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00:00he covers the cavaliers for the plane dealer in cleveland.com and you can hear his wisdom on the
00:05wine and gold talk podcast if you're not reading his wisdom in the paper or online he's our buddy
00:10chris fedor hello chris what's up chris good afternoon guys how are you doing we are well
00:1876ers catch by surprise no not really i was actually on the sports reporters with jeremy
00:24shab a day earlier oh that's that's a day before the way by the way you were good on there
00:30too that
00:30was a good listen well thank you i appreciate that so we were on and there was a writer from
00:37miami my buddy ethan skolnick and then there was another writer from philadelphia and then myself
00:41covering the cleveland angle so the feeling was that there was a possibility that it was any of
00:48those three teams and we were all trying to make the argument of what we thought made the most sense
00:53for lebron and how likely cleveland was from my standpoint how likely philly was how likely miami
00:59was and as we were going through it i did say that i thought that the calves were the front
01:05runners that
01:06i did think that there was a strong possibility that he would pick the calves because of the
01:11combination of basketball and non-basketball but i also said i said rich paul about three weeks ago
01:18mentioned that if if there was no if there was no championship for the new york knicks that lebron
01:26would have been going to new york and i said on the sports reporters i said why would that be
01:31let's break it down let's talk about all the different things that would be interesting to
01:36lebron about the new york knicks setup and i said which team fits that criteria the best and the answer
01:44was philadelphia and that's what i said on the sports reporter so i didn't think philly was this
01:49dark horse i didn't think they came out of nowhere i thought they made sense for all of the reasons
01:56why
01:56lebron would have wanted the new york knicks it's just he couldn't go to new york the minute that the
02:02knicks won the nba championship so you were trying to find the setup that resembled the knicks the most and
02:08i thought it was philly more so than cleveland or miami now did that mean that he was definitely
02:12going to go to philly no but i thought it made them really really interesting
02:18do you think any of it plays into the fact that philly hasn't won a title since 83
02:25absolutely yes because that's part of what lebron's legacy is and that's something that has
02:30always appealed to lebron look i don't want to get into dr phil type stuff here guys or anything
02:35like that but lebron grew up rooting for the yankees and the cowboys we're talking about america's team
02:41in football and we're talking about the team in baseball and the bulls and the bulls historical
02:49franchises have always appealed to lebron they have that's part of the reason why he wanted to go to
02:55los angeles to resurrect the purple and gold of the los angeles lakers who hadn't been to the playoffs
03:02the five years before he arrived there he is somebody who views him he's got chosen one tattooed
03:08across his back he is somebody who has throughout the course of his career elevated franchises and
03:15that has some that has always been something that has appealed to lebron the ability to go to places
03:22and be the reason why they won a championship and there is nobody in nba history that has won a
03:29championship with four different franchises lebron now has an ability to do that in philadelphia i also
03:36think that was part of the allure of the knicks in another world where they didn't win the championship
03:40to be the guy if lebron would have gone to new york and they didn't win the championship against
03:46the spurs to be the guy to end a 50 plus year title drought another 50 plus year title drought
03:52yeah that
03:53would have been appealing to him in new york just like to be the guy to take philly back to
03:58the
03:58championship when they haven't won one in 40 plus years i absolutely think that's appealing to lebron
04:04to to be in a situation where maybe possibly he makes the 76ers with all that history and that
04:11tradition the team in philadelphia over the flyers over the eagles over the phillies yes i definitely
04:18think that appeals to lebron what didn't appeal to him about the cavaliers yeah look so he considered
04:27them and i i think it it shows that the calves are in a pretty good situation from a basketball
04:35perspective that lebron was considering them right if if they were the washington wizards or if they
04:41were the charlotte hornets or if they were the chicago bulls lebron's not considering them so this is a
04:48good situation this is a team that has come off in eastern conference finals appearance for the first time
04:54since 2018 and the first time without lebron in more than 30 years so the basketball aspect of this
05:01was appealing enough to consider the calves but i i think part of it is you know lebron has always
05:08been
05:09about legacy lebron has always been about story lebron has always looked at where do i have the best
05:14chance to win a championship or what setup has the ability to become something where i can win a
05:21championship and i do think lebron's basketball brain was wrestling with his cleveland heart at
05:28various points throughout the course of this deliberation because i don't think he loved the
05:33basketball fit here in cleveland and i don't think he should have loved the basketball fit here in
05:38cleveland him donovan mitchell james harden together lebron is the third option offensively that's not all
05:44that appealing to him um being what they would be defensively um with james harden lebron james and
05:52donovan mitchell together that's probably not all that appealing to him and having clunky spacing
05:58because you have two bigs and jared allen and evan mobley that want to live around the rim or in
06:03the
06:03paint that's probably not all appealing to lebron who you know took about 52 percent of his shots
06:09um within 10 feet of the basket last year with the lakers so i think his basketball brain is the
06:18greatest one that we've seen in the last 20 25 years and i don't think he looked at cleveland and
