One year removed from starting Game 1 of the NBA Finals, J.R. Smith sits on the sidelines, a place he has been since November of 2018. The Cavaliers explored trading him during the season, though they were unable to come to an agreement with another club before the trade deadline. A buyout seemed possible, but Smith’s contract, which was signed in 2016, remained a carrot that the team simply could not throw to the streets.
Smith’s 2019/20 salary of $15.68MM is only guaranteed for $3.87MM, Another team that lacks cap flexibility could potentially use his contract to quickly carve out upwards of $18MM in extra cap space, as our own Luke Adams detailed earlier in the season. To maximize those savings, a team would have to use the stretch provision on Smith, a move that would bring his cap hit to approximately $1.29MM.
The latest Collective Bargaining Agreement changed the calculus for salary matching in trades involving non-guarantees. The new rules took away the ability to swap guaranteed salary for non-guaranteed contracts as a means of creating salary cap space.
Had Smith signed under the new agreement, his contract would only count for $3.87MM (the guaranteed portion) for salary-matching purposes instead of his full salary ($14.72 for the 2018/19 season). While other players are currently under high salary deals with low or no guarantees, Smith’s is the only deal remaining from the former Collective Bargaining Agreement that fits that bill.
The Cavaliers have a trade chip that no other team possesses, though the clock is ticking on the asset; Smith’s entire salary for next season will be fully guaranteed if he’s on the roster come July 1. Let’s examine some teams that make sense as suitors.
Trail Blazers
The Blazers are projected to be a taxpaying team, with roughly $126MM in guaranteed salary on the books. The luxury tax threshold is expected to come in at $132MM and the team will have trouble bringing back Enes Kanter and Rodney Hood—two key members of their playoff run—without skyrocketing over the tax line.
Acquiring Smith would allow Portland to reshuffle its financial portfolio. Evan Turner ($18.6MM next season) is the team’s third-high paid player. Maurice Harkless ($11.5MM), and Meyers Leonard ($11.3MM) are fifth and sixth, respectively. If the Blazers feel Kanter or Hood are higher priorities than any of the three, they can swap one of those deals for Smith’s and give themselves a chance to compete for their guys on the free agent market without the internal dilemma of luxury tax concerns.
Dallas Mavericks
The Mavericks are expected to be active this offseason, searching the free agent market for additions to the Kristaps Porzingis–Luka Doncic core. They’ve been connected to Tobias Harris, Khris Middleton, and Kemba Walker.
Dallas would probably love to get out from Tim Hardaway Jr.‘s contract (approximately $20MM next season), but the fact that his contract still has multiple years left on it, running through the 2020/21 campaign, makes him a hard sell.
Shedding Courtney Lee ($12.7MM) may be easier and would give Dallas more flexibility this offseason. Dallas could attempt to entice Cleveland with a prospect like Justin Jackson or offer up the No. 37 overall pick in this year’s draft in order to acquire Smith. It’s not clear if anything short of a first-round pick will be enough to pry Smith away from the Cavs.
Brooklyn Nets
Whispers that the Nets are contenders to sign two max free agents can’t get too loud until the team clears out enough cap space to accommodate two stars. As our Salary Cap Digest indicates, Brooklyn doesn’t even have the ability to sign one max free agent without renouncing D’Angelo Russell or making additional transactions.
Moving Allen Crabbe, who has one year and $18.5MM left on his deal, would aid their quest for a star summer. The team has three selections among the first 31 picks in the upcoming draft (No. 17, 27, 31) and attaching one of those picks to Crabbe in exchange for Smith would create a clear path to additional cap space.
8:53pm: Gilbert is awake, responsive and resting comfortably after a catheter-based procedure for a stroke, per a team release relayed in a tweet by Marc Stein of The New York Times.
8:58am: Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was admitted to Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital in Michigan early on Sunday after suffering symptoms of a stroke, according to a report from Nolan Finley and Kim Kozlowski of The Detroit News.
Gilbert’s family requested privacy, so details on his diagnosis and prognosis weren’t made available. However, a statement issued by the Quicken Loans group on Sunday indicated that Gilbert is on his way to making a recovery.
“He received immediate medical attention and is currently recovering comfortably,” the statement indicated. “Our collective thoughts and prayers are with Dan for a speedy recovery.”
Gilbert has been the Cavaliers’ majority owner since 2005, overseeing most of LeBron James‘ two stints with the franchise. Under Gilbert, the Cavs have made the NBA Finals five times and won their first title in 2016. The club invested especially heavily in its roster during the 2015-18 run of four straight Finals appearances, with Gilbert footing significant tax bills.
One of the more bizarre stories this season has been Patrick McCaw‘s odyssey. The Warriors wanted to re-sign the reserve guard but McCaw played hardball with them. He eventually signed a non-guaranteed offer sheet with the Cavaliers. His stay in Cleveland was brief and he later signed for the remainder of the season with the Raptors.
With his current team set to play his former team in the Finals, McCaw spoke at length with Marc Spears of The Undefeated about why he chose that path.
