2017 Offseason In Review: Cleveland Cavaliers
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2017 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2017/18 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Signings:
- Kyle Korver: Three years, $22.06MM. Third year partially guaranteed ($3.44MM).
- Jose Calderon: One year, minimum salary.
- Jeff Green: One year, minimum salary.
- Derrick Rose: One year, minimum salary.
- Dwyane Wade: One year, minimum salary.
- John Holland: Two-way contract. Two years. $50K guaranteed.
Camp invitees:
- Kendrick Perkins: One year, minimum salary. Exhibit nine. (Waived)
- JaCorey Williams: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract. (Waived)
- Isaac Hamilton: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract. (Waived)
Trades:
- Acquired Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, the Nets’ 2018 first-round pick, and the Heat’s 2020 second-round pick from the Celtics in exchange for Kyrie Irving.
- Acquired the draft rights to Dimitrios Agravanis and draft rights to Sergiy Gladyr from the Hawks in exchange for Richard Jefferson, Kay Felder, a 2019 second-round pick, the Trail Blazers’ 2020 second-round pick (top-55 protected), and cash.
- Note: 2019 second-round pick will be the less favorable of the Lakers’ and Timberwolves’ selections.
Draft picks:
- None
Draft-and-stash signings:
- Cedi Osman (2015; No. 31): Signed to three-year, $8.325MM contract.
Departing players:
- Kay Felder
- Kyrie Irving
- Richard Jefferson
- Dahntay Jones
- James Jones
- Edy Tavares (waived)
- Deron Williams
- Derrick Williams
Other offseason news:
- Parted ways with general manager David Griffin.
- Offered president of basketball operations job to Chauncey Billups, who withdrew from consideration.
- Promoted assistant general manager Koby Altman to GM.
- Isaiah Thomas expected to be out until at least late December.
- Kendrick Perkins joins Cavaliers’ G League affiliate.
Salary cap situation:
- Operating over the cap and over the tax line. Carrying approximately $134MM in guaranteed team salary. Projected tax bill of approximately $43MM. Portion of taxpayer mid-level exception ($2,549,143) available.
Check out the Cleveland Cavaliers’ full roster and depth chart at RosterResource.com.
Story of the summer:
The Cavaliers looked thoroughly overpowered by the Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals, so it’s understandable that their offseason was punctuated by moments of panic and general uncertainty.
It wasn’t long before the Cavs’ plan of making a landmark move to emphatically one-up their Western Conference rival in Golden State quickly gave way to desperate attempts at self-preservation. After missing out on early targets like Jimmy Butler and Paul George, the franchise managed to survive, emerging from a substantial personnel shuffle with an oddly intriguing smorgasbord of assets.
This couldn’t have been the summer that LeBron James hoped for on the heels of Cleveland’s season-ending loss in Oakland last June, but the club handled unforeseen adversity as well as anybody inside or outside of the organization could have hoped.
Will the forced – but nonetheless decent – moves that the team made in 2017 be enough to convince James to re-sign in Cleveland in 2018? Well, that will be the story of next summer.
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 10/27/17
Here are the G League updates from around the league today:
- The Grizzlies have assigned center Deyonta Davis and forward Ivan Rabb to the Memphis Hustle, their G League affiliate, the team announced in a press release. Neither Davis nor Rabb saw action with the big league club in the first week of the regular season.
- The Jazz sent Tony Bradley to the Salt Lake City Stars, their affiliate team in the G League, the organization revealed in a press release.
Central Notes: Collison, Cavaliers, Thompson
The Pacers have jumped out of the gates with one of the league’s fastest-paced and most potent offenses. Much of that is thanks to their newly acquired point guard, Darren Collison, Jim Ayello of the Indianapolis Star writes. The guard has taken a substantial leap forward since his last tenure with the franchise.
“I’m a much better player than I was in the past,” the Pacers guard said. “I know the game a little better. I’m more mature. I don’t think I’ve lost a step, but I’m not as fast as I used to be. But my basketball IQ is at higher level than it ever has been.”
In five games with the Pacers so far this season, Collison has averaged 15.6 points and 8.4 assists per game. Indiana, as a team, has averaged 114.0 points per game, the fourth-highest total in the NBA.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- The Cavaliers are not in the mix to acquire Eric Bledsoe at this point in time, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com writes in a question-and-answer with readers. There are no Bledsoe trade scenarios that make sense for the squad so long as Isaiah Thomas returns healthy and Derrick Rose is accountable all season.
