Less than a month after being waived by the Cavaliers, center Edy Tavares has elected to return overseas, agreeing to a three-year contract with Spanish team Real Madrid, per a Marca report. Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic has confirmed that report, with international basketball reporter David Pick supplying the financial details (via Twitter).
Tavares will return to the country where he began his professional career — he was under contract with Gran Canaria in Spain from 2009 to 2015. Drafted by the Hawks in 2014, the 7’3″ center headed to Atlanta a year later and has bounced around the NBA and G League since then, playing for a handful of different teams.
Signed by the Cavaliers at the very end of the 2016/17 regular season, Tavares’ season came to a premature end when he fractured his hand in May, sidelining him for the rest of the playoffs. Although his contract included a non-guaranteed salary for 2017/18, Tavares became expendable when the Cavs added three extra players to their roster late in the offeason, trading Kyrie Irving for Jae Crowder, Isaiah Thomas, and Ante Zizic, then signing Dwyane Wade. Tavares was waived by Cleveland in mid-October.
Tavares had initially joined the defending G League champs, the Raptors 905, for the 2017/18 season, but appeared in just one game for Toronto’s G League affiliate before striking his new deal with Real Madrid. The Raptors 905 have now lost two key players – Tavares and Kyle Wiltjer – to international teams.