Lebron James had been begging for a big trade from his management, something that could possibly get them past the Spurs this time.
He had his eye on Jason Kidd, the 35-year-old point guard from the New Jersey Nets who has been a catalyst on many teams and has even taken some to the Finals.
But what did Lebron get from his wise management?
34-year-old center Ben Wallace, 30-year-old forward Wally Sczerbiak, and 32-year-old forward/center Joe Smith
Not that they're much younger than Kidd, but to get all that to help out Lebron instead of a proven point guard like Jason Kidd, well it's just ridiculous.
Take Kidd's two-point game last night, to go along with 15 assists and five rebounds. The thing that stands out though are the stats of the players around him. Nowitzki dropped 27, Jason Terry had 22, and Howard even had 20. He makes players around him better.
Now that Daniel Gibson's out for at least six weeks with a severely sprained left ankle, they need stability at the guard position. Someone to help out Lebron and Zydrunas Iglauskas, and now that Larry Hughes is gone as part of the 11 player mega-deal, who else can they turn to?
Jason Kidd was the best option for the Cavaliers. They needed an established point guard who could feed the ball to Lebron and let him make his own plays, and instead they got Ben Wallace, a past-his-prime center that hasn't performed to expectations since his glory days on the Pistons
Even Mike Bibby would have done, as long as he wasn't too selfish and shared the ball with Lebron and Zydrunas. They needed someone like Rajon Rando, who could share the ball with the more proven players, while at the same time taking the open shots as they come and not forcing them.
Daniel Gibson is a fine guard who has potential, but he forces the ball up too much and doesn't often get it to Lebron at key times. In a couple of years, they might be able to win with this combination. But if the Cleveland Brass wanted to win in the near future, they would've gotten Jason Kidd to keep their star happy.
For now we can only watch to see if Lebron can carry another team on his back, and wonder what could have been.
3 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Max Fischer about 1 year ago
Why did Kidd want to play with Dallas instead of Cleveland? LeBron blamed his GM not getting Bron but it seems that his GM had nothing to do with it. It was Kidd wanting to play with Dirk or not wanting to play with Bron that decided that deal. But I don't understandf why anyone would complain about having 2 bigmen like Bigz and Ben wallace. Dirk has never has one bigman as good as these guys, let alone 2 at the same time!
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Stephen Dyell about 1 year ago
Actually you are wrong. Kidd stated numerous times that he would love to play with LeBron and the Cavs.
The hold up was that Cavs have zero peices that anybody would want other than to unload Ben Wallaces contract. Add that with being in the East with the Nets and it was damn near impossible to land him.
Nice article.
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Max Fischer about 1 year ago
Zero pieces? The Cavs have far more pieces than the Mavs. The Cavs have a great core of big players and a lot of young talent. There is no way the Mavs could get ben wallace with the pieces we traded to get Kidd. Kidd specifically said he wanted to play with Dirk over LeBron. I was shocked frankly, not because he shouldn't want to play with Dirk, but because most people underrate Dirk so much. Kidd had his choice to go where he wanted. But he chose Dallas.
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