Teams Preparing For Possibility Free Agency Begins 48-72 Hours After Draft
The NBA draft is locked in for November 18. Now that the league is eyeing December 1 as the potential start date for training camps, that doesn’t leave much of a window for 2020’s free agent period.
Taking that projected time frame into account, some teams are preparing for the possibility that free agency will open on November 20 or 21, just 48 to 72 hours after the draft, says Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).
Before last Friday, when it still seemed as if the NBA would push back its regular season start date for 2020/21 well into the new year, there was a general belief that free agency would begin near the end of November — perhaps even as late as December 1. That’s no longer a realistic option if camps are to open at the start of December, so the league will presumably aim to get free agency underway before Thanksgiving.
Of course, the December 22 start date for the ’20/21 season – as well as the rumored December 1 date for training camps – has yet to be approved by the NBPA, so it remains to be seen whether such a breakneck pace will be necessary for the offseason.
However, assuming the players’ union does sign off on the NBA’s proposal, a November 20 or 21 start for free agency seems about right. That would give the league a brief window after the draft for deadlines for option decisions, qualifying offers, and certain salary guarantees before the new league year gets underway.
Further clarity on the NBA’s schedule is expected by the end of the week, according to Stein.
Draft Rumors: Wiseman, Hornets, Warriors, Cavs, Pistons, OKC, More
Kevin O’Connor’s latest update to his 2020 NBA mock draft at the Ringer includes several intriguing tidbits about which way certain teams might be leaning and which players are generating interest at certain spots.
We’ve already passed on a couple of those notes, relaying word that the Hawks have made the No. 6 pick available and that the Bulls are believed to be eyeing play-makers at No. 4. Here are a few more of the highlights from The Ringer’s mock:
- Rumblings around the NBA suggest that the Warriors (No. 2) and Hornets (No. 3) both “covet” former Memphis center James Wiseman, according to O’Connor. If Wiseman is atop each team’s draft board, that means Charlotte might have to trade up to No. 1 to have a shot at him.
- There’s a belief in league circles that the Cavaliers (No. 5) are high on former Dayton forward Obi Toppin, says O’Connor. That lines up with what we’ve heard in recent weeks from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, who reported on Monday that the Cavs will privately work out Toppin this week.
- Sources tell O’Connor that the Pistons (No. 7) are interested in play-makers. Former Iowa State guard Tyrese Haliburton is one prospect who has been linked frequently to Detroit in mock drafts.
- Serbian big man Aleksej Pokusevski has been linked to the Thunder (No. 25) by two separate sources whom O’Connor has spoken to in the past week. Pokusevski may not quite be NBA-ready, but his upside would make him a logical fit for an OKC team that may be entering a rebuild, O’Connor observes.
- O’Connor also reiterates a point he has made in previous iterations of his mock draft, citing multiple sources who say that former Stanford guard Tyrell Terry is generating buzz as a potential mid-first-round pick.
Bulls Notes: Draft, Vassell, Young, Satoransky
The Bulls are likely targeting a “lead play-maker” with their lottery pick in this year’s draft, league sources tell Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
With the No. 4 pick, Chicago probably won’t have a chance to select LaMelo Ball — O’Connor does have Ball going to the Bulls in his latest mock draft, but the younger brother of Lonzo Ball is widely expected to be a top-three selection.
If Ball is off the board, there still should be a number of intriguing alternatives in play for the Bulls. Killian Hayes, who spent last season playing for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, is O’Connor top-ranked prospect in this year’s class and would be a viable option at No. 4. Former Iowa State standout Tyrese Haliburton is also considered a very creative play-maker with strong vision, as O’Connor writes.
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- Taking into account that Ball, Anthony Edwards, and James Wiseman are considered the most likely players to be drafted in the top three, Sam Smith of Bulls.com explores whether any of those prospects figure to be available for the Bulls at No. 4 — and whether the team should select them if they are.
- Focusing on the top wing prospects in the draft rather than the backcourt play-makers, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic considers whether trading down and selecting Florida State sharpshooter Devin Vassell might be the right play for the Bulls.
