He didn't have much more time, at any rate. The principal reason that the cap figure dropped from $101 million to $99 million was due to the lopsided playoff series, which cut revenues. That occurred in May and June. By that time, there was little else he could do.
I remember this whole thing being a topic of discussion during the Finals. People wanted the Cavs to win at least a couple of games, cause there were rumors that the cap would be reduced to 99 mil. Can't find the actual thread right now.
Danny knew about all this way before the draft. He should have made a trade on draft night. At the very least, I bet we wouldn't have had to include a second rounder to make the job done.
Besides, arguing that a better trade was available on draft night presumes knowledge of trade offers.
We are fans. All we can do is speculate. Of course we don't know what offers were available. What we do know is that the C's had no leverage in trades for AB/Crowder/Smart. Common sense says the more you postpone the decision the less valuable the return becomes. According to Woj, the Sixers were interested in Bradley at the trade deadline. It's highly likely other teams were interested in him as well. Had we acted sooner, we would have been negotiating from a position of strength.
Never was a fan of the 'in Danny we trust ' dogma. Is he a great GM? Yes, I believe he is. Does he make mistakes? Of course, everybody does. All I 'm saying is Danny made a mistake here. We lost the Bradley trade and that's 100% his fault.
If you want to believe Bradley was going to get pick #7 from Minny, I can't stop you, but that seems and seemed pretty unlikely to me. As did a Saric trade that people on this board wanted.
A year ago, George Hill got traded for #12. Ibaka got traded for #11 (Sabonis) + two other assets. Both Hill and Ibaka were expirings. The Ibaka trade was finalized on draft night.
Again, if Danny had planned ahead, I bet we would have gotten a far better return than Morris.