12:11pm: Hopson’s salary will be about $1.44MM next season, rather than $2.5MM, Lloyd now says (Twitter link).
10:45am: The Cavs have signed Turkish league swingman Scotty Hopson, the team announced. The deal was originally reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link). It’ll run through the rest of the season, and it’s non-guaranteed for 2014/15, Lloyd tweets.
The Cavs used their room exception to accommodate the contract, which is worth $2.5MM next season, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). He’ll receive a prorated portion of the room exception this year. The room exception actually allows for a salary of up to $2,743,125 next season, but it’s unclear if he’s receiving that much. In any case, the inflated contract creates some trade flexibility for the summer, as Lloyd explains in a full piece. Hopson’s contract can be used as trade ballast to allow the Cavs to acquire a larger contract, and since the deal is non-guaranteed, Hopson’s new team could simply waive him in that scenario.
The 6’6″ Hopson went undrafted out of Tennessee in 2011, and he’s conducted his pro career almost entirely overseas. He hooked on with the Heat’s summer league team this past offseason, but he didn’t wind up in an NBA preseason camp. He’s averaged 10.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per game with Anadolu Efes in Turkey this season.
The signing fills what had been Cleveland’s final open roster spot. The team cycled through three players on 10-day contracts before settling on Hopson, as our 10-Day Tracker shows. Seth Curry‘s 10-day deal with the team ended just last night, and Lloyd reported that the team didn’t intend to re-sign him.