- A year after signing with the Bulls as free agents, Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky stand out as possible trade candidates, given the club’s roster construction, Mayberry writes in a separate story for The Athletic. While Mayberry thinks the two veterans could be good fits for the rotation under new head coach Billy Donovan, he notes that the new-look front office hasn’t been shy about transforming the coaching staff and might take a similar approach with the non-core pieces on the roster.
Hawks Shopping No. 6 Pick, Will Push For Playoffs In 2021
The Hawks are shopping the No. 6 overall pick in the 2020 draft and intend to make a push for the postseason in 2020/21, multiple league sources tell Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
The report doesn’t come as a surprise. Multiple Hawks players and franchise leaders have talked in recent months about a strong desire to make the playoffs next season, while previous reports have indicated they’d be open to moving their lottery pick.
In Monday’s edition of his Lowe Post podcast, ESPN’s Zach Lowe made a similar point, telling colleague Bobby Marks that the Hawks are “yearning” to earn a postseason berth in 2021 and suggesting that – as a result – the team will be more open to win-now moves this fall.
While the Hawks are apparently open to trading down or out of the draft, they don’t necessarily have to move that No. 6 pick in order to upgrade their roster. The club projects to have between $40-45MM in cap room when free agency opens, which will likely be more than any other team has available.
General manager Travis Schlenk told reporters in the spring that the Hawks may be more “assertive” in free agency this year than they have been in recent offseasons. Since Schlenk’s arrival, Atlanta has mostly made signings in the second or third wave of free agency, looking to identify bargains once the top players are off the board. However, the Hawks are expected to be more aggressive this time around, according to O’Connor, who says the organization wants to “capitalize on Trae Young‘s emergence.”
That cap room will also give the Hawks plenty of options on the trade market, especially if the No. 6 pick is on the table. The team has frequently used its cap space in recent years to take on unwanted contracts in order to acquire extra draft assets, but figures to tweak that approach this year — Schlenk will likely be targeting productive veterans in any trade talks, rather than mere salary-dump candidates.
NBA Eyeing December 1 For Start Of Training Camps?
The National Basketball Players Association has yet to approve the NBA’s proposed start date of December 22 for the 2020/21 regular season. However, assuming the two sides opt to move forward with that plan, December 1 appears to be the likeliest opening date for training camps, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).
A three-week gap between the start of training camps and regular season games is fairly typical by NBA standards. At the start of the 2019/20 season, for instance, most teams opened training camps on October 1, while opening night fell on October 22. When the NBA restarted the season this summer following its four-month hiatus, teams began practicing around July 11 and seeding games began on July 30.
In each of those scenarios, preseason or exhibition games took place between the start of training camps and the start of the regular season schedule. Since the 2020/21 season isn’t expected to be played in a bubble environment, it’s not clear whether the NBA still intends to schedule preseason games or whether they’ll be viewed as unnecessary — that figures to be one of many matters of negotiation between the league and the NBPA.
The eight teams who weren’t invited to the Walt Disney World bubble this summer would likely welcome a December 1 start date for training camps, since they haven’t played in real games since early March. The first few teams eliminated in the summer would have also had a break of about three-and-a-half months.
The turnaround would be more challenging for teams that made deep playoff runs in Orlando. The Heat and Lakers, for instance, played their final game on October 11, so they’d only have 50 days off before reporting back to camp.
A December 1 start date for camps would also mean an extremely condensed free agency period, since the market isn’t expected to open until a few days after the November 18 draft. While most of the top players figure to sign new contracts during the first week of free agency, there would likely be a number of players still finding new NBA homes in December, after camps have already gotten underway.
2020 NBA Offseason Preview: Milwaukee Bucks
Hoops Rumors is previewing the 2020 offseason for all 30 NBA teams. We’re looking at the key questions facing each club, as well as the roster decisions they’ll have to make this fall. Today, we’re focusing on the Milwaukee Bucks.
Salary Cap Outlook
Taking into account their eight players with guaranteed salaries and the cap hold for the first-round pick, the Bucks already have $116MM in commitments on their books for 2020/21, so they’ll be over the cap.
There are some other wild cards to consider here, including Ersan Ilyasova‘s non-guaranteed $7MM salary, a pair of player options, and the Bucks’ desire to add an impact player.
I’d ultimately expect Milwaukee to be in the tax or close to it, limiting the team to the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.72MM). But if the club maintains some maneuverability below the tax line, it could have the full MLE ($9.26MM) and bi-annual exception ($3.62MM) to work with.
