David Griffin should be NBA Executive of the Year
The Cleveland Cavaliers made the first big move of trade deadline season yesterday, trading Mike Dunleavy and a 2019 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Kyle Korver. The move is brilliant in and of itself — the Cavs kept their three biggest trade assets in Kay Felder, the rights to Cedi Osman, and a $9.6 million trade exception, and actually saves Cleveland money from the luxury tax.
But more importantly, this deal seals what has been a year-long masterpiece by general manager David Griffin, a work that should put him at the top of the Executive of the Year ballot come playoff time. Griffin hasn’t made a ton of moves, and he hasn’t revamped the roster in a major way. But the way he’s made his tweaks under the contraints of the Cavs’ payroll since 2015-16 ended has made him look like a dark sorcerer.
Griffin has been operating under the tightest budget imaginable since the summer of 2014: The Cavs operated $18 million over the salary cap in 2014-2015, and $37 million over last season. Headed into today, they were $35 million over the cap with a payroll of $130.4 million, per Sportrac. Were Griffin to sit tight midseason with the roster he had, no one would blame him — even if the team needed help, conventional wisdom would say that he’d need to trade a rotation player to make it happen.
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That’s what happened when the Cavs dealt for Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and Timofey Mozgov. The Cavs dealt away Dion Waiters and two first-rounders in that deal, meaning the Cavs had to part with a rotation player and their two best assets to make the deal happen. It worked out the best it possibly could, as the Cavs rallied to go 34-9 down the stretch with Shumpert, Smith and Mozgov playing at a high level. But the Cavs had to take a traditional route to make that deal happen.
The magic of Griffin’s tenure started last trade deadline, with a move to acquire Channing Frye. Griffin had already gotten things in motion with a move to dump Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to the Portland Trail Blazers. Sacrificing two second-round picks, the Cavs gained a $10.5 million trade exception and a $2.8 million exception from unloading the two end-of-the-bench veterans. Griffin used that $10.5 million exception to get Frye from the Magic, sending Jared Cunningham to Orlando. But Griffin wasn’t done; he created the current $9.6 million trade exception at the same time, attaching a 2018 first-round pick to Anderson Varejao and sending him to Portland so that the Blazers could clear cap space by waiving him. David Griffin essentially got a rotation player on the title team and a massive trade exception for a first-round pick and two players who weren’t in their rotation.
Since the Cavs won the title, though, Griffin has done everything he possibly can to ensure the Cavs will be back in the spotlight in June. He started on draft night, sending $2.4 million to the Atlanta Hawks for the 54th pick in the draft. With that pick they landed Kay Felder of Oakland, a feisty 5-foot-8 point guard who has notably been averaging 11.2 points per game over his last five contests, as Kyrie Irving has dealt with injuries. A steep price, but they look like they’ve landed one of the best three picks of the 2016 second round.
Then, he let Timofey Mozgov and Matthew Dellavedova leave in free agency. Mozgov went to the Lakers on a four-year, $64 million deal, and Dellavedova signed a four-year, $38 million deal with the Bucks. Mozgov is 30, and Dellavedova has struggled mightily in his first year on a massive deal, so both worked out as good decisions. But to add to Griffin’s EOY candidacy, he seized an opportunity with Dellavedova, creating a trade exception out of a sign-and-trade with Dellavedova to the Bucks. This exception was worth $4.8 million — exactly the value of the contract of Mike Dunleavy, who the Bulls were shopping to clear cap space. Griffin convinced the Bucks to throw them enough money to sign a rotation player from a division rival for basically nothing.
The J.R. Smith deal was a bit of a negative, as he let negotiations drag on into training camp, similar to Tristan Thompson’s holdout last season. But he eventually landed Smith on a four-year, $57 million contract, a pretty reasonable deal for a valuable rotation guard. He also brought in DeAndre Liggins, who has emerged as a starter in Smith’s absence due to injury. He was in the D-League last year. Another rotation player the Cavs have gotten for basically nothing.
Even the Korver deal was a bit of salary cap-flexing. In order to retain their trade assets, Griffin Eurostep’d the Stepien Rule, forbidding the trade of first-round picks in future back-to-back drafts. Remember that first-rounder the Cavs gave the Blazers? It was a 2018 first. So Griffin swapped their 2017 first-rounder to Portland for the ’18 pick, enabling the Cavs to deal their 2019 first to Atlanta in the deal.
To recap — Griffin has turned two first-rounders, three second-rounders, Anderson Varejao, Jared Cunningham, Matthew Dellavedova and Mike Dunleavy into Channing Frye, Kyle Korver, and a $9.6 million trade exception that the Cavs can use to obtain another rotation player. They haven’t given away anything of consequence unless it was a situation that would burn them in the future (Mozgov/Delly contracts), and have maintained enough flexibility to potentially make another move down the line.
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In an ever-changing salary cap ecosystem influenced by a major cap spike, Griffin has worked creatively and efficiently to improve his roster despite salary cap rules designed to cripple a high-payroll team’s ability to do so. Armed with only his connections, his smarts, and his owner’s green light to spend over the luxury tax, Griffin has done everything he possibly can to ensure that these Cavs don’t eventually wither under their own salary cap weight, as LeBron’s Heat teams did.
If Smith comes back from injury at a high level, Korver fits into the Cavs’ offense, and they can potentially find another big to add depth, the Cavs look much more formidable than they did last year, and should be considered a threat against the Golden State Warriors. Griffin is very responsible for that, and should be considered a favorite for NBA Executive of the Year in 2016-17.