5:53pm: The team has followed with an official announcement.
AUGUST 5TH, 5:32pm: The team still hasn’t made a formal announcement, but the signing has taken place, according to Pincus (Twitter link). It’s for two years and $5.6MM and it includes a 15% trade kicker, according to Pincus, who confirms that it indeed features a player option for the final season.
JULY 15TH: Mike Miller has agreed to join the Cavs on a two-year deal with a player option for the final season, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s for a total of $5.5MM, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter), though Broussard says the Nuggets and Rockets offered more. Miller had been torn between Denver and Cleveland, as Wojnarowski reported earlier this afternoon (Twitter link). The Cavs are likely using their room exception on the sharpshooting swingman, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
The Arn Tellem client was reportedly near a deal with the Nuggets when LeBron James decided to return to the Cavaliers, which allowed Miller a chance to play with James again. Miller was ineligible to sign with the Heat, since his previous contract with Miami, which the Heat amnestied, ran through next season. James had apparently reached out to Miller to see if he would be interested in joining him were he to leave the Heat this summer.
The Grizzlies, Clippers, Thunder, Blazers and Mavs were other teams reportedly interested in the 34-year-old, who showed this past season that his body is still capable of handling the rigors of the NBA. He played in all 82 games for the first time since he was a rookie, giving Memphis a valuable shooter in reserve. His 45.9% accuracy from behind the arc was the second-best mark of his career.
Miller’s camp appeared to try to ward off the possibility that the Cavs would claim him off amnesty waivers last summer by advancing talk about back surgery, but now Miller is willingly taking a discount to go to Cleveland, in a twist of events.
I dont see why he gave up money to play in Cleveland
Unless you’re a fringe player that’s never had a big contract, at these later stages you’re going for rings more than millions. 75 MM career earnings thus far. It shocks me that guys like Pierce don’t go full blown ring shopping – he’s earned 184MM already and yet it took 2 years & 10 MM.
My point was that if he was chasing rings, I dont see why he would go to Cleveland
5 teams vying for him in the West are all a crap shoot to make the playoffs/win the West. Give LBJ enough weapons and they odds are greater that Cleveland makes it out of the East.
Cleveland only has 2 players on their roster that play defense. Wiggins is a rookie, and LeBron only played defense selectively last season. So that number is closer to zero. Obviously LeBron can defend all 5 positions at an elite level, but he coasted for much of last season on that end of the court, only picking it back up for awhile in February. Guarding the PG spot should be really difficult for that team, and they dont have much rim protection either. I need to see a lot more from them before I call them a championship contender in the improved Eastern Conference
Well they need to find a back-up PG, and Reserve 4 and 5 as I said above. Mack comes to mind.
What’s really improved? Brooklyn lost Pierce & Lopez will find another way to get injured. Chicago is still a question mark until Rose returns for a full season – Gasol > Boozer, but marginally. Pacers are likely to lose Stephenson. Wizards replaced Ariza w/ Pierce. Hornets are a team that could become a lot better if they do sign Stephenson though. Raptors & Heat will do battle for the 5 seed. Knicks will vaca early.
Seeds come out Cavs/Chicago/Pacers 1-2-3 not necessarily in that order. Wizards 4, Heat/Raptors 5/6, Bobcats/Brooklyn 7/8.
I am currently looking at the East significantly differently than that. Its still too early to say anything definitive, but I like what some of these teams have done, including teams that will miss the playoffs. I also think there are a couple of teams that will be better simply by being healthy…I’m not putting any order on it, but Chicago/Heat/Hawks/Wizards/Cavs/Raptors/Knicks/Bobcats/Celtics/Pacers/Pistons even the Bucks have a lot of talent…I agree with your sentiments on Washington losing Ariza and Booker plus Webster and replacing their athleticism with Pierce, but they’re still a good team…I’m not saying injuries wont occur, or there wont be growing pains for some young players, but I think that any of those teams could compete for a playoff spot in the East (while there are obvious favorites for the top seeds). It would take me way too long to write down all of my thoughts on all those teams right now, so I’m not going to do it just to explain my point, especially b/c everything could change with more moves to be made and 3 months before the preseason starts. I just think it should definitely be an improved conference. Teams are very evenly matched, so they should beat each other up a lot
to play for david blatt….