Our full salary cap preview for the Bucks can be found right here.
Roster Decisions To Watch
Options:
- Robin Lopez, player option: $5,005,350
- Wesley Matthews, player option: $2,692,991
Non-Guaranteed Contracts:
- Ersan Ilyasova ($7,000,000)
Two-Way Contracts:
- Frank Mason (expiring)
- Cameron Reynolds (expiring)
Free Agents:
- Pat Connaughton (Early Bird)
- Kyle Korver (Non-Bird)
- Marvin Williams (Non-Bird)
- Sterling Brown (RFA; Bird)
2020 Draft Assets
First Round:
- No. 24 overall pick
Second Round:
- None
The Bucks’ own draft picks (Nos. 30 and 60) belong to Boston and New Orleans, respectively. The first-rounder was part of the package sent to Phoenix in 2017 for Eric Bledsoe before it was eventually rerouted to the Celtics. The second-rounder was one of several picks Milwaukee traded to the Pelicans for Nikola Mirotic at the 2019 deadline.
Milwaukee regained a first-round pick (No. 24 overall) in last summer’s sign-and-trade deal that sent Malcolm Brogdon to the Pacers.
Three Key Offseason Questions
1. Will Giannis Antetokounmpo sign a contract extension?
Antetokounmpo’s contract doesn’t expire until 2021, but the decision he makes in 2020 may have a greater impact and longer-term ramifications than any of this fall’s free agent signings. The two-time reigning MVP is up for a “super-max” contract extension that would start at 35% of the 2021/22 salary cap and would tack five years onto his current deal, locking him up through 2026.
[RELATED: Examining What Super-Max For Giannis Would Be Worth]
There’s no doubt that the Bucks will put that offer on the table, but after two consecutive seasons of the team finishing the regular season with the NBA’s best record and then falling short of the Finals in the postseason, it remains to be seen whether Giannis will accept it.
Antetokounmpo has said all the right things about his desire to remain in Milwaukee long-term and to win a championship with the Bucks. And while NBA fans have been conditioned to treat those sort of remarks with skepticism, there’s reason to believe Giannis’ comments are more genuine than most.
The Bucks’ star has spoken in the past about preferring to beat his fellow superstars rather than befriending and teaming up with them. He didn’t grow up playing on the AAU circuit and isn’t part of the Team USA program, so he hasn’t used those avenues to build relationships and plot unions like some stars have in the past. Additionally, Milwaukee is the only home Antetokounmpo has known since he arrived in the U.S., which means he’s unlikely to pull a Kawhi Leonard — Leonard, of course, chose to return home to Los Angeles last summer despite having just won a championship in Toronto.
Still, while there are plenty of factors working in the Bucks’ favor, there are also some reasons why Giannis may not be eager to immediately sign up for five more years in Milwaukee.
The Bucks’ last two playoff exits have been especially disappointing — the team blew a 2-0 in the Eastern Finals in 2019, then couldn’t muster more than a single win against an underdog Heat team in the second round of the 2020 postseason. On top of that, the coronavirus pandemic has complicated the NBA’s salary cap outlook for the next two or three seasons, meaning Antetokounmpo may be incentivized to sign shorter-term deals until the cap starts to rise again.
While it’s certainly not out of the question that Antetokounmpo signs a super-max extension with the Bucks this offseason, my feeling for now is that he’s more likely to put off that decision. He could sign the same five-year, super-max offer with Milwaukee as a free agent in 2021, and by that point, he should have a clearer picture of the NBA’s financial outlook. He’ll also have another playoff run with the Bucks under his belt, giving him a better idea of whether the club is a legit title contender. It’s even possible the club will win a title in 2021, which would presumably make his decision that much easier.
If Giannis isn’t ready to commit to a five-year extension, but doesn’t want the contract situation hanging over his head all season, a shorter-term extension – like the one Bradley Beal signed last year with the Wizards – is another option. However, that would close the door on the super-max possibility until he gains 10 years of NBA experience in 2023 and might mean accepting less than even the 30% max in 2021/22. In other words, if he’s looking to maximize his future earnings, signing a bridge extension a year before free agency probably isn’t the right play.
