The Banana Boat Avengers may finally be assembling in an attempt to overthrow the Golden State autocracy.
ESPN’s Chris Haynes appeared on CBS Sports Radio’s “The Jim Rome Show” on Monday and hinted at some major roster moves for the Cleveland Cavaliers should they lose to the Golden State Warriors in the Finals by way of a sweep or a gentleman’s sweep.
“LeBron James has made it known, that while he’s in Cleveland, he put the onus on management and ownership to give him a roster that could compete for championships year after year,” said Haynes. “It’s not going to be good enough for LeBron to just make it to the Finals every year, because they will do that. There’s nobody in the East that can contend with them that could mess with them. Nobody.
“But Bron’s not going to be happy about that, so if the Warriors are to get this series over within four or five, I would expect Cleveland to make some moves,” he continued. “What is that move? I don’t know, because there’s always been talk about Chris Paul and LeBron James teaming up at some point, but I just don’t know if the chemistry fits with them. Obviously they’re smart guys and they probably could make it work and play at some high of a level, but those are two ball-dominant players and will it work with Kyrie Irving as well?
“I don’t know if it would work, but I know that they were talking at the trade deadline,” Haynes added about the potential of the Cavs targeting Carmelo Anthony as well. “Those talks definitely could resurface, because it’s at this point if the Cavaliers feel like all they could do is get to the Eastern Conference Finals, then why not kick the tires on a Carmelo-Kevin Love swap and just see what could happen. Because I guess they feel like with Kevin or with Carmelo, they could advance to the Finals. Now, they don’t know what they can do with Carmelo, I think they have a pretty good idea with Kevin Love.”
The Cavs are down 0-2 to the Dubs in the Finals, having dropped the first two games by a combined 41 points. Paul can become an unrestricted free agent this summer (with talk of him potentially leaving the LA Clippers starting to heat up), Meanwhile, Anthony is still in the middle of his ugly divorce proceedings with the New York Knicks and was indeed rumored to be a Cavs target last trade deadline. Both are known to be close friends with LeBron James and appear to have at least considered teaming up with one another.
Overhauling the roster like that would be quite the drastic measure for the Cavs and one that would carry some major risk with both Paul and Anthony nearing their mid-30s. But drastic measures may be necessary in light of the increasingly likely possibility that the Warriors could rule the league with an iron fist for the next several years.
