Andrew Bynum Officially On The Trading Block After Indefinite Suspension From Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert.
Before the 2013 season began, many of us here were viewing the Cleveland Cavaliers as a team to watch out for in the NBA playoffs with head coach Mike Brown returning, their number one pick in Anthony Bennett (bust?) and the off-season acquisition of Andrew Bynum.
That suddenly changed when Bynum, Irving and Brown could not sync this year, how we envisioned their potential storyline a few months ago. Friday morning, the Cavs decided not to bring Andrew Bynum on their road trip to Boston today, as we learned Cleveland suspended him earlier due for conduct detrimental to the team. Hit the jump for more on the big story.
After missing the entire 2013 season, Bynum had been showing signs of improvement in recent weeks, but went 0-11 in their Monday loss against the Detroit Pistons and soon saw limited minutes Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavs have until January to decide the future of Andrew Bynum with their franchise, guaranteeing his $6 million of his recently signed 2-Year/$24 million deal over the summer.
For the next 10 days, we expect Cleveland to part ways with Bynum through a trade or release and pay him the $6 million. Bynum has said his hopeful destinations to play are the Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat, so we’ll have to see which team gets richer.
However, professional athletes that are detrimental to teams don’t always get a pass based on their talent (See: Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Terrell Owens, Barry Bonds, Chad Johnson). Bynum may be down to his last destination next year and one more sticky situation could be the end of his tenure in the NBA.
1 – Expect Bynum to miraculously regain his love for basketball once he gets away from this messy Cavs situation. He has an end game here.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) December 28, 2013