The same holds true for the Damon Jones signing. This was regarded as a bad sign last year, but what were Ferry’s options? All the players the Cavs could have signed turned out to be worse than DJ and/or got ridiculous money for their skill set (Jaric, Jasikevicious, Watson, etc.). As it turns out, Jones earned his $3 mil. with one shot versus the Wizards. And, he’s turned in a decent season this year thus far.

If you want to criticize Ferry, I think the Ilgauskas and Marshall signings were far more suspect.

So that leaves Joe Johnson and Larry Hughes. Obviously, I’d rather have Johnson. But Phoenix was supposed to match and the only reason they didn’t was because the Hawks gave up some number 1s and Boris Diaw. The Suns would have no reason to make a deal with the Cavs; they’d keep Johnson. So then the Cavs lose out on JJ and by that time Hughes has signed elsewhere.

And we get to watch a back court of Eric Snow and Ira Newble.

As for Hughes… he’s not a good jump shooter. He just isn’t. It’s more pronounced right now because he shares the backcourt with Snow. You could hide one of them if the other could drain open jumpers; but they don’t.

Brown should really limit Larry’s minutes to about 35-38 a game (and LeBron’s from 38-40) just to keep the wear and tear off him.

Trying on defense is nice, being a good defender is better. But his defense isn’t that great and as a defensive compliment to LBJ he’s not very effective.

You are spot-on with some of the pluses–I think Hughes seems like an upstanding citizen. He’s been through a lot and he’s handled himself admirably. But for every tangential plus (doesn’t complain, seems tough) I can think of an immediate minus (in terms of on-the-court productivity).

Larry Hughes is not a terrible basketball player. Of the entire global population, he’s easily in the top 1%. But he’s paid a TON of money and for the amount of money he’s paid he’s not good. If he were paid 5mil a season I’d feel differently. But he’s being paid 10+mil a season.

Perhaps I need to start picking on Danny Ferry.

Minuses (what everyone notices):

*Injury-prone

*Inconsistent shooter

Plusses (what no one seems to give him credit for):

*Actually tries on defense, and is a reasonably good defender. Not even LeBron can claim that all the time.

*Plays well with LeBron, which can’t be undervalued in a league full of huge egos and locker-room cancers.

*Rarely complains.

*Doesn’t get into trouble off the court.

*Plays balls-to-the-wall, which causes a lot of his injuries.

*Seems to be pretty tough, considering all the adversity that’s been thrown his way in the past year.

The verdict: Hughes isn’t Pippen to LeBron’s Jordan. But he’s a good player. The fans might want him gone for various reasons. But be careful what you wish for. The next guy might not fit in as well.

That said, you are right that Maggette is not ideal. And I still don’t think the Cavs have much of a chance of landing him.

If the Cavs are going to make a trade for a guard,it’s imperative that he is a strong-very strong outside shooter. He doesn’t have to be great at getting his own shot or posting up or particularly athletic.

If the guys available are guys like Maggette and Early Watson, I’ll pass. Those are minor upgrades over Snow and Hughes (though upgrades nonetheless). Sure they’re better, but they still aren’t lights out shooters. With LeBron and Z, the rest of the guys aren’t going to get a lot of plays run, so they need to make their points off the opportunities Z and ‘Bron give ‘em. If your a PF, that means doing the dirty work (the Cavs are set with Gooden and AV), if you’re a guard, that means making teams pay when they double LeBron or Z.

I’m not sure Maggette is that guy.