Here are some of the highlights:
- McCaw wanted to have a bigger role. “I just wanted more. Not necessarily more playing time, but more opportunity for myself. I’m not discrediting the Warriors and what they chose to do. I just think being a young kid, you see all the younger guys competing and doing their thing and you feel like, ‘OK, I’m just that kid, or I could be doing exactly what he’s doing.’ ”
- His agents at the time, Marlon Harrison and Bill Duffy, urged him to accept Golden State’s two-year, $4MM offer but the restricted free agent but he wouldn’t budge. “Maybe I could just go back and finish, just go back for a year, see what happens, see where it took me,” McCaw said. “I just felt like once it got past preseason, I was just adamant about not going back. I was just stuck right there.”
- There was a perception that Cleveland did him a favor by signing him to the offer sheet that the Warriors didn’t match, only to release him shortly thereafter. But McCaw denies that. “I didn’t like how the media portrayed it, like we had something (else) lined up already,” he said. “Yeah, that wasn’t the case at all.”
- The personal reasons cited for McCaw’s absence during most of the Eastern Conference Finals was due to a family tragedy. His older brother, Jeffrey McCaw, died.
The Cavaliers believe R.J. Barrett might be the leading scorer among next year’s rookies, but the prospect of trading up to the No. 3 pick would be difficult, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. A front office representative told Fedor that the Cavs put Barrett on the same level as Ja Morant, who is expected to be selected second, with a clear drop-off in talent after the top three.
The main obstacle to moving up, according to Fedor, is the Knicks’ potential asking price. The Mavericks executed the exact same scenario last season, moving from No. 5 to No. 3, and had to give up this year’s first-rounder to Atlanta. New York’s desire to deal the pick is unclear because the Knicks are counting on hitting the jackpot in free agency, which won’t begin until 10 days after the draft.
Cleveland already has a top-10 protected first-rounder headed to Atlanta next year from the Kyle Korver trade, so the Cavs won’t be able to offer a first-round pick prior to 2022’s selection in any deal.
There’s more today out of Cleveland:
- Owner Dan Gilbert is willing to pay the luxury tax to help the team improve, Fedor adds in the same piece. GM Koby Altman has received approval to enter tax territory if necessary, and the Cavs displayed a willingness to add salary this season, taking unwanted contracts from the Bucks and Rockets to get extra draft assets. Cleveland is looking at cap relief after the 2019/20 season, with only $42MM currently committed.
- Michigan graduate manager Jay Shunnar could be the next addition to the Cavaliers’ staff, Fedor adds. At 28, Shunnar may be too young to become an assistant coach, but Fedor states that John Beilein values his input and might give him some other job in the organization. A source tells Fedor that Wolverines assistant Luke Yaklich is unlikely to join the Cavs.
- One season into his four-year, $120MM contract, Kevin Love is unlikely to be traded this summer, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider account). Marks believes Love’s contract is still an issue because he wouldn’t get a similar deal if he were on the free agent market. Also, Cleveland isn’t in line to compete for the top players in free agency, so there’s not much value in unloading Love’s salary. After missing 105 games in the past three seasons, Love has to prove he can stay healthy before teams start to show interest.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert continues to insist that his team got the better of the deal that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston before the start of the 2017/18 season, relays Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com.
Irving still had two years left on his contract when he asked for a trade to get him away from the team’s uncertain future in the wake of LeBron James‘ upcoming free agency. The Cavaliers agreed to his demand, getting Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and a draft pick that became Collin Sexton.
“It becomes a melting snowball,” Gilbert said. “We had to trade him when we did. What team would want Kyrie with only one year on his contract knowing he could leave after the season? You won’t get much back (under those circumstances).”
In addition, Irving’s agent implied that if the trade demand wasn’t met, his client might undergo knee surgery that would keep him out for most of the year. Irving wound up having two operations on his knee last season and missed the playoffs.
Gilbert expects Irving to move on again when he becomes a free agent this summer.
“I don’t know, but I think Kyrie will leave Boston,” he said. “We could have ended up with nothing. Looking back after all the moves (GM) Koby (Altman) made, we killed it in that trade.”
Gilbert shares his views on a few other topics in the same story:
- James comes with “a limited shelf life” because of his age and contract situation, Gilbert said. LeBron reached the NBA Finals in all four years of his most recent stay in Cleveland, but was never willing to sign a long-term commitment, giving himself flexibility to leave if he didn’t like how the team was being run. “It’s a win now at all costs,” Gilbert said. “… It all revolves around the sun, which is him. Whatever pressure comes with it, it worked out. We won a title.”
- Gilbert denies that he was responsible for the decision to hire Michigan’s John Beilein as the team’s new coach. He said Altman came up with the idea and led a group of eight front office representatives who met with Beilein. “All eight loved him,” Gilbert said. “All eight wanted to hire him. They were polled individually. That caught my attention. This was a week before I met with John.” He also called the financial aspects of Beilein’s new five-year contract “very reasonable.”