06:24said yeah this is the best basketball situation for me the other thing is you know we have been
06:30talking throughout the course of this about cleveland would be the storybook ending and in many ways it
06:37would and i don't think anybody can dispute that you know returning to the place where it all started
06:42um your final game in your own palace what you created as your palace and rocket arena i mean that
06:50writes itself right but like he's had the storybook ending in cleveland it was 2016 it just happened to be
06:58during the middle of his career or closer to the middle of his career and and i think because he
07:04came
07:05back and he won the championship here in cleveland i think there was part of him that was saying and
07:10i think there were part of the people close to him that were saying you've already done the storybook
07:15ending you've already closed the cleveland chapter and you can't write it any better than it's already
07:21been written with delivering the city it's only championship in in 50 plus years and in doing it in
07:28historic fashion by coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the nba finals against the record
07:34setting golden state warriors and this gives him an opportunity to write a different kind of chapter
07:42and end his legacy a different kind of way um so i think there were a couple of different factors
07:47involved um but but i think at the end of the day philly had a better basketball setup than cleveland
07:54did from lebron's perspective chris fedor cleveland.com and the plane dealer joining us on the wise heart
08:00right we make it right call kyle wright hotline you can of course listen to him on the wine and
08:03gold
08:03talk podcast as well all right chris your kobe altman plan a just got lit on fire what's plan b
08:11well plan b was mario azonia don't you know i mean okay so then what's plan c
08:17plan b well plan b and and i wrote this and i reported this a number of different times plan
08:22b
08:22has always been jonathan kaminga but the jonathan kaminga conversation related to the calves is very
08:29very complicated there is nothing straightforward about it um because of the financial situation
08:35that the calves are in and you know you don't want to get too nerdy and start talking about all
08:40these
08:40numbers and the salary cap and the aprons and stuff like that but the calves are about 18 million
08:48away from the luxury tax without signing james harden do you think james harden's going to sign
08:54for 18 million dollars annually why no i'll go with a firm no on that probably not i would take
09:00the over
09:01on that one very much whatever james it's probably going to be what i don't know something closer to 30
09:08million dollars annually when james finally does um sign his contract so so the minute that james
09:15harden signs his contract the calves cannot offer jonathan kaminga 15 million dollars annually which is
09:22what he wants and what his agent wants now you might say that's foolish nobody's going to give you
09:2715 million dollars annually and you may be right that may end up being what happens with jonathan kaminga
09:33but as of right now the calves can't give him the kind of money that he is believed to want
09:39and the
09:41calves really don't have the avenue to pull off a sign and trade that becomes they do and they can
09:48be
09:48really really creative with it but that becomes complicated as well because of apron rules and
09:53being hard capped and stuff like that so all i'm saying is jonathan kaminga the player
09:59i think he's interesting to the calves he's 23 years old he's got upside he's got ties to kenny
10:05atkinson from their time together in golden state he would probably be the most athletic player on the
10:11roster at this stage of his career um and the idea of him becoming something more than what he currently
10:19is i think that's appealing to a wing needy team like the calves um so the idea of of going
10:27out and
10:28in bringing him here i think is something that appeals to the calves but again it's it's more
10:34complicated than that because of their financial situation and what it is that jonathan kaminga and
10:40his agency are believed to want um in saying that i do believe that in the next couple of days
10:48president of basketball operations kobe altman is supposed to have a deeper conversation with the
10:53representation for kaminga and seeing if there's a logical realistic financial pathway to actually
11:00doing something like this again i have my doubts on that i think it's going to end up being too
11:05complicated for the calves and he's not going to be worth everything that they would have to do
11:10around this roster just to fit the kind of salary that he wants um but but i do think it's
11:17something
11:18that you know the calves aren't completely ruled out of that because they went out and signed mario
11:24his own yeah if you're kaminga and and his representation would you look at a situation
11:31like this or would you look at a situation like say milwaukee where you could go in you might not
11:38win a championship anytime soon may never win one but by god you're going to get your shots you're
11:43going to get your average and you're going to set yourself up for the next contract i would say
11:49cleveland because i think the question guys that the league has about jonathan kamek is not can he
11:55play basketball and i don't think the question is can he score the basketball i think it's can he
12:01fill a role on a team that has aspirations for winning it's not something that he was able to show
12:07in atlanta it's not something that he was able to show in golden state and you might say well those
12:12situations didn't set up really really well for kaminga to show those kinds of things okay maybe
12:18maybe possibly but the league is wondering can you fill a specific role and contribute to winning
12:25basketball and that's not milwaukee that's not at all milwaukee nope that could be the los angeles
12:32lakers and it could be the calves um so if i'm him or if i'm advising him i would say
12:40milwaukee
12:40doesn't do a lot for you in terms of how you're viewed across the league you would get a bunch
12:45of
