Welcome back to Should I Stay or Should I Go.  In this series, I will provide Chris Grant and the Cavs my take on which players should remain part of the team's plans and which ones need to hit the road.  As I mentioned in part one, every player has a different set of expectations.  When I said that Omri Casspi should stay with the team, it wasn't because of how great he is.  The reason for his rating is because he has a lot of size, can probably be re-signed for a low cost and can be a good backup if he ever gets his career back on track.  On the contrary, Daniel Gibson isn't a bad player or a negative influence in the locker room.  The reason that he was a "Go" is because there does not appear to be room on the roster for him and his injury history.

Jon Leuer: When Chris Grant claimed Leuer off of waivers in July, it was an understated personnel move that could potentially be beneficial for the Cavs.  Leuer can also amount to a player who isn't very good.  Acquiring Jon Leuer is a prudent transaction because it is the sort of low risk and possible high reward decision that rebuilding teams should make.  Aaron from the great blog Gothic Ginobili had some great things to say about Leuer:

He was picked up by Cleveland after Houston inexplicably waived him — I thought Leuer was the best piece traded in the Dalembert deal. I realize there are a lot of reasons to be somewhat down on his performance, but the kid averaged per-36 numbers of 14-8-2 on 50%+ shooting. That’s valuable enough to be a first-big-off-the-bench type on a good team, let alone your 4th rotation big.

Jon Leuer might not amount to much for the Cavs, but his skill set is intriguing.  For that reason, he should be given plenty of coaching from the Cavs and opportunities.  Stay.

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The lack of noteworthy NBA news and rumors would have new fans believe that the season is not actually approaching.  Training camp begins later in September, which means that Media Day and intra-squad scrimmages will be upon us shortly.  The idea was that the NBA landscape would be bustling with trades after Dwight Howard finally got traded from Orlando, but the opposite is what has become reality.

Things are not any different on the Cavaliers front.  The only noteworthy news as of late has been that of Dion Waiters' weight loss and a report that the Cavs are open to trading veteran guard Daniel Gibson.  The thought of trading Daniel Gibson is a difficult one to come to terms with, but every possibility should be explored with a rebuilding team.  The Cavs currently have 17 players on the roster.  That number needs to be brought down to 15 by the time they tip off against the Washington Wizards on October 30th.

At least two players will be cut from the team.  Once the roster is at 15, Chris Grant's work is not done.  In this post, I will give my opinion on every player and whether or not they are keepers or not.  The term "keeper" is relative based on each player.  There are guys like Jon Leuer who will be rated as such but that does not mean that the Cavs should never consider trading him.  The Cavs are going to feature a lot of roster turnover in the next season or two and the point of this post is to explore which members of the team should be considered part of the future. 

Kelenna Azubuike: Once a promising wing player, Azubuike's career has been derailed by injuries.  He injured his knee in November of 2009 while playing with the Golden State Warriors and has appeared in only three games since.  He had the misfortune of needing a second surgery to fix the first surgery that he had.  Azubuike averaged 14.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the 2008-2009 season.  He was able to appear in three games with the Dallas Mavericks to close out the season and he only scored 7 points in the last game.  Azubuike could potentially be a contributing member of a good team if he can overcome his injuries, but that seems unlikely at this point.  The fact that his body of work in his post-injury career is so limited makes it a difficult decision to make. Go.

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In the 1998 Coen Brothers film "The Big Lebowski," the protaganist is a well-meaning unemployed loser who enjoys the finer things in life (marijuana, bowling, not working and White Russians).  The Dude owns a car that works, but barely.  It gets him from Point A to Point B, but it is rusty, very large, a gas-guzzler and is probably more trouble than it is worth.  The car is a central setting in many key scenes.  It is run into a dumpster, hit by an angry neighbor with a crowbar and finally set on fire by a group of nihilists.  The Dude seems sad and irritated that his car is dead, but it is probably for the best.  The car may work for The Dude, but barely and it is best for him to move on.  He could have probably made the car work for him longer, but it was a losing proposition for The Dude.  The best thing to happen to The Dude's ability to drive around town is for the car to be destroyed and for him to be forced to look elsewhere for transportation.

The Orlando Magic finally did it.  After what felt like an endless national "Dwightmare," the team finally traded Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers.  This comes as little surprise to NBA fans with a pulse considering that it is the birthright of Lakers fans to have the league's best centers.  The fact that Lakers fans still have nightmares about the "Chris Mihm and Smush Parker" era demonstrates just how great things have been for the team.  Both of these guys played for the Cavs in the same year and the fact that you rarely hear anything about them from Cavs fans speaks volumes to the level of success and luck that both of these franchises have had.  That is, of course, if the 16 NBA championships to 0 didn't say enough.

The offseason is almost over and the Truehoop/ESPN propaganda machine to "#StopTanking" is a distant memory.  The endless debates over the merit of the NBA for supposedly encouraging teams with limited ceilings to be bad lays dormant.  Have no worries, for it will be back and as annoying as ever after about a month of the upcoming season.  Henry Abbott from Truehoop broke his silence and did his part to quell misinformation about the NBA after the Dwight Howard trade.  One listen to sports radio in a small market or a quick jaunt on Twitter reveals that people are upset that "the rich keep getting richer at the expense of small market teams."  I am not sure that I agree or disagree with this narrative, but Sherwood Strauss of ESPN brought up a great point on Twitter on Tuesday that has been under-appreciated:

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The off-season is wrapping up and the Cavs have made minimal roster moves.  Some people are on board with this approach and others are eager for the team to improve.  The main personnel moves Cleveland made in the off-season are drafting Dion Waiters, moving up to draft Tyler Zeller and signing C.J. Miles.  There were other minor transactions that took place such as trading for Jeremy Pargo, re-signing Luke Harangody and picking up Jon Leuer off of waivers, but overall this has been a quiet summer for the Cavs.     

The Cavs were not very good last year.  In fact, they will not be very good next season.  This may not sit well with the side of the table that was tired of losing games and obsessing over lottery standings.  The issue is that this bad team lost two starters.  As frustrating as Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker were, they were shooters that had to be accounted for.  This allowed for Kyrie Irving to operate and keep the defense honest.  Defending Irving is not easy when the opposition does not know if he will drive, shoot a jump shot or pass to a shooter.  The Cavs have effectively replaced to players who had a reputation for being shooters with Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters.  The sophomore big man only shot 43.9% from the field last year and is likely to start at the power forward position.  On the other hand, Waiters is more of a slasher than a shooter and could complicate matters for Irving and the Cavaliers offense.  Hopefully I am wrong about Waiters and his offensive aptitude will translate to a better offense for the Cavaliers.

Speaking of offense, the Cavs have been offensive since the rebuilding project began in 2010.  Kyrie Irving is a special player and his offensive abilities are unheard of for a rookie.  The fact that he was so clutch and shot as effectively as he did despite only playing 11 games at Duke and the lockout shortened season is mind-blowing.  Having said that, the team overall was awful on the offensive end of the court.  The Cavs shot 42.2% from the field.  The only team worse on offense than the Cavs was the lowly Charlotte Bobcats, who literally set a record for futility by only winning 7 games in 59 tries.  Another area that the Cavs struggled in was point differential.  On average they were outscored by 7.2 points.  Once again, the only worse team was the Bobcats. 

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