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Small balls...
TweetPRETTY happy as a long-distance Cavs follower to see Luol Deng traded by the Bulls today for Andrew Bye-bye Bynum.
Sure, I would have been happier to get Pau Gasol from the Lakers but there’s a certain joy that the boys who spent some of their off-season in Oz – Kyrie Irving, Matthew Dellavedova and Luol Deng – should end up as NBA teammates in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers today are closer to the NBA’s worst record than the playoffs, but trading for the two-time All-Star has reset their sights on the playoffs.
Keeping Deng in Cleveland is probably the long-term goal, the Cavs acquiring him for three draft picks and Bynum’s $14 million contract.
Deng knocked back a three-year, $30 million extension offer from the Bulls last week because it effectively was a pay cut.
(Josh Smith signed for four years as a free agent with Detroit Pistons last season for $13.5 million and he’s not as good a player as Deng.)
Clearly, Chicago again losing Derrick Rose to a season-ending injury and Deng rejecting their overtures changed its thinking.
Trading its leading scorer to the Cavaliers, then promptly waiving Bynum’s salary, leaves Chicago with Sacramento first-round pick - if it falls outside the top 12 in 2014 or top 10 in 2015-16. It becomes a second-round pick after that.
The Bulls also received second-round picks from Portland (owed to the Cavaliers in 2015 and 2016) and they also may switch draft slots with Cleveland in 2015 if the Cavs’ pick is better and outside the top 14.
Right now though, Cleveland just got better.
OOPS. Almost forgot but Townsville Fire tonight are hosting Sydney Flames in a rare WNBL midweek fixture.
These are always heated exchanges and not because it is Fire versus Flames but because Chris Lucas and Karen Dalton are like oil and water.
The good oil? Fire to sneak another key win.
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