TRADE! Kings trade Omri Casspi, pick to Cavaliers for JJ Hickson

[DMAVS41]

Hindsight is 20/20, they did a crap job in hindsight but look at what they had to work with: no good draft picks and a superstar who REFUSED to commit to the team or recruit players.

Its not about hindsight. During the process, I and many others were laughing at the job the Cavs front office did.

It would have been hard to worse. It really would have. You let Boozer go and then fail in the draft and free agency to surround a talent like Lebron with at least 1 all nba teammate in 7 freaking years. That is horrible.

They tried, but they failed.

Just like the Mavs did post 2004 until this year with Dirk. Mavs fans have been screaming at Cuban since 2003 to get Dirk a decent center to defend and rebound. It took them until this year to do something they should have done 8 freaking years ago. It was obvious. Instead, they paid a shit ton of money to the wrong players.

Again, it was obvious. Just like it was obvious that Larry Hughes was not the answer. Or that trading Wally at the deadline was a no brainer. Or that Lebron needed a proven coach.....etc.

I wish the Cavs all the best going forward. I was a fan of the Mavs from the get go and I would never wish on any fanbase what Mavs fan had to go through from 89 to 00. 1 playoff appearance in 12 years. I want to say we got swept by Portland. LOL....I can't remember. Anyway, 0 playoff wins in 12 years.

It was awful. Luckily the Cavs won't have to go through that. Hopefully that are awful next year and get another top 3 pick. If some of these guys pan out they could turn this around very quickly. Its going to take a couple more years of being terrible though. That is their best strategy.

[lilojmayo]

Hollinger had him at 3... And maybe Bucher. There were at least two big wigs over at ESPN.com that had Thompson inside their Top 3. I know Hollinger was one... Not sure on the other.

Since the draft, I've read that the Cavs use a rating system similar to the one Hollinger uses when evaluating talent... And that it has been enormously successful for players (not just the ones that they have selected) in the past.

You look at where they got Hickson in the draft... He was arguably the best player on the board, in retrospect.... The same thing goes for Christian Eyenga, who had everyone scratching their heads. Turns out, the guy has crazy potential.

Their last several drafts, they have taken what has turned out to be arguably the best player on the board in retrospect.

I wouldn't go that far with Christian. He is young, and has potential, but nothing crazy about him. He is a freakish athlete, that has more athletic skills, then basketball skills.

He is an elite defensive stopper wanting to happen i'll give you that. But in terms of a two way player, don't see it. He is a more athletic Shane Battier type of player.

Don't understand what Cavs front office is doing, Hickson can get you more than Casspi.

They don't need draft picks, unless they get a real legit ready now prospect, enough of potential talks no more Tristan Thompsons of the world. . I'm talking big names prospects Michael Gilchris, Jared Sullinger, Marquis Teagues, Juice Wroten, Austin Rivers, Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal, these guys have a much higher success rate in the NBA

then guys, that don't have much skill now, but have potential. You get Tyrus Thomas's of the wrold doing tat.

they need veterans. They have Kyrie Irving he is an ultimate floor general, give him veterans that can shoot the ball and play defense and your going to be a playoff team sooner rather than later.

[GOBB]

Once, dawg. Did you mean twice, one with Miami and once with Cleveland?

Correct, thinking of two points at the same time screwed up my post.

[kaiiu]

You mean the team that won the Eastern Conference Finals and came within 2 wins of winning a ring? Ok, I'l ask Miami. Because they are returning their core and will look to add on with what they have to be better next season.

I'll wait for Lebron to win a ring as the primary option and you'll wait for Clevland to get to the NBA Finals (just make an appearance). Guess who'll be waiting longer? And guess who'll make bogus excuses when a certain someone wins the ring by saying "He wasnt the primary option imo".

lmao at this old ass ni99a. Aint u pushin 50 bruh

[1~Gibson~1]

while we didnt get significantly better, we DID get one step closer to getting back into contention.

Kyrie / Gibson
Davis / Gee?
Omri / Eyenga
Tristan / Jamison
Varejao / Samuel?

(Sessions is as good as gone imo)

we still have holes to fill, but we still have time. that's why we're stockpiling draft picks and acquiring young players. not overly happy or sad about the deal though. Sac-town got better NOW while the Cavs positioned themselves to get better in the future.

[Jasper]

thompson , hickson , cousins how many PF's does a team need

I liked Casp , but thought he never got enough burn.

Something tells me Kings already know that some Haiti center is gone , and they are going to develop a very uptempo style of play adding Hick and Jimmer into the rotation.

Does Sac know they need a legit center on their team to go against guys like howard , Bynum etc ..

Cav's I don't even think about - they are in no-mans land and won't be relavent for another 5 + seasons.

[1~Gibson~1]

also, Marc Stein repoter (albeit via twitter) that the Cavs are open to making another move b4 midnight by using hte TPE. wouldnt be suprised to see Sessions gone by tomorrow.

[DMAVS41]

I don't think James was ever the player that I thought he was, so I'm glad he left and I can now hope for him to fail... The more I've thought about it since his latest collapse, he wasn't ever going to win being the primary piece in Cleveland unless we simply overwhelmed the league with talent (which is what Miami is trying to do) and the Cavs were never going to be in a position to do that.

