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Cavaliers Decide Not To Stretch Williams’ Contract

August 31st, 2016 at 10:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Cavaliers opted to let today’s deadline pass for using the stretch provision on Mo Williams, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. The team could have saved luxury tax penalties for the upcoming season by stretching Williams’ contract, valued at $2.2MM, over the next three years.

There have been reports that Williams is leaning toward retirement at age 33, and a team source tells Vardon the Cavaliers are “skeptical” about his return. Williams, who has played 13 NBA seasons, was limited to 41 games last year because of knee and thumb issues, averaging 8.2 points and 18.2 minutes per game.

Vardon notes that the Cavaliers are nearly $24MM over the salary cap and about $4MM over the threshold, and those numbers will rise with the expected signing of J.R. Smith. Stretching Williams’ deal would have saved money in the short term, but added to the tax penalty for the following two seasons.

With Matthew Dellavedova gone to Milwaukee, Williams is the only proven backup point guard on Cleveland’s roster. Vardon speculates that the Cavs may try to find a trading partner if they are concerned about Williams’ health.

Cavaliers, Cory Jefferson Agree To Deal

August 31st, 2016 at 3:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Former Baylor power forward Cory Jefferson will join the Cavaliers for training camp, reports international basketball journalist David Pick (via Twitter). According to Pick, Jefferson and the Cavs have agreed to terms on a deal.

A second-round pick in 2014, Jefferson appeared in 50 games for the Nets in his rookie season, but played in just eight games for the Suns last season. The 25-year-old saw more playing time in 2015/16 for the Bakersfield Jam, Phoenix’s D-League affiliate, averaging 17.3 PPG and 9.8 RPG in 19 games with the club.

With Jefferson poised to join the team, the Cavaliers are also eyeing Eric Moreland as a potential training camp target, says Pick. Moreland, who played his college ball at Oregon State, has spent some time with the Kings during the last two seasons, but didn’t get a qualifying offer from Sacramento this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Latest On J.R. Smith, Cavaliers

August 31st, 2016 at 1:40pm CST by Luke Adams

When the calendar turns from August to September tonight, J.R. Smith will have officially been on the free agent market for two months. Smith is the highest-profile player still available, having started nearly 100 total games (regular season and playoffs) for the eventual champs last season, so it’s worth checking in on him to see where things stand at the two-month mark.

While one report from mid-July suggested that Smith was seeking a $15MM annual salary, the Cavaliers’ offer doesn’t appear to be in that range, which is understandable. There probably aren’t any other teams in the NBA with the cap space and the willingness to go that high for Smith. Plus, the Cavs are already in luxury-tax territory and would have to go way beyond the tax threshold to complete such a deal, making the cost to the franchise much more expensive than just $15MM.

Still, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), the Cavs have put an offer on the table believed to be worth in the range of $10-12MM annually. As Kyler adds in a second tweet, the two sides aren’t all that far apart, and are still expected to eventually reach an agreement — it’s simply a matter of finding a compromise on dollars and years.

Since Smith isn’t missing out on any pay checks at the moment and the Cavs likely won’t find a viable alternative to him at this point in the offseason, there isn’t much urgency yet for either the team or player to get something done. However, that could change in the coming weeks, with training camp and the preseason right around the corner, so it will be a situation worth watching in September.

In 2015/16, Smith averaged 11.5 PPG and shot 43.0% on three-pointers in the postseason after having averaged 12.4 PPG with a .400 3PT% during the regular season. The veteran shooting guard, who turns 31 next Friday, started 77 regular-season games for Cleveland, as well as all 21 of the team’s postseason contests.

Teams Not Projected To Have 2017 Cap Room

August 29th, 2016 at 1:40pm CST by Luke Adams

During the first few years of the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, many teams had virtually no chance to open up cap room. The salary cap remained in the $58MM range for three straight seasons, making it tricky for teams to get under the cap unless they were in rebuilding mode and shed high-priced players. However, with the cap now up to $94MM+, and projected to blow past $100MM next summer, that’s no longer the case.

This year, 27 of 30 teams used cap room at some point to acquire players, leaving just three teams that never went under the cap. Plenty of those 27 teams have since used up all their space and gone well over the cap, but not many currently project to be over the cap in future seasons.

