The Cavaliers entered draft day last Thursday hoping to trade J.R. Smith to pick up an extra asset or two, but ended up declining offers that would have landed the team a first-round pick, league sources tell Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
According to Fedor, the Cavaliers are still attempting to make a deal involving Smith, whose partially guaranteed contract is the last of its kind signed under the league’s previous Collective Bargaining Agreement. As I outlined back in March, that makes Smith an intriguing trade target for teams looking to create cap room.
Smith’s $15.68MM salary for 2019/20 will become fully guaranteed after June 30, so he’ll almost certainly be waived in the coming days, either by the Cavs or a new team.
In my previous examination of the Smith contract, I noted that the Cavs’ proximity to the luxury tax may ultimately prohibit the team from finding a deal that makes sense. Fedor confirms that the tax is the primary concern for Cleveland, reporting that the club would like to stay below that line in 2019/20 and avoid getting hit with repeater taxpayer penalties.
Trading Smith for an unwanted contract would make it difficult for the Cavs to avoid the tax without waiving-and-stretching one or two of their expiring deals, which would compromise their future cap flexibility. On top of that, many players available on the trade market for Smith have contracts that extend beyond 2019/20, creating additional complications for Cleveland.
Fedor points to the Bucks’ Tony Snell salary dump as one deal the Cavs probably could’ve gotten in on using Smith. However, acquiring Snell would’ve increased the cost of Cleveland’s 2019/20 roster to $139MM+ and added an extra $12MM+ to the club’s 2020/21 cap, all for the No. 30 overall pick. The tax line is projected to be around $132MM in ’19/20.
The Cavs later agreed to acquire the No. 30 pick another way, sending $5MM and a handful of second-round picks to Detroit for the rights to Kevin Porter Jr.
“There’s a pain threshold of doing it, going into the tax, which we would have to do in terms of taking back money and the rest of the NBA knowing that we’re in the tax and my job would be getting us out of the tax,” GM Koby Altman said after the draft, per Fedor.
“Is there enough value there to do that, to put ourselves out there like that?” Altman said. “I think that’s something we are weighing these last few days. There’s opportunity to do it. It’s just how deep do we want to go into the tax to bring back an asset? Also, what does it take us out of into the year? We’re still looking to add assets throughout the year, so using J.R. now might take us out of that.”
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (video link) believes the Lakers will be a top suitor for Smith if and when he’s eventually released.
It’s hard to fault the Cavs for not doing a Tony Snell deal when they ended up with the exact same pick for the cost of a few second rounders. They still have a week to deal Smith before he becomes fully guaranteed. You have to think Miami or OKC or Portland or some other team in salary trouble will offer a player and a future 1st for Smith.
That extra week to work something out was probably why they pivoted to the $5MM & 4 seconds.
Altman is worried about other teams knowing his hand is forced on getting out of the tax, but a stretch or too will fix that. FAs will not be calling next summer to use up that Cav capspace that stretching would use up, if they don’t stretch. It’s a perfectly good expenditure. As for repeater tax, they were under this past year.
Teams qualify as repeat offenders when they’ve finished in the tax in three of the previous four seasons, so the Cavs would still have to pay the repeater rate if they’re in the tax at the end of 2019/20.
So much for the word “repeater”. CBA writers need better words for things. “Two-way player” already meant something, offense+defense.
Whoever thought of “early bird” should name everything. Non-bird should be late bird. Whatever Cousins has should be worm bird.
Nevertheless. Waive & stretch to stay under. Several candidates for that, after acquiring contracts. No need for both Knight and Delly after drafting Sexton & Garland and trading for Clarkson. Poor Clarkson, he tries hard and is not bad.
Bird rights are named after Larry bird
Are you saying it’s a good thing bird rights weren’t named after JoJo White, or what?
I don’t think it can be assumed James really wants Smith on the Lakers.
Def Korver though, if waived, since besides shooting, Korver can set useful screens up top and get switches James likes.
If the Lakers can’t clear out Wagner and the other guys they want to move just take on that 5 million total or whatever it is and then the Lakers can cut and resign JR for the minimum.
