6:01pm: The claim is official, according to the team’s Twitter feed.
4:13pm: As expected, forward Alfonzo McKinnie didn’t make it through waivers after being cut by the Warriors on Saturday. The Cavaliers, who had second priority in the NBA’s waiver order, have claimed McKinnie, a league source tells Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link).
McKinnie, 27, emerged as a rotation player for Golden State last season, averaging 4.7 PPG and 3.4 RPG with a .487/.356/.563 shooting line in 72 regular season games (13.9 MPG). He also appeared in 22 playoff games for the club.
However, the Warriors were facing a roster crunch this fall due to their hard cap, and had to choose between keeping either McKinnie or Marquese Chriss. The Dubs opted for Chriss, forcing them to waive McKinnie, since he wasn’t eligible to have his contract converted into a two-way deal.
McKinnie’s minimum salary for the 2019/20 season will remain non-guaranteed until January, so the Cavs have the flexibility to audition him for the next couple months before making a decision on whether to fully guarantee his salary.
Cleveland had only been carrying 13 players on standard contracts, so no corresponding move was necessary to make room for McKinnie. The team is now approximately $1.3MM below the tax line, tweets cap expert Albert Nahmad.
Justblike a Criss – Mckinnie trade!
The mere fact that Marquese Chriss is on the Warriors roster speaks volumes about how different a team they are now. Golden State has one of the youngest rosters in the NBA, and the chances that Klay will even suit up at all are close to zero.
The only way the Warriors have any chance of contending in the ultra-competitive West will be if Steph has a season as good or better than what Harden did last year. If he does then he will win his 3rd MVP in unanimous fashion, but unfortunately he lacks the durability to carry his team the way that Harden had to last season.
here we go again, his next stop will be back in toronto, where he played in ’17-’18
McKinnie is an outstanding anticipate-and-go-get-it midsize rebounder, and became a decent corner 3pt shooter. If he keeps that improvement, he could be a better player than Osman. But because the Cav guards are short on playmaking, Osman’s ~4 assists pg looks better.
Cavs probably had to be high on the list to be able to claim him.
Article said they had 2nd priority….
Yet another boneheaded move by the Warriors keeping Chriss over McKinnie. They’re down 4 players after just getting back two others and are barely scraping by with both of their 2-way G-League players helping out. How back are things going to end up with Steph out at least a month?
*bad, not back*