He saved us a lot of heartbreak by taking off.

We may not win a title in the coming years, but at least the expectations won't be there to do so, followed by a huge letdown.

And this is exactly where the term:

"BUTTHURT"

Comes from that you hate so much.

[LaysUpBricks]

thompson , hickson , cousins how many PF's does a team need

I liked Casp , but thought he never got enough burn.

Something tells me Kings already know that some Haiti center is gone , and they are going to develop a very uptempo style of play adding Hick and Jimmer into the rotation.

Does Sac know they need a legit center on their team to go against guys like howard , Bynum etc ..

Cav's I don't even think about - they are in no-mans land and won't be relavent for another 5 + seasons.

Cousins can play C. He's 270-280 and 6'11" and did play a lot of C last year when Dalembert was on the bench. Thompson also came off the bench to play some C last season also.

Kings know that it is time to win now because they can't be stuck in lower mediocrity for the next season because the position the franchise is in.

[Godzuki]

thompson , hickson , cousins how many PF's does a team need

I liked Casp , but thought he never got enough burn.

Something tells me Kings already know that some Haiti center is gone , and they are going to develop a very uptempo style of play adding Hick and Jimmer into the rotation.

Does Sac know they need a legit center on their team to go against guys like howard , Bynum etc ..

Cav's I don't even think about - they are in no-mans land and won't be relavent for another 5 + seasons.

Cousin's will be fine at Center. if anything he's the main reason why Dalembert is leaving after getting benched for Cousin's when he was playing well.

I'm just shocked at how ridiculously lopsided this trade is. JJ was easily the Cav's best player, their workhorse last year, their best commodity hands down, and i didn't even know he was only 22 yrs old. Damn this could go down as one of the biggest retard trades or up there with the worst. Casspi is alright with nice size for a perimeter player but he's soft and hit or miss perimeter, at best he's a Hedo and i highly doubt that.

Just thinking he was a bench player on arguably the worst team in the league vs the best player on arguably the worst team in the league makes no sense. the conditional 1st round protected to 2017 is weak. i hope Cav's management is praying JJ sux next year, Tristan is a beast, and Casspi plays real well in a full time role...

[RedBlackAttack]

I wouldn't go that far with Christian. He is young, and has potential, but nothing crazy about him. He is a freakish athlete, that has more athletic skills, then basketball skills.

He is an elite defensive stopper wanting to happen i'll give you that. But in terms of a two way player, don't see it. He is a more athletic Shane Battier type of player.

Don't understand what Cavs front office is doing, Hickson can get you more than Casspi.

They don't need draft picks, unless they get a real legit ready now prospect, enough of potential talks no more Tristan Thompsons of the world. . I'm talking big names prospects Michael Gilchris, Jared Sullinger, Marquis Teagues, Juice Wroten, Austin Rivers, Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal, these guys have a much higher success rate in the NBA

then guys, that don't have much skill now, but have potential. You get Tyrus Thomas's of the wrold doing tat.

they need veterans. They have Kyrie Irving he is an ultimate floor general, give him veterans that can shoot the ball and play defense and your going to be a playoff team sooner rather than later.

A. No organization is ever in a position wherein they "don't need" draft picks... Let alone an organization that is in such a rebuilding mode and with some potentially stacked classes coming through. Unfortunately, we may never see this draft pick. I'm hearing that it is Top 10 protected through -- like -- 2017.

You know better than to say that an organization in the situation that Cleveland has found itself in "doesn't need" draft picks, though... That is EXACTLY what we need.

I was much more interested in the draft pick than I was Casspi, truth be told. Yeah, he is a young, defensive-minded shooter in a position that we desperately need to fill, but he also rode the pine for the f#cking Kings. That isn't exactly a comforting notion.

B. I was discussing Eyenga in terms of what I initially thought when he was drafted. I honestly believed -- since it came on the heels of us taking on Shaq's enormous contract -- that it was just an attempt to take a guy that may never come to the NBA so that we wouldn't have to put money into the pick. It turned out, it was a pretty savvy selection.

I didn't mean it to sound like he has Michael Jordan-esque potential, but he does have high upside. The guy is very athletic (even in NBA terms), has a jumpshot that got more and more consistent as the year went on after it looked atrocious initially and, as you said, has all of the tools to be a versatile defensive stopper on the wing.

He could end up being a starting player on a good team in the NBA, which is far more than I ever expected.

C. This team has plenty of veterans... Jamison and B-Diddy, at this stage in the rebuild, can provide plenty of veteran leadership. It isn't as if we are one or two pieces away.

[RedBlackAttack]

And this is exactly where the term:

"BUTTHURT"

Comes from that you hate so much.

Really? Because, that is a pretty lame reason.

I once thought that James was capable of being the clear-cut leader on a team that was totally built around him with maybe a Bosh like addition.

His head-scratching collapses in the last two playoffs have made me reassess that idea. Is that crazy?

[bisk]

Soooo....Jamaican, Congo, Turkey, Brazil and now Israel.

[Reverend Hoops]

Steal for SacTown. A frontline of Hickson-Cousins is deadly offensively.

[bagelred]

Maloof "Omri, you've been traded!"

Omri "YES!!! FINALLY!! Get out of this awful city.....so where am I headed?"

Maloof "Cleveland."

Omri "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......... .................."