- Unlike when LeBron left in 2010, Gilbert knows there’s no chance he will return someday to resurrect the franchise. So the focus now is creating a successful organization from scratch. “We have to build a culture and a team, beyond just adding a lot more talent,” Gilbert said. “I really believe in this front office and the coaching staff. We are putting together a team based on culture and character.”
The NBA has officially announced its All-Rookie teams for the 2018/19 season. Luka Doncic of the Mavericks and Trae Young of the Hawks – widely viewed as the only two legit contenders for this season’s Rookie of the Year award – were also the only two players to be unanimously selected to the First Team, receiving 100 out of 100 possible votes.
Suns center Deandre Ayton nearly joined them as another unanimous First Team pick. However, he was listed on the Second Team on five ballots, with 95 First Team votes. Kings forward Marvin Bagley was the only other player to be named on all 100 ballots, receiving 56 First Team votes.
Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. rounded out the First Team, ensuring that all five players in that group were top-five picks in the 2018 draft.
Listed below are the NBA’s All-Rookie teams for 2018/19, with the player’s vote total in parentheses. Players received two points for a First Team vote and one point for a Second Team vote.
First Team:
- Luka Doncic, Mavericks (200)
- Trae Young, Hawks (200)
- Deandre Ayton, Suns (195)
- Jaren Jackson Jr., Grizzlies (159)
- Marvin Bagley, Kings (156)
Second Team:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Clippers (138)
- Collin Sexton, Cavaliers (132)
- Landry Shamet, Clippers (85)
- Mitchell Robinson, Knicks (77)
- Kevin Huerter, Hawks (45)
Of the players who missed out on All-Rookie honors, Suns forward Mikal Bridges came the closest, with 31 points, followed by Knicks forward Kevin Knox (22 points). None of the 10 other rookies who earned votes earned more than 12 points, though Josh Okogie (Timberwolves) and Miles Bridges (Hornets) each received one First Team vote.
The full voting results can be found within the NBA’s press release.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
New Cavaliers head coach John Beilein accepted a position with the team last week after coaching for 12 seasons at Michigan, a difficult decision for someone who has spent over 40 years at the collegiate level.
Beilein, who’s known for his high character and wealth of basketball knowledge, is being tasked with guiding a young Cavs team back to prominence after a difficult 2018/19 season. The opportunity to coach an NBA team was too good for Beilein to pass up despite having no experience in the league.
“There’s never a good time to leave,” he said last week, as relayed by Andrew Seligman of The Associated Press. “You can make a couple choices. You can leave too early or you can leave too late. You never know when to leave. This was an opportunity that has so much potential it was too difficult to pass up. It was the right thing to do.”
Beilein sees great potential in his new team, from veterans such as Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson to younger players such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, and the No. 5 overall selection in June’s draft. The team also hired a respected associate head coach in J.B. Bickerstaff on Sunday, who spent this past season with the Grizzlies.
“We have good young players,” Beilein said. “Kevin Love. We’ve got some guys with a lot of experience, especially with winning. I talked with all the players today. I feel a good karma right now. Last year, although it was difficult for all, we all learned a lot. Everybody’s gonna grow from it and attack next year with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of spirit, a lot of optimism.”
There’s more from the Central Division tonight:
- Rod Beard of The Detroit News examines the Pistons’ roster needs, most notably through draft prospects and upcoming free agents. Detroit has the 15th pick in the NBA Draft and will likely be patient at the start of free agency, coming off a season that saw them go 41-41 with the No. 8 seed.
- Aside from bolstering Milwaukee’s championship hopes, the return of Malcolm Brogdon also boosts his potential value during free agency this summer, Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes. Since returning, Brogdon, who will reach restricted free agency in July, has averaged 13 points in three postseason wins off the Bucks’ bench. He averaged 15.6 points on 51% shooting from the floor, 43% from 3-point range and 93% from the charity stripe in 64 contests during the regular season.
- K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune explores the potential options at point guard for the Bulls this summer, including Brogdon, Terry Rozier, Patrick Beverley and others. Chicago is said to be interested in upgrading its point guard position this offseason through the draft or free agency.
The Cavaliers have hired J.B. Bickerstaff as associate head coach, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. A target of multiple franchises this offseason for a coaching role (including the Sixers, Celtics, Lakers and Kings), Bickerstaff will be tasked with helping new head coach John Beilein make the transition to the NBA.
Bickerstaff, who will now be one of the league’s top paid assistant coaches, is a former head coach of both the Rockets (interim) and Grizzlies. He is also the son of former NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff, who now serves as a Senior Basketball Advisor for the Cavaliers.
As we relayed last week, the Cavaliers also still plan to hire at least one other person to join Beilein’s staff, potentially from the pool of other candidates that interviewed for the head coaching position, including Alex Jensen (Utah), Jamahl Mosley (Dallas), Jordi Fernandez (Denver), and Nate Tibbetts (Portland).
- We passed along word of a handful of Jarrett Culver meetings on Thursday, but Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic provides details on a few more, writing that the Texas Tech swingman has also met with the Cavaliers, Magic, and Suns this week.