2. Is Bucks ownership ready to pay the tax?
As Antetokounmpo mulls a potential long-term commitment to the Bucks, it may be time for the team’s ownership group to prove it’s serious about investing big money not just in its superstar, but in the roster around him.
Following the Bucks’ elimination from the playoffs in September, co-owner Marc Lasry met with Antetokounmpo and reportedly assured him that the team is ready and willing to spend into the luxury tax to make upgrades.
The fact that Milwaukee signed-and-traded free agent guard Malcolm Brogdon to a division rival in 2019 rather than signing him to a new contract would seem to contradict the assertion that the team has no qualms about becoming a taxpayer. But it’s worth noting that the Bucks were said to have some long-term health concerns about Brogdon — it’s possible they simply didn’t feel he was the right player for that sort of investment.
Now that we’re a year closer to Antetokounmpo’s potential free agency, there’s more urgency for the Bucks to do all they can to ensure their star wants to stick around. And Lasry and his co-owners are positioned to have an immediate opportunity to back up their words with actions.
The Bucks only have about $114MM committed to eight guaranteed salaries for now, but that figure would surpass $128MM if Ersan Ilyasova is retained, Robin Lopez opts in, and the club keeps its first-round pick. And it would go even higher if the team wants to retain Pat Connaughton or Wesley Matthews, or bring in adequate replacements. Using the mid-level exception and/or making a trade that adds team salary could make the Bucks a taxpayer, especially if the threshold ($132.6MM) remains unchanged for next season.
The Bucks will likely become more comfortable with paying an annual tax bill – including potential repeater penalties down the road – if Giannis signs an extension and they know he’ll be around for the next half-decade. But they can’t wait until after Giannis re-ups to exhibit their willingness to spend big. Making upgrades and going into the tax for 2020/21 will show the two-time MVP they’re serious without necessarily putting them on the hook for future tax payments if Antetokounmpo ultimately decides to leave.
3. Can the Bucks acquire an impact player by building a trade package around Eric Bledsoe?
Free agency will be one potential avenue for the Bucks as they consider roster upgrades this offseason, but they won’t have any cap room available. And if they’d prefer to avoid becoming hard-capped, then using the full mid-level exception or acquiring a player via sign-and-trade won’t be options either. That means Milwaukee’s most intriguing path to acquiring a potential impact player is via the trade market.
The Bucks have a few pieces they could package in trade offers this fall. Bledsoe ($16.9MM) is the club’s most obvious trade chip, both because his salary is useful for matching purposes and because he has been an offensive liability in the postseason over the last two years, despite impressive regular season performances. George Hill (9.6MM) and Ilysaova ($7MM) are among the team’s other potential veteran assets, though Ilyasova’s expiring contract would have to be fully guaranteed if it’s to be used for salary matching.
Those three players are useful rotation pieces, but they’re not moving the needle in a major way for any team shopping an impact player. The Bucks will have to sweeten the pot a little, perhaps offering the Pacers’ 2020 first-round pick (No. 24), along with at least one of their own future first-rounders. Having already conditionally dealt their 2022 pick, a ’24 first-rounder is probably the best Milwaukee can do.
It’s a somewhat underwhelming package — if the Bucks go after someone like Jrue Holiday, they’ll almost certainly be outbid by other suitors. But an offer headed by Bledsoe and a couple first-rounders might be enough to land a player like Chris Paul (whose massive contract hurts his value), Buddy Hield (who may have worn out his welcome in Sacramento), or even Victor Oladipo (who didn’t look fully healthy this season).
I think Paul, in particular, would be a nice fit for the Bucks. The veteran point guard could share ball-handling duties with Giannis and would provide the sort of reliable shooting that Bledsoe hasn’t — he wouldn’t be a major downgrade on defense either. However, a September report suggested it’s “highly unlikely” that Milwaukee goes after CP3. His contract is apparently a concern, as is bringing a strong veteran personality onto a roster that already has a superstar leader in Antetokounmpo.
If Paul isn’t high on the Bucks’ list of potential targets, I’ll be curious to learn who is. It’s possible the front office believes only minor roster adjustments are necessary, given the team’s regular season track record since 2018. But adding a reliable play-maker and shot-maker to the backcourt would make Milwaukee an even more formidable postseason threat, and I’m skeptical that sort of difference-maker will be affordable and attainable in free agency.
