Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Cleveland Cavaliers
Since LeBron James returned to Cleveland and the Cavaliers traded No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins as part of a package for Kevin Love, anything short of a championship has been considered a disappointment for the franchise. That means the next several days could go a long way toward determining what kind of offseason is in store for the Cavs.
Even if the club manages to pull off the improbable comeback against the Warriors, Love’s days in Cleveland could be numbered. He has essentially been a non-factor in the Finals, and moving his $21MM+ salary shouldn’t be too challenging, with the cap projected to rise by $22MM. Of course, LeBron’s decision on his player option is perhaps the more pressing issue for the Cavs, but even if he opts out, there has been little to no buzz suggesting the former MVP will leave Cleveland this summer.
See how Cleveland’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed Salary
- Kevin Love ($21,165,675)
- Kyrie Irving ($17,638,063)
- Tristan Thompson ($15,330,435)
- Iman Shumpert ($9,662,922)
- Channing Frye ($7,806,971)
- Sasha Kaun ($1,333,420)
- Total: $72,937,486
Player Options
- LeBron James ($24,004,173)
- J.R. Smith ($5,375,000)
- Mo Williams ($2,194,500)
- Total: $31,573,673
Team Options
- Jordan McRae ($874,636)
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Dahntay Jones ($1,551,659)
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- Matthew Dellavedova ($1,434,095/$2,179,824)
- Totals: $1,434,095/$2,179,824
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- LeBron James ($29,861,650) — pending player option
- J.R. Smith ($9,500,000) — pending player option
- Timofey Mozgov ($9,405,000)
- Mo Williams ($2,520,000) — pending player option
- Richard Jefferson ($980,431)
- James Jones ($980,431)
- Total: $53,247,512
Other Cap Holds
- Shawn Marion ($980,431)
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
James Is Responsible For This Cavaliers Team
LeBron James is falling in the NBA Finals with the Cavaliers team that he built, writes Dave Hyde of The Sun-Sentinel. It was James’ decision to leave Miami for Cleveland two years ago because he saw a franchise with younger talent, Hyde notes, and he pushed for the deal that sent Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota for Kevin Love. James also approved the trade with New York that brought J.R. Smith and supported the hiring of Tyronn Lue, who had no previous experience as a head coach. Cavs managment has given James everything he wanted since his return, Hyde writes, saying it shows the danger of letting a player make too many personnel decisions.
- The Cavs’ bench has been letting them down in the finals, points out Marc Berman of The New York Post. Channing Frye, who was acquired in a February deal with the Magic, only has two points in the series. Iman Shumpert has been held to 11. Love came off the bench to score 11 in Game 4, but the rest of the reserves combined for just four points. Berman says depth will need to be the focus of Cleveland’s offseason moves.
- James’ desire to have Love as a teammate instead of Wiggins shaped the Cavaliers‘ destiny, contends Shaun Powell of NBA.com. Wiggins’ defensive prowess would have been much more valuable against the Warriors, Powell argues, noting that he is also capable of creating offense with his dribble, in contrast to Love, who has settled into a role as a 3-point shooter since he arrived in Cleveland. Wiggins also could have eased the Cavaliers’ financial burden with a rookie contract instead of the maximum deal that Love got last summer.
Warriors Consider Tyrone Corbin, Mike Brown
Tyrone Corbin has emerged along with Mike Brown as the top candidates to be the lead assistant in Golden State next season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Brown has been linked to the position before, but Corbin, a former teammate of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, is a new name in the mix. (Twitter link).
Corbin is a former head coach with the Kings and Jazz and has been out of coaching since being relieved of his interim position with Sacramento when George Karl was hired in 2015. He has been working as an adviser to the Kings’ front office ever since.
Brown served as head coach of the Cavaliers and Lakers and has been out of coaching since Cleveland fired him after the 2013/14 season. Brown reportedly turned down an assistant’s position in Memphis last week.
The Warriors’ lead assistant job will be open once the NBA Finals are done and Luke Walton leaves to become head coach of the Lakers. He held the position in Golden State for one season, taking over when Alvin Gentry left to take the reins in New Orleans.
