I think they get slightly better. Delonte West is no scrub, i think he will make an immediate impact for the Cavs pg situation. Joe Smith has had a decent year and will provide slightly less than gooden. I actually believe wally can help their outside range. They really had no one who can shoot other than boobie. Wallys going to spread the floor for them. I actully think the biggest player they traded for (ben wallace) will help them the least out of all of them. He will help defensively but i dont think hes going to help them much at this stage of his career. Varjao pretty much does what he does
Well, they have a better PG than they have in a while. Wally is a downgrade to me, but at least he may be able to hit the open three when Lebron drives to the lane and needs to kick it out. They are better defensively down low but just absorbed another big contract that isn't dropping off anytime soon. But they also got much weaker offensively down low. Their obvious #2 option has to be Ilgauskas still who is one of the more under rated centers in the league. Beyond that I don't see much though. They don't have a consistent third option. I think Joe Smith might be the best pick up for them but he's a guy who's solid for only about 15 minutes per game. I guess we'll see but to me they still aren't better than Detroit or Boston. When Lebron gets injured they are still going to lose every game.
The funniest part about the trade is I think it makes Chicago better, not Cleveland. Gordon is a 6th man in the NBA, he's proven he's not a starter. The guy can light it up sometimes but far more effective off the bench. Now Chicago has Hughes who will start at the 2 and give them an insurance policy if Gordon leaves (which seems more likely now). They have Gooden who finally gives them a low post scorer which they have needed for years. It also will give Noah more playing time, which he's actually looked pretty good and will be a solid center and although he probably won't be all-star material he'll be enough to definately stay competitive.
Clearly Seattle lost talent but they must be going more for the expiring contract approach to try to make the books look better and give one last shot at keeping the team there potentially.
Getting west, a real PG, and getting to keep Gibson is a huge steal.
I can definitely see Coach Brown putting a lineup of:
Delonte, Wally, Lebron, Wallace, Zydrunas. You can even replace delonte with gibson.
Cavs have everything they need to go past the first and possibly second round. They certainly made a huge improvement and they lost some underachieving players.
They have a lot of shooters, a defensive stopper in Wallace, inside presence in Zydrunas, and a superstar leader in Lebron. I think that they can compete with detroit and Boston at this rate.
They definately don't have as good of a front line as Detroit and Boston. Cleveland really needs that 2nd superstar to Lebron. They still didn't get it. I think the NBA probably doesn't want to see Cleveland back in the finals anyhow. That's my conspiracy theory. After putting their superstar in the finals and having the lowest ratings ever (even worse than Detroit/San Antonio) I think they would prefer another team. Boston still has a better front line and I would assume the league would want them in, especially after seeing the super bowl ratings. The leagues best case scenario would be Boston & LA. That would be big time ratings and could start to return some of the glory of the NBA. Personally, I'd still like to see LA & Detroit. They are the two most talented teams with the most depth.
Non-Laker Trade Deadline Deals
