The Hawks have waived Antonius Cleveland, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cleveland, 24, saw action in four games with the Hawks last season, averaging 3.3 points and 1.0 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per game. He was signed to a multi-year contract in March after signing consecutive 10-day contracts earlier in the season.
As Vivlamore noted previously, the Hawks essentially had to waive Cleveland in order to open up the cap room necessary to acquire Carmelo Anthony from the Thunder and Justin Anderson from the Sixers.
Adding both Anthony and Anderson to the Hawks’ will increase the team’s total salary to approximately $102.8MM, about $1MM over the cap. Per CBA rules, this is not permitted, as the Hawks are using cap space to complete the trade. Waiving Cleveland lowers Atlanta’s total salary – with Anthony and Anderson – to $101.4MM, safely within the 2018/19 salary cap of $101.869MM.
Cleveland’s 2018/19 salary was fully non-guaranteed, so the Hawks will not be on the hook for any of his salary.
Can somebody help me to understand what the motivation is to take on Carmelo’s salary when he will never play for us? When he gets signed by another team are the Hawks off the hook for his $?
The motivation was to get a 1st round draft pick and to get rid of Dennis Schroeder and the 3 years remaining on his contract. Anthony and Anderson are on expiring contracts so the Hawks will have about 15 million in additional cap room next year when they’ll be closer to contending.
Cleveland is a freak athlete who can’t shoot consistently. Basically a DJ Stephens type