And-Ones: Love, Knicks, Turner, Butler
If the Cavaliers are going to make a major change this offseason, it’ll be Kevin Love on the trading block, reports Chris Mannix of The Vertical. “If they go out like this, I’m betting on a Kevin Love auction,” one league executive tells Mannix. Love had just five points in 21 minutes during Sunday night’s blowout loss to the Warriors.
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Knicks are rumored to have interest in Evan Turner and Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders hears that the interest in mutual (Twitter link). Turner will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
- Bulls forward Jimmy Butler has a strong desire to play in the Olympics despite hearing about all the players who will sit out, Vincent Goodwill of Comcast Sportsnet tweets.
- Nick Minnerath has worked out for the Clippers, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweets. Minnerath, who formerly played for the Canton Charge of the D-League, will also attend free agent mini-camps with the Pistons and Mavs later this month.
Community Shootaround: Cavs Winning The Finals?
The Cavs lost their first two games of the NBA Finals by a combined 48 points. Neither Klay Thompson nor Stephen Curry had monumental games for the Warriors. Instead, it was the team’s depth that mechanically wore down Cleveland. Perhaps there are some adjustments that coach Tyronn Lue can make, but it seems unlikely that this team can compete with all the talent that Golden State has.
So that brings us to tonight’s topic: Is there any way the Cavs can wins this series?
Could they decide to dust off Timofey Mozgov and attempt to recapture some of the success they had during last year’s finals where they went big and governed the paint? Kevin Love is talented, but he’s hasn’t played like a traditional big man since he was in Minnesota. Is it time to reduce his minutes? Love has the ability to be a major force and perhaps the Cavs can make adjustments in order to benefit from their $110MM big man without sending him to the bench. Perhaps there are better solutions to make this series more competitive.
Should Richard Jefferson being playing meaningful minutes at this point in his career? That’s where I’d begin if I were tasked with mustering up a comeback performance for Cleveland during these finals. Tell us what you would do. What adjustments would you make if you were in control of the Cavs?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Knicks Notes: Lin, Lawson, Hornacek, Jackson
The Knicks will be looking for a point guard in free agency, but won’t consider Jeremy Lin or Ty Lawson, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. A source tells Berman the team isn’t impressed with Lin’s defense and thinks Lawson’s off-court problems, which include two DUI offenses, make him too much of a gamble. Mike Conley is considered the best free agent point guard on the market and will probably be the Knicks’ first target. Berman writes that Carmelo Anthony prefers Rajon Rondo, but many in the team’s front office believes he dominates the ball too much. Some other possibilities are Brandon Jennings, D.J. Augustin and Tyler Johnson.
There’s more this morning out of New York:
- New coach Jeff Hornacek, who was officially hired this week, said his three-year contract was timed to coincide with team president Phil Jackson’s deal, Berman writes in the same piece. “He had three years left, so he wanted to make it as mine,’’ Hornacek said. “Phil wants to bring winning basketball back to New York. I’m excited he brought me along to help do that.’’
- Another possible answer at point guard is Seton Hall’s Isaiah Whitehead, Ian Begley posts on ESPN Now. Whitehead worked out for the Knicks Saturday and reportedly had an impressive showing. Jackson prefers tall points guards, and Whitehead qualifies at 6’5″, plus he grew up in the New York area, so the pressure of playing in the city shouldn’t affect him. The Knicks are hoping to acquire a draft pick, and Begley speculates that they may have to trade into the late first round to land Whitehead.
- Former Knick J.R. Smith, now in the NBA Finals with the Cavaliers, says he feels bad that Anthony is stuck in an unstable situation in New York, writes Fred Kerber of The New York Post. Hornacek will be Anthony’s fifth head coach in nearly seven seasons with the Knicks. “When he first got there, I’m sure he felt they were going to work toward something, which he did being the second team in the Eastern Conference at one point and then the drop-off,” said Smith, who was traded to Cleveland midway through the 2014/15 season. “I’m sure it was disappointing for him. But he’s a soldier. I’m sure he’ll get through it.”
- The development of Kristaps Porzingis will determine how successful Hornacek is in New York, contends Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post. Vaccaro says the new coach’s biggest challenge will be to ease Anthony into a second-fiddle role while building the team around Porzingis.
