The 09-10 Cavs season is over, and with it the teams most critical offseason in the franchises 40-year history has begun. Here are just ome of the critical questions that faces the team now that the year is over.

1. LeBron James

A fairly obvious question to say the least – what else can Dan Gilbert and the Cavs do to keep James in Cleveland? The team has built a practice facility for him closer to home, gotten players to complement him, and have followed his rules from day one. Gilbert will have a conversation with him, basically saying what’s it going to take? Sure there’s going to be the media press from places like Chicago and New York, but if James leaves, he’ll quickly go from Akron’s #1 to the biggest enemy Cleveland has ever seen. He has not delivered what he promised, and while regular season wins are nice and all, he’ll go down as a failure should be bolt somewhere else.

2. Mike Brown

There’s no doubt that Brown is partially to blame for the mistakes and letdowns of the past two playoff series losses to Orlando and now Boston. Both times he was outcoached by Stan Van Gundy and now Doc Rivers. Some will say the team needs a different and maybe more aggressive voice. Brown has shined in moments, but has been outshined in bigger moments, like the last two playoff losses. If it’s up to James on who the coach is, Brown has probably coached his last game in Cleveland.

3. Free agents

Other than James, Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are the big two unrestricted free agents on the roster. Leon Powe who spent most of the season injured has a team option, and Sebastian Telfair who played little has a player option. The big two of course (again outside of James) is Shaq and Z, and there will be plenty of questions if either will return. O’Neal is nowhere near worth the $20 mil he got this year, but if he’s willing to come back for $3-5 mil, it may be a fit. Z was a non-factor for the most part after he came back from the trade with Washington, and one has to wonder if the issues he had with not playing is going to come back to him in thinking he wants to go somewhere else, or simply retire, which he has said he doesn’t want to do.

Gilbert has shown he’ll spend money on anyone, so if James comes back, look for the owner to simply ask the mega-star “who do you want, and can you get him here?” There’s plenty of good players out there, so as long as the franchise can convince James to return, they will fill the roster with other players to again compliment their franchise player. If not, look for Gilbert to try and land another star, but it won’t be easy.