It doesn’t quite work like that
It does. I think I did a bad job explaining. Lakers trade Wagner, Bonga, Jones for JR. Instead of paying JR’s full guarantee of 15 mil or whatever it is, they pay the partial guarantee and then waive him. They save some $$ against the cap. If AD waives his bonus they probably have enough for a max slot. CLE gets some young talent instead of just cutting JR. JR is free to sign wherever he pleases at that point, and that could very well be with LA. So how does it not work like that? You’re welcome to your own opinion but please explain…
If the Lakers waive JR in your scenario, I don’t think they’d be allowed to sign him. So that automatically trashes the whole idea.
“I may be wrong, but I doubt it! ‘
Jones is NG, so can just be released. The other two for JR would cost the Lakers at least 2 mm in cap space.
Dajuan?
The cleanup after Lebron leaves
It will either have to be more $$ (18 mm plus) in the first year, or a 2 year deal at, or north of, Snell’s $$, if they expect a future lotto protected 1st. There’s going to be lots of unused cap space in a few weeks. Snell’s net does suggest a better return that #30, though.
This stuff is complicated and I’m not sure Fedor entirely got it right. He seemed to want to justify the decision Altman made.
He went into the Snell trade and a Miami deal, Johnson+ #13 for Smith+ #26. But he did not account for Johnson’s on-court value on a team without good passing, while he did account for Leuer’s possible value to Milwaukee. Stuff like that. But it’s hard to account for everything.
In the end I think Altman wants room to sign a FA with the 9mil MLE instead of the 5mil. I think that’s not a good reason… nothing will come of it.
Is it a fireable offense to not trade for the JR contract?
Thunder & Heat looking at you two.
JR for Anderson + a future 1st or Tyler Herro. Cavs stretch Anderson and Knight and get under the tax.
Then there are GMs on the cusp of a baby max contract. Lakers, Bulls, Suns.
JR for Grant & Roberson & a Pick. Cavs stretch Henson, Delly, & Knight.
Or just pay the future 2nd round picks to get the #30 2019 pick instead of eating this years snells and next years snell contracts for the same thing.
That contradicts a statement he made earlier that Gilbert had given the “ok” to take on salary for assets even if it meant going into the lux tax. The max they could trade for would be an $18 mil deal so it’s hard for me to understand what contract could’ve been so bad not to make that trade. As an example, there’s no way a contract like CP3 would be mentioned because it would require more contracts other than JR’s. So what did he turn down? Almost any pick in the 1st round would’ve been worth it seeing as how we got Porter Jr with the #30th.
I could be wrong. It I think Gilbert was talking 2018-19 if KLove and company don’t have so many injuries and make the playoffs.
No. It was just said two weeks ago. He mentioned that he had gotten the ok from Gilbert who was in the hospital recovering.
This is alluded to in Fedor’s story:
“The Cavs want to be smart about their spending. They don’t want to abuse the privileges they get from owner Dan Gilbert’s willingness to write checks. It has to make sense. It’s always about the end result and impact of the move on the rebuild.
In a perfect world, the Cavs are trying to finish next season under the $132 million luxury-tax threshold. But that’s not a demand, according to sources.”
JR will and should be forever remembered for Game 1 2018 NBA Finals…nothing else…the fact any team would recommit to this talent less burden is way beyond me…
I honestly don’t even think LBJ is going to make room for his buddy…
Bullshit. As much as I love to rag on JR and his bonehead play at the end of that game will forever stick out in his career, he undoubtedly had impactful moments. Lebron’s iconic block on Iggy in Game 7 of 2016 NBA finals doesn’t even happen without JRs contest
I doubt it too but depending on how the team comes about, he might be an interesting sign if for minimum. Limit his dumbness in key moments but he can still be a good, sometimes streaky, outside shooter off the deeper end of the bench.
Good deal for the Cavs. Just cut him at the appropriate time, use the cap space and let the next team worry about how much to give him.
Are the Cavs waiting for a blockbuster trade for this guy who seemingly plays most of the season distracted? It’s hard to overlook his errors, most recently the championship game against the Warriors in 2018.
It’s for the contract, not for the guy. Long story.