Lue Tried To Persuade Griffin Not To Fire Blatt
- In an interesting piece at Cleveland.com, Chris Haynes details a phone call that took place between Tyronn Lue and Cavaliers general manager David Griffin earlier this year, when Lue tried to convince Griffin that David Blatt shouldn’t be fired. However, the GM had already up his mind, and by the end of the call, Lue had agreed to become Cleveland’s new head coach. Now, Lue is preparing his team for the NBA Finals, while Blatt has signed a two-year contract to coach a team in Turkey.
David Blatt To Coach Overseas
WEDNESDAY, 12:37pm: Blatt’s deal, which is now official, is for two years and doesn’t include any NBA outs, a source tells Pick (Twitter link). So we won’t be seeing the former Cavs coach back on an NBA bench until at least 2018
TUESDAY, 8:46am: Former Cavaliers coach David Blatt is heading back overseas after agreeing to a deal to become the head coach of the Turkish club Darussafaka, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter links). The exact parameters of the deal are unknown, but Pick notes that it will be a long-term contract that will pay Blatt in the range of $1.7MM-$2MM per season.
Blatt’s tenure in Cleveland was a difficult one, with the team apparently not buying in to what the former coach was selling. He notched a solid record of 83-40 in the regular season and 14-6 in the playoffs during his season and a half in charge of the Cavs, a team possessing the highest of expectations. LeBron James returned to Cleveland from his time with the Heat just weeks after the Cavs hired Blatt, and that drastically changed the nature of the job, which became a win-or-else proposition as the team moved away from rebuilding and positioned itself to win immediately. The team’s seeming lack of chemistry under Blatt was one of the major contributing factors that led to his dismissal in January.
The 57-year-old was mentioned as a candidate for the vacant head coaching posts of the Knicks, Rocket, Kings and Lakers prior to those posts being filled, plus he was also rumored to be a target of Spanish power FC Barcelona.
Community Shootaround: 2016 NBA Finals
The 2016 NBA Finals are set to get underway on Thursday, and despite some drama in recent weeks, particularly in the Western Conference, this year’s matchup is a repeat of last year’s NBA Finals, with the Warriors looking to defeat the Cavaliers for a second consecutive championship.
After setting an NBA regular-season record with 73 wins, the Warriors are the odds-on favorites to win the title. FiveThirtyEight.com currently gives Golden State a 69% chance to take the series, and those odds are about in line with those provided by Las Vegas line-makers (Twitter link), who have installed the Cavaliers as about 2-to-1 underdogs.
The Warriors are led by Stephen Curry, unanimously voted this season’s MVP, and Klay Thompson, who has looked like one of the league’s top players during the postseason, racking up an incredible 77 three-pointers so far (J.R. Smith is second, with 49). After eliminating the Rockets and Trail Blazers without Curry at full health, the Warriors stormed back from a 3-1 deficit against a very talented Oklahoma City team, and certainly look poised to repeat as champs.
Still, this Cavaliers team isn’t the same one Golden State dispatched in the 2015 Finals. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are fully healthy this time around, and outside of a brief hiccup in Toronto during the Eastern Conference Finals, Cleveland has looked unstoppable so far in the playoffs. The Pistons, Hawks, and Raptors aren’t exactly a murderer’s row of postseason opponents, but the Cavs did what they were supposed to in those series, winning 12 of 14 games, and could be peaking at the right time.
“We’re better built to start the Finals than we were last year,” LeBron James said on Tuesday, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “Doesn’t matter who it’s against. I mean, that’s not a headline. It’s obvious.”
Today’s topic is pretty straightforward: Who will win the NBA Finals? Does this version of the Cavaliers have a legit chance to pull off the upset, or are the Warriors simply too talented to let their record-setting season end with a loss in the Finals?
Cast your vote in our poll, and weigh in below in the comments section to share your predictions for the series!
Which team will win the NBA Finals?
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Golden State Warriors 59% (491)
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Cleveland Cavaliers 41% (338)
Total votes: 829
Cavs Bring In Quartet For Workout
- The Cavaliers worked out guards Ron Baker (Wichita State) and Yogi Ferrell (Indiana) and forwards Derrick Jones (UNLV) and Kyle Wiltjer (Gonzaga) on Sunday, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops tweets. None are considered first-round prospects by either ESPN Insider Chad Ford or DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony.