Get to know redden a bit crewzy

Friday Insider: Trent Redden preparing for next chapter after leaving Cavaliers

Jason Lloyd Jun 23, 2017

For? the? first? time? in? 11 years, Trent? Redden wasn’t? in? the? Cavaliers? draft? room Thursday night.? For? the?? first time in 23 years, David Griffin wasn’t in anyone’s draft room. Before they both left the Cavs on Monday, Griffin and Redden were the top two decision makers in the organization. On draft night, however, neither was even in the city.

Griffin is on vacation in Los Angeles. He was lying on a couch in a hotel room following along with all of the picks Thursday night. Redden drove to Columbus to meet an old friend who was in town on business. They watched part of the draft together before heading out for dinner and drinks

“It’s not weird. It’s a little surreal,” Redden told The Athletic on Thursday night. “It’s not weird at all yet. I’ve been on the phone more the last three days than I’ve ever been. It’s been crazy.”

Friends and colleagues have reached out to check on him. Other teams have connected to say they’d like to talk about job opportunities after the draft. He was in contact with Cavs executives this week offering his opinion on what they should and shouldn’t do in trades — after all, he’s still under contract through the end of the month.

You know by now the story of Griffin, who parted ways with the Cavs after seven years, including three successful seasons as general manager. This is the story of Redden, the 33-year-old assistant GM who went out of his way to stay anonymous.

??? “He’s as good as there is,” Griffin told The Athletic. “The reason nobody knows him is because he was never at any point a self-promoter. He’s never wanted an agent, he’s never wanted any hype, never wanted his name in the paper. The guy just does his job. He’s the rarest. I don’t know of anyone at his talent level who has worked as hard as he has to keep himself in the background.”

When reached during the draft Thursday, Griffin did not want to speak about his own separation from the Cavs, but he was happy to talk about Redden, the prodigy who was scouting games as an intern.

Redden was hired by former general manager Chris Grant after graduating from SMU following a modest playing career. He is the guy who devoted his life to his career. He devoured game film, stayed loyal to his colleagues and kept his mouth shut. He made such an immediate impression that months after his internship began, he was sent out on the road to scout college prospects — including some the guys he was playing with and against a few months earlier. Someone so young already scouting is unheard of in the NBA.

Redden rose from intern to the second-most powerful position in the front office in about a decade. A number of Cavs officials were busy with draft preparation Thursday, but one reached during the day said he owed his career to Redden.

“I wouldn’t be here today without Trent,” he said.

Redden fostered terrific relationships with college coaches across the country. He writes in-depth scouting reports and is an expert on college football just as much as basketball.

“Watch the Pac-10 North this year,” he told me a few years ago. “Best division in college football.”

And when I joked with him during a Las Vegas summer league game about a system a friend of mine had devised to try to beat the roulette wheel, he grabbed a pen and paper during a timeout and calculated that the “system” was actually losing $1.03 per spin.

“There’s literally nothing in an NBA front office he’s not capable of doing,” Griffin said. “His growth and evolution as an executive has been profound.”

So why is he out, too? Why wasn’t he just given a new contract and promoted to general manager when Griffin and owner Dan Gilbert couldn’t come to terms on a new deal?

The only thing that’s clear is that Redden didn’t bother fostering much of a relationship with Gilbert, instead focusing on his own scouting staff and keeping morale high even when scouts were logging so many hours for so many years when the Cavs didn’t even have any draft picks.

It might have felt like a waste of time, scouting players the Cavs had no chance of taking, but Redden kept imploring his staff to keep going. They had to prepare their boards every year as if they could trade into the top 10, even though the past three years, the Cavs have owned just one first-round pick — and they traded it away on draft night two years ago.

They bought a late second-round pick last year to take Kay Felder and again sat out and watched the draft proceedings Thursday. Griffin traded away this year’s first-round pick as part of the finagling needed to acquire Kyle Korver. Their second-round pick went to the Boston Celtics three years ago as part of a series of five trades Griffin executed in order to create a large enough trade exception to eventually obtain Timofey Mozgov.

Ultimately, the Cavs did about as much Thursday night as both Redden and Griffin did: nothing.

“I feel fortunate to have worked for three people that I learned a bunch from in Danny (Ferry), Chris (Grant) and then obviously Griff,” Redden said. “I’m proud of the people that we leave there. They are the best group and hardest working staff that we could ever ask for and are special in their own way and that’s the hardest part. I won’t get to see my family of 11 years anymore. I was happy to be a small part of bringing a championship to Cleveland because of our awesome players.”

That might be the most he has said publicly in 11 years.

For now, Redden will finish out the summer in Cleveland and evaluate his options. If he doesn’t get back into the league immediately, he’ll probably move back to Dallas.

He won’t be out of work long