Information from Basketball Insiders and ESPN was used in the creation of this post. Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Notes On NBA’s Plan For 2020/21 Season
In recent weeks, it seemed as if the NBA was becoming more and more open to a later start date for the 2020/21 season. Commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts publicly suggested that the season was unlikely to begin until January, while some reports suggested that a February or March opening night was more realistic.
However, that changed on Friday, when word broke that the league is now looking to begin its ’20/21 campaign before Christmas. According to Marc Berman of The New York Post and Brian Windhorst of ESPN, the NBA’s finance committee played a major role in that abrupt pivot.
“The owners’ finance committee – there’s a group of owners who make up the finance committee – had a meeting and in that meeting they looked at everything and decided ‘You know what? We need to play sooner rather than later,'” Windhorst said on his Hoop Collective podcast, per RealGM.
“It’s interesting Silver talked behind the scenes about waiting until a March time-frame if it meant getting a vaccine,” one NBA insider told Berman. “That’s until the finance committee showed him the numbers.”
Tipping off the 2020/21 season before Christmas would allow the NBA to air games on December 25, which is one of the most important days of the year for the league’s TV partners. It would also allow the league to hold its playoffs in the spring, with the Finals taking place at the very start of summer, instead of in the late-summer and fall like this year. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported over the weekend that the NBA believes its new plan could mean salvaging $500MM in potential revenue.
“The priority is getting back to the October-to-June format for 2021/22,” a source told Berman. “They found out the hard way not enough people watch TV in the summer. The virus and real-life struggles obscure the reality that sports on TV in the summer don’t generate enough viewers.”
Here are a few more items related to the NBA’s tentative plans for the 2020/21 season:
- People around the league don’t expect push-back from the players’ union to derail the NBA’s proposed schedule, Windhorst stated on his Hoop Collective podcast. “They’re probably going to have to agree to this,” Windhorst said (per RealGM). “In talking to people on the league side this past week, they didn’t act like getting the players to agree was going to be that big of a stumbling block. I’m sure some people are going to be upset, but I’m not sure what they can do about it.”
- Assuming the plan gets the go-ahead, the free agent period and offseason will be accelerated in a major way, which isn’t great news for teams expecting to have major roster turnover this fall, as Berman writes. “This is going to favor teams with stable rosters,” one source told The New York Post.
- While it sounds as if the NBA is moving toward a December return, there are still a number of potential obstacles to take into account, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com.
- Teams are hoping to get clarity soon about where the salary cap will land for 2020/21, as well as an updated projection for ’21/22. Appearing on today’s episode of The Lowe Post podcast with Zach Lowe, ESPN’s Bobby Marks said that for the time being, most teams are using a $115MM cap estimate for ’21/22.
Craig, Atkinson, Billups Expected To Join Lue’s Clippers Staff
Heat assistant coach Dan Craig is leaving Miami to take a job as an assistant on Tyronn Lue‘s Clippers staff, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald confirms (via Twitter). According to Jackson, the Clippers offered more money than the Heat, and Craig hopes the role will help him eventually become an NBA head coach.
Mike Robinson of The Ball Out first reported today that Craig and former Brooklyn head coach Kenny Atkinson would be joining the Clippers as assistants.
Marc Stein of The New York Times, who revealed last week that Craig and Atkinson were drawing interest as potential additions to Lue’s staff, tweeted today that Chauncey Billups has also interviewed for an assistant coach position with the Clippers. The expectation in coaching circles is that Craig, Atkinson, and Billups will all formally finalize deals to join the Clips, Stein adds (via Twitter).
Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported back on October 15 when Lue was promoted by the Clippers that Billups would join him in Los Angeles. Billups was still a candidate in the Pacers’ head coaching search at that time. Now that Indiana has gone in another direction, hiring Nate Bjorkgren, it appears Billups is on track to complete an agreement with L.A.
Craig, who reportedly received head coaching interest from the Bulls and Pacers this year, has been with the Heat for the better part of two decades after initially being hired as a video intern in 2003. He has been an assistant on Erik Spoelstra‘s staff since 2012, spending one year during that time (2015/16) as the head coach of the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s G League affiliate.
Like Craig, Atkinson generated some head coaching interest around the NBA this summer, having been linked to the Knicks, Rockets, Bulls, and Pelicans jobs. The former Knicks and Hawks assistant was hired by the Nets as their head coach of the Nets in 2016 and held that role until he was let go by the organization in March of this year. He compiled a 118-190 (.383) record in Brooklyn as he led the franchise through a challenging rebuild.
As for Billups, he’s a former NBA Finals MVP who expressed interest this year in becoming a head coach. Since his retirement as a player, Billups had reportedly “toyed with the idea” of getting into coaching, and it appears he’ll do so alongside Lue, a longtime friend with whom he shares an agent. A report in August suggested that Billups thought working on Lue’s staff might help him eventually land a head coaching job — he apparently has that in common with Craig.
Assuming the Clippers officially lock up Craig, Atkinson, and Billups, they’ll have gone a long way toward putting together Lue’s staff for 2020/21. Former NBA head coach Larry Drew is also expected to be hired by the Clippers as an assistant coach.
Heat Notes: Riley, Untouchables, Herro, Nnaji
In speaking to reporters last Friday about the Heat‘s NBA Finals loss to the Lakers, team president Pat Riley said “there’s always going to be an asterisk, that caveat” from the Heat’s perspective due to the fact that neither Bam Adebayo nor Goran Dragic was fully healthy for the series. However, Riley made it clear in his follow-up comments on Sunday that he wasn’t saying that an “asterisk” should be placed next to Lakers’ championship itself.
“The asterisk is next to the Heat’s name, not the Lakers,” Riley said, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). “Their title is legitimate. Our loss has an asterisk (next) to it. The Lakers were the better team. Period.”
While Riley’s initial wording left some room for interpretation, reading it as a dig aimed at the Lakers would’ve meant ignoring the surrounding context, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel, who noted that when Riley wants to make a point, he’s rarely subtle about it.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- In a separate article for The Sun Sentinel, Winderman considered which Heat players could be had in hypothetical trades and which would be off the table, identifying the team’s “untouchables” as Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and – for entirely different reasons – Udonis Haslem.
- After a surprise run to the NBA Finals, the Heat will have to decide how aggressive they want to be with their current roster, writes Zach Harper of The Athletic. Within the story, Harper says league sources believe that if the Heat were to explore a trade for Victor Oladipo, they wouldn’t consider including Tyler Herro in any offer.
- Former Arizona forward Zeke Nnaji worked out for the Heat on Sunday, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link). The reigning Pac-12 Rookie of the Year, Nnaji is the No. 35 prospect on ESPN’s big board but could be an option for Miami at No. 20 in next month’s draft.
Cavaliers To Work Out Obi Toppin
The Cavaliers will send a contingent to New Jersey this week to conduct a private, in-person workout with former Dayton forward Obi Toppin, sources tell Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. According to Fedor, the Cavs intend to dine with Toppin as part of the visit to get to know him better.
General manager Koby Altman, assistant GM Mike Gansey, and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will be part of Cleveland’s traveling party as the team takes a closer look at Toppin and other top prospects this week, Fedor writes. It’s not yet clear which other players the group will be visiting, but Isaac Okoro, Onyeka Okongwu, James Wiseman, and Deni Avdija are among the other players the Cavs have done plenty of homework on, per Fedor.
While some teams may not take advantage of the change to the pre-draft rules that allows clubs to conduct up to a total of 10 in-person workouts prior to next month’s draft, the Cavs view it as a “vital part of the process,” according to Fedor, who notes that in-person visits played important roles when the team drafted Collin Sexton in 2018 and Darius Garland in 2019.
Fedor has reiterated throughout the pre-draft process that Toppin is very much in play for the Cavs, who hold the No. 5 pick in the 2020 draft. The former Flyer is already 22 years old and there are some concerns about his defense, as well as where he fits into a crowded Cleveland frontcourt. However, Fedor says that some members of the organization think the roster could use another long-term frontcourt piece, with Tristan Thompson facing free agency and Andre Drummond on an expiring deal. Additionally, Toppin’s defensive shortcomings aren’t considered a deal-breaker.
“It’s certainly not a strength, but is he a liability on that end? I won’t go that far,” one source told Fedor.