The NBA’s most recent estimate for the 2017/18 salary cap, released last month, was $102MM. At this point in the league year, cap estimates are usually on the conservative side, so we can probably expect a slightly higher figure next year, but that’s no lock — particularly since the NBA and the players’ union may make changes to the CBA by next July.

Still, even if we assume that the $102MM projection is accurate, there are currently only two teams whose guaranteed salaries for 2017/18 exceed that figure. Here are those teams:

Projected to be over the 2017/18 cap:

Portland Trail Blazers: Incredibly, no NBA team has more guaranteed money on its 2017/18 books than the Blazers, whose $123.71MM blows away the competition. That total doesn’t include team options for Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier, a qualifying offer for Mason Plumlee, or Festus Ezeli‘s non-guaranteed salary. Throw in those figures, plus a few more non-guaranteed salaries, and Portland’s commitments total $140MM+. Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Allen Crabbe, and Evan Turner combine to make $86.58MM in ’17/18.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Even without a new contract for J.R. Smith, the Cavs already have more than $113MM in guaranteed salaries on their books for ’17/18. LeBron James‘ $33.29MM salary is the biggest number, but the team has four more eight-digit cap hits, ranging from about $10.34MM for Iman Shumpert to $22.64MM for Kevin Love.

While the Blazers and Cavs are the only two teams whose guaranteed salaries for next year exceed $102MM, there are a few more clubs joining them above that threshold when taking into account non-guaranteed salaries, options, and/or qualifying offers. Here are those teams:

Projected to potentially be over the 2017/18 cap:

Washington Wizards: After locking up Bradley Beal and Ian Mahinmi to expensive long-term deals this summer, the Wizards have $94MM+ in guaranteed salaries on their books for 2017/18. The team will have to add another $2MM+ to that total for Kelly Oubre, and then may need to commit more than $12MM in total to qualifying offers for Otto Porter and Trey Burke, potential restricted free agents.
Los Angeles Clippers: The Clippers have less than $60MM in guaranteed money on their ’17/18 cap, but that figure doesn’t include either Chris Paul or Blake Griffin, who have early termination options on their contracts. If both players stay in L.A. – either on their current deals or new ones – the Clippers will remain well over the cap.
Detroit Pistons: This summer, the Pistons maxed out their cap room, then went over the cap to sign Andre Drummond to a max deal. Once the club exercises its 2017/18 option on Stanley Johnson, it will have about $95MM on the cap for next year. Detroit must also account for qualifying offers for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock, along with Aron Baynes‘ $6.5MM player option, taking the team over the projected cap.
Toronto Raptors: The Raptors’ current guaranteed and non-guaranteed commitments for 2017/18 total about $104MM, and the team figures to pare down that figure to below $102MM before the season begins. Still, if the club intends to keep Kyle Lowry beyond next season, he’ll likely require a big raise on his current $12MM player option, meaning Toronto’s remaining cap space will be chewed up quickly.

There are some other NBA teams that may not be involved in free agency because they’ll need any cap room they may have to re-sign their own players. Despite only currently having $37.3MM in guarantees on their 2017/18 cap, the Warriors may very well fit into this category, since Stephen Curry will be getting a huge raise, and the team will want to retain Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala as well.

Of course, these outlooks could change between now and next July, depending on in-season trades, draft-day deals, and potential CBA changes. For now though, the teams listed above appear to be the least likely candidates to go below the cap next offseason.

Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

Sir’Dominic Pointer Will Play In Israel

August 28th, 2016 at 11:32am CST by Arthur Hill

Sir’Dominic Pointer, a second-round draft choice by the Cavaliers in 2015, will play in Israel next season, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor. Pointer has agreed to a reported two-year contract with Hapoel Eilat, but the deal has an escape clause for the NBA (Twitter link).

Cleveland still holds the draft rights to Pointer after making him the 53rd overall selection a year ago. He played for the Cavaliers’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League the past two seasons.

Pointer, a 6’6″ swingman, spent last season with Cleveland’s D-League affiliate in Canton, averaging 6.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in 50 games. Pointer, 24, played four years at St. John’s before joining the NBA.