- In his latest comments about the Nikola Mirotic–Bobby Portis kerfuffle, Bulls executive vice president John Paxson reiterated that they’re feeling out the best way of handling the scenario but noted that they’ll do what’s in the organization’s best interest. As K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes, that’s a reminder that both players technically remain under contract, giving the franchise final say in what happens.
- The Cavaliers will start Tristan Thompson for the next little while, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com tweets. Head coach Tyronn Lue opted to slot the familiar face in at the five, bumping Jae Crowder out of his role as the starting small forward.
Celtics Granted $8.4MM Disabled Player Exception
The Celtics have been granted a $8.4MM disabled player exception to replace Gordon Hayward for the season, Shams Charania of The Vertical tweets.
Disabled player exceptions can be granted to teams that lose a player to a season-ending injury. They’re worth either half the injured player’s salary, or the amount of the mid-level exception, whichever is lesser.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Disabled Player Exception]
As Bobby Marks of ESPN explains, the C’s already have an open roster spot and can thus sign, claim or trade for a player whose contract will expire at the end of 2017/18.
There’s no particular rush for the Celtics to go out and acquire a player now, however, as the team will have until March 10 to actually use the exception.
It’s possible that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will continue to audition his new-look roster and narrow down their most glaring need at a later date.
As we wrote about yesterday, there are slim pickings left on the free agent wire but a number of veterans who could conceivably add value to a contending team like Boston.
Pacific Notes: Ingram, McGee, Deng
Could Brandon Ingram be the next great Lakers closer? Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register thinks so. On a roster filled with promising young player and role-playing veterans, Ingram could be uniquely qualified to step into the role that Kobe Bryant vacated in 2016.
“He definitely has the ability and confidence to make those kind of plays,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said of Ingram. “He definitely wants it. One hundred percent he wants it. Some people, they say they want it. But in their eyes you can tell they’re just saying it because they’re supposed to say it. Brandon, he truly wants those types of moments.”
Teaford cites Ingram’s role in the Lakers’ recent comeback victory against the Wizards, chipping in with 11 points in the fourth quarter and tapping in the game-tying bucket at the end of regulation.
In four games as a Lakers sophomore, Ingram has averaged 15.8 points and 4.8 rebounds.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Despite his emergence as a valued rotation piece for the Warriors last season, JaVale McGee has been used sparingly thus far in 2017/18. Anthony Slater of The Athletic caught up with the center about his usage. “I don’t feel like I’ve been struggling the first few games,” McGee said. “I haven’t really played a lot, so there’s really no room to struggle. But even from last year, I don’t play a lot during games that go small. All I can really do is work on the things that keep me from playing a lot.“
- In a preview of what could be their backcourt of the future, Kings fans saw Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Aaron Fox connecting in the final minutes of their loss to the Pelicans Thursday. “I can talk to him and tell him about the mistakes I made,” Bogdanovic told Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee. “And hope he can learn without having to make those mistakes.”
- Having seen just 13 minutes of action so far this season, it’s safe to say that Luol Deng is at the bottom of the Lakers‘ depth chart. An ESPN report states that the veteran will likely continue to draw DNP-CDs.
Bulls Exercise Options On Bobby Portis, Four Others
The Bulls have exercised options on all five of their eligible players, the team announced in a press release. That was the plan all along, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweets.
Returning on third-year options in 2018/19 will be Kris Dunn and Denzel Valentine while all of Jerian Grant, Cameron Payne and Bobby Portis will be back on fourth-year options.
While it makes sense for a rebuilding team to retain young players with promise, Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago tweeted on October 18 that the club hadn’t, at that point, made a decision about Portis.
Portis infamously hospitalized Nikola Mirotic in a team practice on October 17 and several stories have emerged in the last few days about internal doubts that the two will ever be able to co-exist in a Bulls locker room again.
As far as asset management goes, however, it makes sense for the Bulls to pick up the options on all of the capable young players as doing so doesn’t preclude them from making any moves with Mirotic, of Portis for that matter, in the future.
The exercised options of Dunn and Valentine are obvious choices. Both players, highly regarded entering their rookie campaigns in 2016/17, have shown flashes of why they were so revered in college. The raw but malleable assets are exactly the type of building blocks that a team in Chicago’s current position ought to be collecting.
