I love when people talk about how much passion kobe has more than lebron. must be great passion when you're hooping with a young shaq, not so much when you're playing with brian cook
If any former Cavs were running the front office for teams that wanted to get rid of their franchise player, I'm sure Ferry would have been able to pull off a KG/Gasol type deal.
June 4th http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/?p=29338 Breaking Cavs News: Report Has Danny Ferry Stepping Down as GM Written By: TD Ferry’s contract is up at the end of the summer and there was some speculation as to what his future would hold. Yahoo! also reports that assistant GM Chris Grant will succeed Ferry in running the front office of the Cavaliers. Quick opinion – Ferry had tired of the circus surrounding the LeBron James free agency, as well as the fact that it became clear that every move he made had to be signed off on by his star player. Ferry has never made a secret that he wanted to stay in this job forever, but he loves the city of Cleveland and the community. The expectation levels have driven to the highest levels and now the team he was supposed to run was being held hostage by the James circus. Maybe he knows something and wants to get out before it all goes down. Maybe he didn’t want to be the GM of a team where the star player calls the shots. Regardless, it appears as though Ferry won’t be back. This comes just two weeks after his coach, Mike Brown, was relieved of his duties. We are still awaiting confirmation on this and the knower of all things Cavs – Brian Windhorst, has yet to comment publicly on the matter, but has told WFNY that he has no confirmation of the report. But stay tuned. Update at 1:45p: Report is confirmed. Ferry has told The Plain Dealer that he has resigned. Says “decision to part ways was mutual.”
Danny Ferry Out... GM and Cavaliers agree to part ways by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Jun 4, 2010 1:16 PM CDT in Cavaliers in the News 2 comments More photos » Tony Dejak - AP . Danny Ferry has followed Mike Brown out the door in Cleveland (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) Browse more photos » Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert and General Manager Danny Ferry have mutually agreed they will not enter into a new contract. The announcement was made jointly today by Gilbert and Ferry. Ferry was named the eighth general manager in Cleveland Cavaliers history on June 27, 2005. He led the team through the most successful period in franchise history, including a NBA-high 127 regular season wins over the last two seasons, as well as being the only team in the NBA to advance past the first round of the playoffs in each of the past five seasons. The Cavaliers won their first-ever Eastern Conference Championship and made their only trip to the NBA Finals in 2007. The Cavaliers record during Ferry's five-season tenure was 272-138 (.663). The team's playoff record was 42-29 (.592). "For five years, Danny Ferry was instrumental in leading the establishment of a culture, process and professionalism that has become part of the fabric of the definition of 'who' are the Cleveland Cavaliers. Danny worked extremely hard to create this strong foundation that we will continue to build upon going forward with much gratitude and appreciation," said Gilbert. "This solid foundation is evident by the natural and clear choice to choose his close associate, Chris Grant, whom Danny worked in partnership with for his entire five years leading the Cavaliers front office, to succeed Danny as the Cleveland Cavaliers new general manager." "On behalf of the entire Cleveland Cavaliers organization, I would like to thank Danny and hope that he and his family experience nothing but continued health and success in the years ahead," added Gilbert. Ferry also spent 10 seasons (1990-2000) playing in Cleveland as a member of the Cavaliers. He played in 723 regular season games which is second most in franchise history (Ilgauskas). "It is difficult to articulate what the last five years has meant to me, both professionally and personally. I have had a tremendous experience as the General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers and have great respect for the people within the organization that I have worked with. Our ultimate goal was to win a championship but it was also critically important to establish a foundation to achieve sustained success and have the ability to contend year in and year out. That helped us achieve our first trip to the NBA Finals, qualifying for the playoffs each of the last five years and back to back 60 win seasons," said Ferry. "At the same time, we wanted to establish a championship-caliber culture that provided a consistency of purpose and a compass for operating on and off the court. I truly appreciate Dan Gilbert' s dedication and commitment in helping us achieve many of our goals. As with many organizations, structure and dynamics evolve and it was evident to me that it was the right time to move on. I have great respect for Dan Gilbert and wish he and the entire organization nothing but success," continued Ferry. Replacing Ferry as general manager is Chris Grant, formerly the Cavaliers assistant general manager/vice president of basketball operations. Grant joined the Cavaliers as assistant general manager on July 9th, 2005. As assistant general manager/vice president of basketball operations, Grant worked closely with Ferry on all basketball operations and front office elements, including the draft, trades, free agency and player contracts, as well as overseeing the domestic and international scouting programs. Grant also spearheaded the design and construction of the Cavaliers' state-of-the-art player development center, Cleveland Clinic Courts, which opened at the start of the 2007 season. Prior to joining the Cavaliers, Grant spent the previous nine seasons with the Atlanta Hawks where he was promoted in 2004 to the position of vice president of basketball operations and assistant general manager. In his nine years with the Hawks, Grant held several different positions including advance scout, assistant director of scouting, director of scouting and vice president/assistant general manager http://www.fearthesword.com/2010/6/4/1501489/danny-ferry-out-gm-and-cavaliers#storyjump
Usually coaches and GM's leave right before the team sinks. Mike Brown was fired but then the GM quits....???? something doesnt seem right in the front office of Cleveland.
I disagree. True, players like LeBron is hard to get. But a player can help you win only for a window of maybe 10 years, and usually when your superstar declines, retires, or just walks away, your franchise goes down with him. See how long it took the Rockets to get back to respectability after Hakeem declined. A good GM and front office, on the other hand, can keep you competitive for a long time, and minimize the time for rebuilding after your franchise player is done. See the Spurs and the Lakers. I wouldn't sacrifice a good front office just for the sake of a player, no matter how great that player is. That said, Ferry and Brown aren't great. So yeah, I'd fire them if that would make LeBron stay.
