The Cavaliers traded Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to the Trail Blazers mainly to add two exceptions and expand their trade options, even though they will save millions in luxury tax, Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Cleveland believes teams are more willing to make mid-season trades and the exceptions it picked up on Monday — $10.5MM for Haywood and $2.85MM for Miller — gives it some flexibility to make those moves, Pluto continues. The Cavs’ salary cap concerns would have made any trade next season much more difficult without those exceptions, though they cannot be combined, Pluto adds.
In other news around the Central Division:
- Second-round pick Sir’Dominic Pointer is a longshot to end up on the Cavs roster this year, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal writes in his story on the Haywood deal. Cleveland drafted the small forward from St. John’s 53rd overall last month.
- Reggie Jackson was convinced he would re-sign with the Pistons when they helped him with a family crisis, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press writes. When Jackson found out his father Saul had a diabetic seizure in March, the organization flew Jackson on the team plane to Colorado to visit him, the story continues. That made a lasting impression on Jackson, who didn’t consider any other teams before signing a five-year, $80MM deal as a restricted free agent to remain with the club. “I think I knew then I didn’t need to be nowhere else,” Jackson said to Ellis. “In my mind I was already here, but that kind of solidified it. There was no need to even play around and do free agency. I was good.”
- Only the first year of Glenn Robinson III‘s three-year contract with the Pacers is guaranteed, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Robinson will make $1.1MM this season, then $1.05MM in 2016/17 and $1.09MM in 2017/18 in the non-guaranteed years, Pincus adds. The signing was officially announced on Monday.
I wonder what the issue is with Tristan Thompson. Unless the report were wrong, I thought the Cavs already offered him 5/$80 mil. That’s way above his market value and is probably costing the Cavs an extra $20 mil.
There’s been a lack of buzz regarding Thompson’s status lately. But Thompson doesn’t have a whole lot of leverage, given that he’s a restricted free agent and there have been no reports about other teams willing to pay his price.
Honestly with TT it is more of his agent wants a player option 5 year while the Cavs FO wants a team option. The Agent is trying to use other teams/the threat of just signing the QO and having TT walk next year and the FO is like okay! Saves us money, no one else can offer your player more. So that’s the dialogue at the moment and neither side wants to budge. The deal will get done, the agent is just trying to get the control of contract in TT’s camps hands instead of Cleveland’s hands
Greg Monroe signed a QO last year and it worked out for him but very few players are willing to take that gamble. Much more likely the Cavs and Thompson get something done in the next month or so.