In contrast, Grant, the club’s starting point guard thus far in 2018/19, is the most heavily utilized player of the bunch. Grant has posted averages of 10.8 points and an impressive 7.3 assists per game in a full starter’s workload through four games. He may end up ceding time and opportunity to Dunn, who is expected to return in a reserve role soon, but has done a fine job establishing himself in his third season.
The decision to exercise Payne’s fourth-year option seems natural considering that the team marketed him as a potential point guard of the future last season.
As the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson noted in a separate tweet, there remains internal belief that Payne could have an impact on the rebuilding team if he’s able to maintain his health. Payne has played just 88 games throughout the first three years of his career.
Sixers Working With Jahlil Okafor To Find Suitable Trade
The Sixers are collaborating with Jahlil Okafor‘s camp to find a suitable trade, Chris Haynes of ESPN writes. The 21-year-old former third-overall pick has seen his role decrease yet again in his third season with Philadelphia.
Per Haynes, head coach Brett Brown committed to Amir Johnson as the team’s chief backup center for the time being. He joins Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Dario Saric in what is suddenly a loaded frontcourt.
Further contributing to Okafor’s removal from the rotation for the foreseeable future is the pending return of Richaun Holmes, as Sarah Todd of The Inquirer writes.
While at this point there are no frontrunners for a possible deal, Okafor’s value could be higher now than it was last season, despite that he’s been a healthy scratch in four of Philly’s first five games this year. Over the course of the offseason, Okafor worked himself into the best physical condition of his career.
Okafor’s game may be a relic of a foregone era but the fact that the big man has been nothing but a consummate professional throughout an unprecedented process will serve him well in the eyes of other teams looking to add value at a discount.
Okafor averaged 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game his rookie campaign, the season before Embiid showed up and bumped him down the depth chart. What’s more, for much of his lone college campaign at Duke, he was even projected to go first overall in the 2015 NBA Draft ahead of Karl-Anthony Towns.
While times have certainly changed since then and there may be a scarcity of teams willing to make Okafor’s lumbering playing style an offensive focal point, similarly old-fashioned bigs – like Jonas Valanciunas and Greg Monroe – have found success as niche players on winning ball clubs.
The fact that, as Haynes reports, the organization is working alongside Okafor’s representatives speaks to the relationship between the two parties. With the October 31 contract option deadline fast approaching, trade discussions will play a role in whether or not the Sixers pick up the center’s fourth-year option.
2017 Offseason In Review: New York Knicks
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2017 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2017/18 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the New York Knicks.
Signings:
- Tim Hardaway Jr.: Four years, $70.95MM. Fourth-year player option. Signed offer sheet; Hawks declined to match.
- Ron Baker: Two years, $8.872MM. Second-year player option.
- Michael Beasley: One year, minimum salary.
- Ramon Sessions: One year, minimum salary.
- Luke Kornet: Two-way contract. One year. $50K guaranteed.
Camp invitees:
- Jarrett Jack: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract.
- Xavier Rathan-Mayes: One year, minimum salary. Exhibits nine and 10. (Waived)
- Nigel Hayes: One year, minimum salary. $50K guarantee. (Waived)
- Trey Burke: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract. (Waived)
- Jamel Artis: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract. (Waived)
Trades:
- Acquired the rights to hire Scott Perry from the Kings in exchange for a 2019 second-round pick and cash ($400K).
- Note: The 2019 second-round pick will be the second-most favorable of the Cavaliers’, Rockets’, and Magic’s selections.
- Acquired Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and the Bulls’ 2018 second-round pick from the Thunder in exchange for Carmelo Anthony.
Draft picks:
- 1-8: Frank Ntilikina — Signed to rookie contract
- 2-44: Damyean Dotson — Signed to three-year, $4.097MM contract. Third year not guaranteed.
- 2-58: Ognjen Jaramaz — Stashed overseas
Departing players:
- Carmelo Anthony
- Justin Holiday
- Maurice Ndour (waived)
- Marshall Plumlee (waived)
- Chasson Randle (waived)
- Derrick Rose
- Sasha Vujacic
Other offseason news:
- Fired president of basketball operations Phil Jackson.
- Promoted Steve Mills to president of basketball operations; hired Scott Perry as general manager.
- Hired Gerald Madkins as assistant GM; hired Craig Robinson as VP of player development and G League operations.
- Exercised 2018/19 team option on Kristaps Porzingis.
Salary cap situation:
- Used up cap room. Now operating over the cap, but under the tax line. Carrying approximately $102MM in guaranteed team salary. Only minimum salary exception available.
