There have been a lot of changes in The Land as the new GM has started to put his imprint upon the roster. Free agency and the draft have made huge impacts on the roster and today the Cavaliers would like to introduce Louis Williams and Nicolas Pekovic and welcome back Damian Inglis. So let's get to it heres the GM DrumR.
Going into FA I thought we had a real chance to steal an RFA with so many teams close to the hard cap. Our initial plan was to try to push one of these teams to weaken them, but being new to the league I don't know the willingness of other GMs to help champions out of cap trouble to continue their dominance. Interesting tactics, but we moved on to sharpshooter Doug McDermott who was quickly matched by his mother team. During the transition his status as an RFA was unknown to us, but again we moved on to our next top target. Nicolas Pekovic. We told his reps we honestly though he might be out of our pay scale, but we were pleased to learn Pek mostly valued a chance at starting, a FA that came after him early, to play with players who share the rock. Our ability to sign him to a long term contract was icing on the cake and he did us a favor with the team option on the end. We think he really compliments the style of play we want as a top finisher and hes is a an elite offensive rebounder which guarantees we will always have a big with that elite skillset on the court.
Pek: I see a lot of potential on this team and I know I bring them a post scoring aspect that didn't exist before. I'm looking forward to being a mentor to young guys like Qi and Draymond. I plan on bringing an attitude of hard work and grinding to this team. If I just focus on hitting the boards and finishing like I always have I think a lot of the pieces on this team will fall together.
On Lou Williams:
What a fantastic scorer. This was a guy we kept our eye on and as FA went on we became shocked a guy who's been a starter on multiple playoff teams and has such great averages was still out there. We realised that he wasn't getting any love and immediately offered him our LLE. We were extremely pleased he signed the next day and never left Cleveland after our initial meeting. I'm not sure how coach plans to use him, but Lou can do everything on the basketball court offensively. Kyrie called within minutes of the signing being announced to say he was looking forward to the speed and passing we've added to the roster for this season.
On the return of Damian Inglis:
Lou: What can I say it's good to be wanted? I thought I had proven myself and my game in Atlanta, but I guess there a lot of teams out there who saw me as a product of the system and not the scorer I've worked hard to become. I don't really care how coach uses me I've got plenty of motivation for sure. I'm really looking forward to playing with Kyrie who has no business not being on the All-CSL team. With us being two of the fastest players in the league and passes like DePaula and Draymond, I think we're going to kill teams in transition this season.
We had a good idea coming in that Dame wanted to stay in Cleveland. He understand he still has a lot of growth, but at 6'9 230 he has an opportunity to be on of the most physically imposing wings in the league. We want to help develop him to reach his full 3+D potential and we think the emphasis on passing and spreading the floor the coaching staff plans to implement will give every player more open shots than they've seen before. Dame has improved every season and we look forward to see what he brings us after another off-season and TC of hard work.
Dame: I'm just happy to be back in The Land. I've made a lot of promises to the residents here about getting us back into the playoffs and I just feel like I have a lot of unfinished business here. I've been working on my shooting and defense mostly this off-season and I'm looking forward to TC. I think this season I'm ready to take that next step and it starts with me coming out and earning that starting role from coach after training camp.
