons has a foothold in the sports community from his time with ESPN and their backing of his site Grantland.com.

His most recent article(s) reviewed the NBA off-season using references from the movie “Midnight Run.” This writer has not seen this movie, and the articles did nothing to entice me, so maybe the references are more enjoyable to those who have seen it. Simmons described the Cavs off-season thusly “…most confusingly entertaining offseason plan: basically, everything the Cavs just did.” Here is part of the description:

"They went into this summer with buttloads of cap space, the no. 1 overall pick and three more draft picks (no. 19, no. 31 and no. 33) … and somehow ended up with a second power forward who doubled as the most shocking no. 1 overall pick since Kwame Brown (Anthony Bennett); a slightly overpaid third guard (Jarrett Jack); someone with a good chance to be Yaroslav Korolev 2.0 (Sergey Karasev); the immortal Earl Clark; and The Artist Formerly Known As Bynum. Yikes. Although I guess I should thank them for making me audibly gasp on live television with that Bennett pick — I feel like I’m a part of history! My high-pitched gasp will live on and on and on!"

• Like everyone who has reviewed the Cavs off-season there is hesitancy due to some redundancy as well as injury risks, yet Simmons gives little positives to balance out these possible negatives. Simmons fails to mention Bennett as the only player everyone agrees could be a 20/10 guy, Jack’s role with the Warriors, Karasev’s exploits in Russia at such a young age or what Bynum could provide. He does provide feedback on what he thinks the Cavs should of done:

"Why didn’t Cleveland pick Victor Oladipo first, trade the no. 19 pick for Thomas Robinson (as he was being fire-saled by Houston), take Isaiah Canaan 31st (a potential impact bench guard for one-tenth the price of Jack), then either make a run at Pau Gasol (for Anderson Varejao’s expiring contract plus a future pick) or Nikola Pekovic (with a monster free-agent offer)? OR, why not pick Oladipo, sign Paul Millsap (available at a discount for whatever reason), nab Robin Lopez from New Orleans (when they were fire-saling him, no less), then keep your remaining cap space for a February deadline trade? I thought Cleveland’s summer was mystifying."

• So instead of a redundancy at PF Simmons wanted the Cavs to do so at SG. Instead of a 19 year old who led the Russian league in scoring, with a great outside shot, he wanted the Cavs to trade for a 2nd year player going to his 3rd team (and a redundant undersized PF). Instead of a veteran proven backup combo guard he wanted to draft a rookie non-proven version. And finally instead of taking a risk on Bynum, without giving up assets, he wanted the Cavs to trade Andy and a pick for old Gasol OR mortgage all future cap space to sign solid but not spectacular Pekovic. He gives a different version as a second option. The biggest difference between what the Cavs did and what Simmons wanted them to do is upside and future assets. The Cavs grabbed players that could change the franchise in Bennett and Bynum while adding a solid veteran in Jack. Adding Karasev and Clark are low risk, high reward prospects all while retaining all their own picks as well as 1st rounders from Miami, Sacramento and Memphis.

Please enjoy Simmons article for its depth, entertainment and outside the box thinking but you are encouraged to follow Grantland writer Zach Lowe for his sound basketball understanding, like this piece on the Detroit/Milwaukee trade.