12:45shots you would get a bunch of opportunity you would get a bunch of touches and things like that
12:50but that doesn't show the league what the league wants to know about you and your skill set
12:56chris fedor joining us from the plane dealer cleveland.com you wrote a great piece i i loved it
13:01it was well done well researched as all your work is you said there's only one guy who can save
13:07this
13:08offseason for the cavaliers and that's evan mobley and you we've talked with you about mobley i i know
13:15you're not high on his offensive game i know you've pointed out that they tried to get him the ball
13:21early
13:21last year it didn't work and they had to abandon that chris they have to get him the ball and
13:28they have
13:28to see if it's going to work don't they they do and there's a whole danger here that evan mobley
13:35is
13:35viewed by this fan base as the guy that prevented them from getting lebron james and the guy that
13:40prevented them from having jalen brown or having yannis or having kawhi leonard and that's a
13:47legitimate concern about that level of pressure that level of expectation that's going to be placed on
13:53evan is something that he has never felt even coming into the nba as the number three overall
13:59pick in 2021 and plastered on billboards the day that he landed in cleveland this is different now
14:06the expectations the pressure for him it's never going to be greater and he's going to have to show
14:13that yes he can be a star caliber player he can take that next step and he can play like
14:20a super max
14:21player that's the contract that he has play like a super max player more consistently than he has
14:27over the last couple of years um now have there been times where he's looked like a super max guy
14:34and he's looked at as like a franchise pillar absolutely there have been moments of that but
14:40it hasn't been frequently enough it hasn't been consistently enough and that's what he's going to
14:45have to show and i agree with you you're right jeff they do have to make him more of a
14:50focal point
14:51but they also have to believe as an organization and they have to believe as a team that making him
14:57a focal point is going to be the best pathway for them offensively they have to believe that if they're
15:04going to get him the ball in those kinds of situations that he is going to do something
15:09consistently productive with it and that doesn't have to be scoring but it could be make the right
15:15decision it could be get a shot for one of your teammates it could be you know drive into the
15:21teeth
15:22of the defense and make them send a double team your way or start backing down your guy in an
15:28advantageous
15:29matchup and force the defense to send a second defender because they're worried that much about that
15:35aspect of of your offensive arsenal so yeah there's a give and take here where part of it is on
15:42the
15:42calves and making sure that he's more involved and he gets more touches and he's more of a focal point
15:47but part of it's on evan where he's got to do something with it where they feel like that becomes
15:54an advantage for them on the offensive end of the floor and i just think there were too many times
15:59throughout the course of last year where you know evan mobley in a perceived mismatch wasn't
16:06an advantage for the calves offensively because he just didn't do enough with the basketball
16:10when he got it in those kinds of situations chris where are we on the dennis schruder trade front
16:17and where are we on the max struce trade front
16:22well max has an expiring contract so there's inherent value there um but there's also
16:29value to keeping him on the roster because of the kind of player that he is the movement that
16:34he creates the gravity the three-point shooting the cutting ability is he a flawed player yes is
16:41he a streaky player yes but you're going to have to find ways to fill your wing minutes and you
16:48could
16:48do worse than max struce certainly so i don't think the calves want to be in a situation where they
16:55have a
16:55starter caliber in their mind a starter caliber wing somebody that they could start alongside
17:03their new core four and say we have to be in a situation where we salary dump him
17:08i don't think they want to be in that place with max um when it comes to dennis it's a
17:14little bit
17:14different because do they have enough ball handling um do they have enough shot creation do they have
17:20other guys on this roster that are capable of maybe possibly filling the dennis schruder type
17:27minutes i think that's more of an answer of yes than the max struce answer um so i do think
17:34that
17:35the calves are looking at opportunities to trade both guys and seeing what is out there and what kinds
17:41of offers they can get for both of them like hypothetically if you could trade dennis schruder
17:47for uh grant williams of the charlotte hornets that's something that the calves would probably
17:55have interest in um now you start asking yourself do you have to attach something else to dennis schruder
18:00in that situation um is there a dennis schruder for royce o'neill trade with the hornets um do you
18:08want to salary dump dennis schruder so you have more financial flexibility and in that case you have to find
18:14a
18:14team that has um some salary cap space and then you have to incentivize them with future draft capital
18:21or a young up-and-coming player so it's just not as simple as hey you don't love the contract
18:28of dennis
18:28schruder so just send him somewhere um it's what would you have to attach to that player to move him
18:36what other players are out there that maybe you could trade for where you could reconfigure your
18:41roster so the calves are looking at all those different possibilities and trying to figure out
18:48how if at all we can extract the most value um from both max strews and dennis schruder and their
18:55contract and if it's not with a player that comes back that can help the team and move into the
19:02rotation
19:03is there enough of a financial benefit to moving on from either guy or do we just keep those guys
19:09on
19:09the roster because they're going to get rotational minutes
19:11so
19:12you
19:12you