The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Cancel the voting: Griffin is top executive
Cavaliers general manager David Griffin should win the NBA Executive of the Year Award, Jeff Schudel writes. Plus, thoughts on Tom Hamilton and the NFL Scouting Combine.
League officials responsible for selecting the NBA Executive of the Year can avoid the hassle of voting and hand the award to Cav- aliers general manager David Griffin now.
Griffin over the last two months has fortified the bench to put the Cavaliers in strong position to defend their NBA title with minimal cost to the team in personnel.
Griffin on Jan. 7 traded with the Hawks for shooting guard Kyle Korver. The Cavs shipped guard Mo Williams, guard Mike Dunleavy, cash, and a protected first-round pick to Atlanta in the deal.
Williams hadn’t practiced with the Cavs, let alone played in a game, and Dunleavy was averaging just 4.6 points and two rebounds a game for the Cavaliers. The first possible year the pick could be used is 2019.
The Cavaliers signed forward Derrick Williams to a 10-day contract on Feb. 9 and followed that up by signing him to another 10-day contract. Any team could have done that. He is signed for the rest of the season on March 4.
Guard Deron Williams was signed on Feb. 27 after being waived by the Dallas Mavericks four days earlier.
The Cavs were not done. The Mavericks traded center Andrew Bogut to the 76ers on the same day they waived Deron Williams. The 76ers waived Bogut on Feb. 27. Bogut signed with the Cavaliers three days later.
Signing Derrick Williams, Deron Williams and Bogut doesn’t make Griffin a genius, but it is reflective of the environment and roster he has created. Bogut and Deron Williams want to play with LeBron James so they can win a championship.
James and Griffin make a good pair. James rants and raves about needing a playmaker and then Griffin finds the type player James wants.
Of course, Griffin sees the same needs. He just fills them quietly, then all of a sudden you look at the roster and all the holes are filled. • In the end, I believe Bogut will prove to be the most important acquisition in the 2017 roster shakeup.
Guard J.R. Smith is expected to return to the lineup in mid-March after being out since late December recovering from surgery on his broken thumb. Assuming he hasn’t lost his shooting stroke, he will take some of the playing time now going to Korver.
Deron Williams gives the Cavs the point guard off the bench they’ve been searching for all year, but Kyrie Irving will be difficult to yank off the floor once the playoffs begin in mid-April.
Bogut will give coach Tyronn Lue a 7-footer to clog the middle when the Cavs are on the defensive end of the floor. His injury in the NBA Finals while with the Warriors last year was critical to the Cavs winning the championship.
Bogut was injured early in the third quarter of Game 5 of the 2016 Finals when he landed awkwardly after blocking a shot by Smith. The injury prevented him from playing in Games 6 and 7. The Cavs won both games.
Bogut doesn’t have to be an offensive contributor to help. He blocked five shots in Game 2 of the Finals. He might get the chance to do the same thing against his former team in three months.
Spring training recollections
We published one story about Tom Hamilton’s recollections of past spring trainings. But the Indians radio play-by-play announcer was so gracious with his time in a phone interview from Goodyear, Ariz., on March 2 that one story could not do it justice.
Hamilton has great respect for the late Herb Score, his partner in the radio booth from 1990 to 1997. He said Score was not the type to reminisce about his own major-league career, which lasted from 1955 to 1962.
“It was something the people who hired me wanted me to try and do because Herb was such a wealth of knowledge and such an impactful player before he got hurt, but it wasn’t Herb’s way of doing things. When it was over, it was over. He wasn’t going to brag about what he did. He didn’t want to be one of those guys that just talked about the ‘good ‘old days.’
“Herb was all about today’s game and today’s player. I think that’s why he was so special.”
A promising pitching career for Score was shattered on May 7, 1957, when he was struck in the face on a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald. Score’s orbital bone was broken and his eye was injured. McDougald was so distraught he ran to the mound instead of first base to tend to Score.
Score returned to the mound in 1958, but an arm injury started the end of his career. Score pitched for the Indians from 1955 to 1959 and the Chicago White Sox from 1960 to 1962.
“Tony Kubek told me Herb, for him, was harder to hit than Sandy Koufax,” Hamilton said. “You can’t get higher praise than that. I told that to Herb one time and he just shrugged his shoulders.”
Kubek played for the New York Yankees from 1957 to 1965. Koufax pitched for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. The Dodgers swept the Yankees in four games in the 1963 World Series.
Combine leftovers
No official from any team tells anyone in the media their true plans for the draft. If Team A says Player A is No. 1 on their draft board, don’t believe it.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported a source told him the New England Patriots will not trade backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo because Tom Brady, as great as he is, turns 40 on Aug. 3.
Maybe they won’t end up trading Garoppolo, but if the Browns did something ridiculous like offering their two first-round picks (one and 12) and their first-round pick next year for Garoppolo, of course the Patriots would trade him.
Browns Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown said he will listen to offers for the No. 1 overall pick. Of course, he will, but he would have to be overwhelmed to part with it. The Browns have to start spending their draft capital on players — picks 1, 12, 33, 52 and 65 overall in the first three rounds — if they are ever going to show improvement on the field.
I didn’t know that
… Until I read my Snapple bottle cap
President Calvin Coolidge walked a pet raccoon he named Rebecca on a leash around the White House . ... The typewriter was invented in Milwaukee in 1867 . ... A human brain weighs about three pounds . ... The temperature of the sun can reach 15 million degrees Fahrenheit. ... Only male turkeys gobble. ... Abraham Lincoln was the only U.S. president who was also a licensed bartender.
Reach Schudel at JSchudel@News-Herald. com. On Twitter: @jsproinsider