Mo Williams Considering Retirement

August 27th, 2016 at 1:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Veteran Cavs guard Mo Williams is strongly considering hanging up his sneakers and retiring from the game, Joe Vardon of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. Williams’ balky knee, his desire to coach and the opportunity to go out as an NBA champion are weighing heavily upon him, Vardon adds.

There is also the chance, should Williams hold off on making a definitive decision regarding his future, that the Cavs could seek to trade him in a salary dump or waive him via the stretch provision, Vardon notes. The deadline to utilize the stretch provision is this Wednesday (August 31st), should the Cavs decide to go that route. Cleveland’s projected payroll for 2016/17 currently stands at $116,494,181, which is already over the luxury tax line which has been set at $113.2MM by the league. Williams is due to earn $2,194,500 this season, the final one on his current deal.

For Cleveland, purging itself of Williams’ salary would help alleviate some of its luxury tax burden this season, but it would also leave the team with rookie Kay Felder as the only true point guard on the roster behind starter Kyrie Irving. The Cavs still may re-sign unrestricted free agent shooting guard J.R. Smith, which would thrust the team deeper into tax territory. Not to mention the Cavs will still likely need to add additional backcourt depth should Williams be released or traded, which would increase their payroll and tax hit even further.

The 33-year-old appeared in 41 regular season games for the Cavs a season ago, averaging 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 18.2 minutes per outing. His shooting line on the campaign was .437/.353/.905. Williams’ career numbers, should he decide to call it quits, are 13.2 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 4.9 APG. His career slash line is .434/.378/.871.

Details On Cash Used In 2016 Draft Trades

August 25th, 2016 at 2:06pm CST by Luke Adams

As our list of 2016 offseason trades shows, five of the deals agreed upon on draft night this year featured one team sending cash to the other. The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement allows clubs to include cash payments, but only up to a certain amount.

In the 2016/17 league year, teams are allowed to receive a total of $3.5MM in trades, and can also send out $3.5MM in trades. Those limits are separate, so a team that sends $3.5MM in a deal and then later receives $3.5MM doesn’t get a fresh, new slate — that club is capped out for the league year. In 2014/15, the limit for cash sent and received in trades was $3.4MM.

Since the league year ends on June 30, teams that hadn’t taken advantage of those cash allowances earlier in the season will often use remaining cash during the draft to move up or to snag an extra pick. Many of the cash details on those draft-day deals for 2016 were previously reported. For instance, we already knew about the following payments:

Warriors sent $2.4MM to Bucks to acquire No. 38 overall pick (Patrick McCaw).
Trail Blazers sent $1.2MM (and a 2019 second-round pick) to Magic to acquire No. 47 overall pick (Jake Layman).
Cavaliers sent approximately $2.5MM to Hawks to acquire No. 54 overall pick (Kay Felder).

Based on those numbers, it appears the Warriors got a much better deal from the Bucks than the Cavaliers did from the Hawks. Of course, if the Cavs badly wanted Felder, the cost to move into the draft was hardly exorbitant — Atlanta likely asked the Cavs for the maximum amount of money they could send, since Cleveland used over $900K in a separate trade earlier in the year.

In addition to those three swaps, two other draft-night deals featured money changing hands, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has the details on those payments, along with several others from the 2015/16 league year. According to Pincus, these are the details on the other two draft trades involving cash:

Nets sent $3MM (and the No. 55 overall pick) to Jazz to acquire No. 42 overall pick (Isaiah Whitehead).
Thunder sent $730K to Nuggets to acquire No. 56 overall pick (Daniel Hamilton).

Once again, one of these deals looks far more favorable than the other, with the Thunder paying a fraction of what the Nets did for a second-round pick. But again, the available players and interested teams essentially set the market for these cash payments.

In the case of the Nets/Jazz deal, Brooklyn clearly wanted to make sure not to miss out on Whitehead, and the team was willing to pay a relatively significant amount to secure him. The Thunder, meanwhile, offered all their available remaining cash to the Nuggets for the 56th pick, and Denver likely had no better offer and no player targeted at that spot — so the Nuggets took what they could get.

Be sure to check out Pincus’ piece at Basketball Insiders for more thorough details of how teams spent and received cash in trades during the 2015/16 league year.

