11:21am: The Cavs have offered Billups a president of basketball operations position, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who tweets that Billups remains undecided on accepting. According to Sam Amico of USA Today (Twitter link), Billups is weighing the fact that LeBron James could leave next summer, as well as considering the prospect of being objectively critical about Tyronn Lue, who is a close friend.
10:41pm: The Cavaliers have offered Chauncey Billups a five-year contract to run the team’s front office, reports Jason Lloyd of The Athletic. Sources with knowledge of the discussions tell Lloyd that Billups has yet to formally accept the offer.
Billups has been viewed as the odds-on favorite to replace David Griffin as the head decision-maker in Cleveland’s front office since Griffin and the Cavs announced on Monday that they were parting ways. According to reports, Billups met with owner Dan Gilbert on Tuesday, then returned for a second meeting on Wednesday.
Lloyd writes that Gilbert and Billups spent the day on Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena, with Billups being introduced to many of the executives who would be working under him if he takes a position with the Cavs.
If Billups accepts the Cavs’ reported offer, he figures to take on the role of president or vice president of basketball operations. Although he has never worked in an NBA front office before, Billups would likely have final say on personnel decisions, though I expect the Cavs would add a veteran executive to the mix for day-to-day matters, perhaps with a GM title.
Gilbert and assistant GM Koby Altman have continued to run the Cavs’ front office since Griffin’s departure, with the team reportedly being aggressive in seeking out possible trades.
Not a good move, Cavs. But, hey, Gilbert can/will buy his way out of it in two years and by then Chauncey will have some experience for a good job.
Just… why? I assume he’s got to be a smart guy to even be considered for the job, but come on. NO EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER?!
If the U.S. Can have a President with no govt experience then why not an NBA franchise headed by an individual with no front office experience.
Keep it mind he’s not going to be the GM.
Will lebron ‘s lips move when he talks?:)
Are you and @jsaldi not comprehending what’s going on here? The guy who was accused of being LBJ’s puppet was just fired (Griffin) and LBJ was not consulted. Gilbert is hiring an old friend in Billups who he knew back when Gilbert’s business was based in Detroit. So why would a Billups be a puppet for LBJ ? He might RELATE well to LBJ but I think this move is Gilbert wanting someone who might be more willing and able to PUSH BACK against LBJ with some of the requests that might be made. Examples of situations where a pushback may have been warranted was with the resigning of Thompson and Smith. I think Gilbert wanted those two players back and was willing to extend a fair contract but he was forced to compete against themselves since there was little talk of other teams coming anywhere near the offers the Cavs initially extended. It’s like all other teams are offers “A” we are offering you “A + $3 mil” more but you’re holding our feet to the fire for “A + 8 mil” more. And the reason those players were able to get that is because the are signed to the same agency owned by Rich Paul (LBJ’s agent and close friend). It’s a crazy situation to be in if your the owner of a team and you actually want to do the right thing but are having your hand forced. And it’s not just the difference of a couple million difference. They were over the cap so paying Smith $3 mil more is actually paying him $12 mil more because of the lux tax position they’re in and that’s PER YEAR.
The talk of Gilbert being a bad owner (outside of the letter) are really unfair and from what I’ve heard, Griffin was unwilling to sometimes push back against Rich Paul’s hard-line. The GM is suppose to protect the franchize. When LBJ left the first time the Cavs were WAYYYY over the cap when he left. Gilbert has always paid the cost to put the best players possible. The difference between then and now is that LBJ came back as a champion thus FA were more willing to come now vs LBJ’s previous stint.
Another mouthpiece for Lebron
I am all for taking a chance on an outside the box hire, but Chauncey has no idea how to handle the non-personnel parts of basketball, like business operations and all that.
Billups might have a basketball mind but there’s so much more a president has to do. This is crazy.