Cavaliers finally making the right move

[slamtheking]

slightly surprised it took this long but also slightly surprised that having gone this far with him that they didn't wait until the offseason to do it.

I think the Bynum and Jack moves were bad but where I think he really messed up (besides rehiring Brown) was not dealing those high picks in these mediocre drafts for proven vets.  Could have netted some nice veteran players in return for those picks that turned out to be Bennett, Waiters and Thompson.

[Donoghus]

Some of the items from that article are golden;

Eventually, he spent his final months on the job calling teams and offering those overvalued young players in preposterous deals for marquee talents. LaMarcus Aldridge. Anthony Davis. Andre Drummond. Eventually, few executives had the inclination to listen to Grant's pitches on one-sided deals.

The Cavaliers could've had Kyrie Irving and Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas in the 2011 draft class, but Grant balked on using the fourth overall pick on the center everyone else would've selected there. Several reasons factored in, but there had been a strong belief within the Cavaliers personnel department that Grant hadn't scouted Valanciunas hard enough to gain full confidence in his abilities. Cleveland's international scouts raved about the 7-footer, and most of the Cleveland's staff agreed with them, sources said.

In the end, Grant wanted Valanciunas' agents to give the Cavaliers a signed buyout agreement with Lithuanian club Vilnius Perlas that guaranteed the center would join the NBA for his rookie season. His agents at Creative Artists Agency, including Leon Rose, had a reasonable counter, sources said. They wanted the ability to negotiate the buyout once Valanciunas' rookie draft salary had been slotted. And Toronto, with the fifth pick, wanted Valanciunas badly and never demanded the signed buyout as a prerequisite to draft him, sources said

Bennett's penchant for late-night pizza runs at UNLV, one of the factors contributing to his weight issues, were well known with other teams who had closely researched him. If Cleveland hadn't selected Bennett with the No. 1 overall pick, there was a strong chance that he would've dropped to the back end of the top 10 – or even further. Within hours of the draft, Bennett's agents were calling teams further back in the draft lottery, trying to secure a landing spot for him. Only the Cavs surprised everyone, selecting Bennett – who did have a season-best 19 points and 10 rebounds on Tuesday night – with the first overall pick.