Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert isn’t afraid to make bold moves or spend money on his team. Whether he does either of those things wisely is up for debate, but he will be aggressive.
And he was very aggressive going after Kentucky’s John Calipari to be the next Cavalier’s coach, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (with Brett Dawson of Rivals).Before finalizing a contract extension with the University of Kentucky late last week, John Calipari had gone deep in discussions with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a seven-year, $60 million-plus contract to become president and coach, sources told Yahoo Sports….
Gilbert and Calipari had discussed a package in the range of $8 million-plus a year, sources said, and it wasn’t until midweek that Calipari finally rejected Cleveland and fully committed to his seven-year, $52 million extension at Kentucky.
That would have given Calipari the same power and control that Doc Rivers has with the Clippers and Stan Van Gundy has with the Pistons — but Calipari would have made more per year than either of them.
Cleveland has some interesting pieces. They have Kyrie Irving (up for an extension to his rookie contract this summer) and they have the No. 1 overall pick in this draft (expected to be Andrew Wiggins or Joel Embiid). New GM David Griffin will have to dig out of a series of reaches from previous drafts that have not panned out as well (Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett) but if the hardest part of assembling a team is getting the All-Star cornerstones the Cavaliers have that part.
Calipari was the coach and president of the New Jersey Nets for three seasons in the 1990s but was fired.
He returned to the college game and won everywhere he went. The Wildcats reached the NCAA Championship Game last April and, with the Harrison twins returning plus a great recruiting class, they likely will be the preseason No. 1 team in the nation again.
Calipari has built Kentucky into a power and he could stay there and win there as long as he wants. He may want to try his hand in the NBA again, but he can pick and choose his timing and landing spot. He will have options.
And he chose not to take Cleveland right now.