Check out the New York Knicks’ full roster and depth chart at RosterResource.com.
Story of the summer:
Over the course of the last several seasons, it became abundantly clear that the Knicks’ worst enemy was on their own payroll. After a needlessly dramatic 2016/17 campaign, the club appeared destined to wallow in yet another campaign of cringe-worthy in-fighting and fascinating mismanagement.
Then president of basketball operations Phil Jackson resigned from his post.
In the weeks and months after Jackson was replaced by former team general manager Steve Mills, with Scott Perry coming aboard to step in as the new GM, the Knicks have regained some semblance of normalcy and it already appears as though the club is trending in a positive direction.
The Knicks may still be a long way from actually competing, even in the East, but they’ve amassed a semi-intriguing pile of assets. Sure, some of the club’s new core is raw and imperfect, and the roster that broke camp last week probably won’t be the one that ends New York’s playoff drought. But the current roster does feature several valued building blocks that the team’s revamped front office can actually work with heading forward.
The fact that the Knicks’ core players will no longer be alienated by their own employer is simply a bonus.
And-Ones: Saunders, Gordon, Prigioni
It’s been two years since Timberwolves icon Flip Saunders, then the franchise’s president of basketball operations, passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The man’s impact on the organization is still felt to this day, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes.
Saunders played a vital role in the club’s recent return to relevance both from a business and personnel perspective. The celebrated executive’s touch can be seen at all levels of the organization from the new practice facility that Saunders helped design to the transactions he made in the wake of David Kahn‘s time at the helm from 2009 to 2013.
Saunders remains the only head coach in franchise history to lead the team to the playoffs, having done so eight times from 1997-2004 during his first run with the franchise. Since 2006, the team has cracked a .400 win percentage only once.
“I made a promise to Flip Saunders that we would win and end the playoff drought,” current franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns said on the media day of his rookie season shortly before Saunders passed. “And I intend to keep that promise.”
There’s more from around the league:
- Former NBA player Ben Gordon has run into trouble with the law, Jonathan Bandler of The Journal News writes. The 34-year-old wasn’t ultimately charged following a confrontation between himself and a woman at his business but police were called to the scene and he was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation.
- The journey into the business world continues for Kobe Bryant. As Darren Rovell of ESPN writes, Bryant has approached his investments with the same obsessiveness that he did his NBA career.
- Retired NBA guard Pablo Prigioni is stepping down from his role as the head coach of Liga ACB team Baskonia, Orazio Cauchi of Sportando writes. The team has gotten off to a rocky start and it’s said that Prigioni has lost control of the situation.
Bulls Notes: Markkanen, Mirotic’s Concussion, Surgery
A solid string of performances throughout his first week as an NBA pro has Lauri Markkanen turning heads. Most recently, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders writes, the rookie out of Arizona has impressed Cavaliers superstar LeBron James.
“He’s going to continue to get better,” James told the media. “The best thing about it is he’s getting an opportunity. If he makes mistakes, he can learn on the fly, but he’s going to play a lot. He’s good. It seems like he’s learning. He’s a good player.”
In three games with the Bulls so far, Markkanen has averaged an impressive 16.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He’s done so in matchups against an array of formidable teams: the Spurs, Raptors and Cavs.
While much has gone wrong for the squad so far this season, the good news is that they seem to have nailed the draft pick that came with their offseason Jimmy Butler trade. Of course the better Markkanen plays, the harder it will be to relegate him to the bench when sidelined teammates Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis return to action.
That’s a challenge the organization is happy to face.
There’s more out of Chicago:
- LeBron James wasn’t the only Cavaliers player to speak highly of Lauri Markkanen. As Sam Amico of Amico Hoops writes, he impressed Dwyane Wade as well. “You can see if a guy knows how to play basketball when you first see him, right away. In the preseason, we all said he can play. No matter his age he can play. He’s aggressive. He understands they need him to score,” Wade said.
- After showing this summer that he’d like to remain in Chicago, Nikola Mirotic‘s camp suggested that his stance may not have necessarily changed, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes. That being said, there’s growing sentiment that, perhaps, he and Bobby Portis won’t be able to co-exist. As Johnson notes, there will presumably be more clarity as Mirotic recovers.
- Speaking of Nikola Mirotic‘s recovery, the 26-year-old hasn’t yet been cleared from concussion protocol, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweets. The forward will not be cleared for surgery until such time (if surgery proves necessary). Mirotic’s next concussion appointment will be next week.