The Spurs and Lakers are bad examples for what you're trying to prove. They're still built around star players that have been on their rosters for more than a decade. They've done a good job of putting new pieces around those players to stay competitive, but they haven't had to rebuild yet.
How many GMs have been around for 10 years+? Even with Spurs shrewd moves and drafting they aren't as good as they used to be. Why? Because Tim duncan is old. The Laker's front office has changed over the past 20 years or so as well, and if they don't get Pau are they title contenders? The kings were able to get almost the same deal for a one year rental on crazy ron ron. If you get a true franchise player you do whatever you can to make them happy.
It takes two teams to tango. Morey aims for the big fish, too. Are Ainge and Kupchak better than Morey just because they nabbed all-stars while he hasn't? Besides the huge Larry Hughes blunder, Ferry's record is clean. He put his team in a position to win a championship. A finals appearance, conference finals, back-to-back 60 win seasons. He's had a lot of success and neither he nor Mike Brown deserve to be canned.
As a competitor, I do not have a problem with LBJ making personnel decisions. As a fan, I have to question ... who decided Magic Johnson is a good commentator?
Same. I don't know whether Lebron wants to go somewhere with some stability or somewhere where he can choose his GM/ Maybe Lebron told Ferry he was leaving and Ferry didn't want to be part of a rebuild.
I'm pretty sure this is the owner angling himself to be able to keep Lebron. Ferry resigning is just letting him go out the honorable way rather than not getting his contract picked up and let go. Gilbert is all in on keeping Lebron. His profitability depends on it. You can be sure this move was made because it is favorable to keeping Lebron and that's the bottom line.
That just shows you great GMs are as rare as great players, maybe more. The great ones have been around for a long time. They are still competitive. In fact, in the preseason, they were predicted to be contending with the Lakers. They beat the 2nd seed in the playoffs. True, they aren't as good now. But the fact that they are still damn good even after Duncan has declined shows you how great the management has been doing. Jerry West went to Memphis not because he was not good enough but because he wanted to see if he could do it outside of LA. I don't know how they got Pau (still think something was fishy). But if you don't think the Lakers has rebuilt after Shaq left, you are kidding yourself. Remember how Kobe wanted to bolt at FA just a couple of years ago? I do agree that Kupchak's true test will be when Kobe is done. Look at Portland. They went to the finals, with an extremely talented team. Then the core got old. They became the "Jailblazers." Even that was still pretty good, with an aging Pippen. Now, after just a few years, they are an exciting up and coming team again. Now, look at the badly managed teams. Cleveland was nothing before they lucked into LeBron. And they will be nothing again if LeBron leaves. Minnesota has never been relevant even with Garnett. Philly was bad after Dr J and Moses Malone retired. After almost a decade, they got Iverson and went to the finals once in one of the worst Eastern conference ever. And they have never been good since then. And they are selling their #2 pick now just because they need to get rid of a dumb contract that is Brand. All these bad front offices had their luck in getting superstars. But the stars could only carry them so far and then they were gone.
he should be gone. didn't he publicly come out and said he prefer jamison over amare b/c he wanted a forward who can shoot 3s? he should have been fired along with brown.
What? All those accomplishments are because of Lebron! If you took LBJ away from the Cavs, they would have a starting lineup of: Shaq Jamison random sf (pavlovic? I dunno) Delonte West Mo WIlliams ^is that a team which invokes finals appearances and back-toback 60 win seasons? LOL Ferry sucked as GM! He had 7 years to build around the league's best player and he couldn't do it. He spent year after year trying to win now, and finally all of his gambles caught up to him. My main problems with him are that: 1. He isn't fiscally responsible. He signed Larry Hughes to a ridiculous amount, and he did the same to Anderson Varejao who only deserves 3Mill or less but somehow got more than 5. 2. His drafting sucked. Other than booby gibson, I can't recall any player the Cavs have drafted that turned into a significant contributor for the team. If you look at that team, apart from Big Z who was already in the team at the time, all of the major cast members have been acquired through FA or trades: Shaq, Jamison, Mo Williams, Larry Hughes, Ben Wallace. If fact, just last year they had one of the worst first round drafts I've ever seen: with a lot of roster worthy players still on board, they decided to draft some foreign dude who had a contract overseas. LOL, their team was getting old and they waste their draftpicks? 3. He was always short-sighted. LBJ is a young talent, but with the way Ferry always gambled, it seemed as if LBJ was Duncan and only had a few productive years left. A good way to build around a burgeoning talent like LBJ would be how the Thunder built their roster. They let the team suck Durant's first few years, but in that time they planted seeds that would bloom when Durant starts reaching his prime. That's what Ferry should have done. Instead of doing patch-work projects on the Cav's pitiful roster, he should have purged the team of terrible contracts and started anew LBJ's first 3 years. Sure the Cavs would have still landed in the lottery and lebron would have been upset, however when its time to sign his extension he would have looked around and saw a very promising team that would have grown with him.
Drafted: Shannon Brown, Daniel Gibson, J.J. Hickson, Danny Green, Christian Eyenga, Ejike Ugboaja. Traded For: Ben Wallace (became Shaquille O'Neal), Joe Smith (became Mo Williams), Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Antawn Jamison, Sebastian Telfair, Flip Murray Signed: Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, Leon Powe, Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Anderson Varejao (re-signed), Daniel Gibson (re-signed), and Ilguaskas (after being waived from Washington). http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=16403