Jason Terry Talks Free Agency Process

August 25th, 2016 at 8:57am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran guard Jason Terry recently inked a one-year contract with the Bucks, and while it’s only a minimum-salary deal, it’s fully guaranteed, which is something of a rarity at this point in the NBA offseason. In an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio (SoundCloud link), Terry admitted that the free agency process can be tough at this late stage in his career (he’ll turn 39 next month). He also identified several of the teams he considered before landing in Milwaukee.

“I had a couple contenders that I was really seriously looking at. Two of them were in the Finals, so that tells you right there who they were,” Terry said, referring to the Cavaliers and Warriors. “I made a call to [Gregg Popovich]. San Antonio’s another one. They were my arch-enemy for eight years when I was in Dallas, but that’s another phone call — if they call, you pick up, there’s just no question about it. … I always thought about going back and trying to finish off where I started in Atlanta. I like what they did. And then I seriously considered Boston, though we did not have a conversation.”

Based on Terry’s comments, it’s not clear how many of those teams he reached out to, and how many reached out to him, so it’s possible that interest wasn’t mutual in all those scenarios. Terry also admitted that while he had some interest in the Lakers, that interest wasn’t reciprocated, since Los Angeles already had a good idea of what its 15-man roster would look like.

“I called my good friend Luke [Walton],” Terry said. “I told him if he needed any help — veteran leadership, in that capacity, with an ability to coach at the end of my deal, then that was something I would be looking forward to. He utterly declined, and I respect him for that.”

Although he’s not the scorer he was early in his career, Terry was still a solid contributor in Houston over the last two seasons, averaging 19.5 MPG in 149 regular-season contests, and averaging 6.5 PPG, 1.7 APG, and 0.8 SPG while shooting 37.5% on three-pointers. In both of his seasons with the Rockets, Terry received a bump in playing time during the postseason.

Kevin Love Not Currently A Trade Candidate

August 23rd, 2016 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

A handful of big-name players, including Jimmy Butler, Paul Millsap, and Blake Griffin, have been mentioned in trade rumors at some point this summer, but those guys almost certainly aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. In addition to Butler, Millsap, and Griffin, stars like DeMarcus Cousins, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Love are staying put with their current teams, despite being the subjects of frequent trade speculation.

While the gist of Kyler’s tidbits on each of those six players is the same – they’re not being traded unless things change drastically for the team or player – each situation is a little different, so let’s round up some of Kyler’s latest info on those stars…

The Kings and Cousins have agreed to take a “fresh-start approach” to their union, according to Kyler, who notes that the big man likes the hiring of coach Dave Joerger. While Cousins’ potential 2018 free agency will be a factor down the road, Sacramento is turning away incoming inquiries and will likely play out the 2016/17 season with Cousins as the team’s cornerstorne before considering any franchise-altering decisions.
Like the Kings with Cousins, the Thunder would have to play extremely poorly in the first half for the team to consider any major in-season change involving Westbrook. Sources tell Kyler that there is almost no scenario in which Oklahoma City explores moving the star point guard during the season, though the team will of course be keeping a close eye on how its roster looks in the post-Kevin Durant era.
Per Kyler, sources close to Griffin “have been adamant” that he intends to re-sign with the Clippers once his current contract is up — that could happen next summer, since the star forward has an early termination option. Doc Rivers is confident Griffin will remain in Los Angeles for the long term and has no interest in engaging in trade talks, says Kyler.
The Hawks seriously explored a Millsap trade in July, but those talks came to an end after the team lost Al Horford. Sources tell Kyler that Millsap has been assured he won’t be dealt anytime soon, though the veteran’s potential 2017 free agency looms as a possible concern if Atlanta struggles out of the gate.

Money The Issue Between Smith, Cavs

August 19th, 2016 at 2:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Money is the only sticking point in negotiations between J.R. Smith and the Cavaliers, writes Sam Amico of Amicohoops.net. Smith wants to stay in Cleveland where he is comfortable with coach Tyronn Lue and was an important contributor to the Cavs’ championship run. The organization is happy with Smith’s clutch shooting and improved defense. However, the two sides appear to be far apart on salary, and it’s not certain that the situation will be resolved before the Cavaliers open training camp September 26th. Smith, who turns 31 next month, made $5MM last season. He has reportedly seen his bargaining power weakened by a lack of interest from other teams.