- The Cavaliers could be more interesting and successful without LeBron James than many people expect, Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer opines. The development of first-round pick Collin Sexton, Ante Zizic and Cedi Osman will be intriguing to watch and GM Koby Altman will likely make more moves during the season to reshape the team’s future, Pluto continues. Trading J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson, who have seemed disinterested during the regular season during the James era, would move the process along, Pluto adds.
Former Notre Dame star forward Bonzie Colson has agreed to a training camp contract with the Cavaliers, Joe Vardon of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
The addition of Colson gives Cleveland a full 20-player roster for camp. The Cavs also reached camp agreements with guards Isaac Hamilton and Scoochie Smith on Thursday.
The 6’6” Colson missed most of his senior season with the Fighting Irish due to multiple foot injuries. He was viewed as a potential second-round pick before fracturing his left foot against Penn State during the National Invitation Tournament in March. When he was able to take the court, he was very effective, averaging 19.7 PPG, 10.1 RPG and 2.2 BPG as a senior.
He was scheduled to play for the Cavs at the Las Vegas Summer League but that plan was scuttled because he was still rehabbing his foot.
The Cavaliers have reached training camp deals with guards Isaac Hamilton and Scoochie Smith, tweets Keith Smith of Real GM. Both players will receive Exhibit 10 contracts, which provide bonuses up to $50K if the players spend at least two months with the team’s G League affiliate.
Hamilton was in camp with the Cavs last year before spending the season with the Canton Charge. The UCLA product posted a 7.4/2.5/1.2 line in 42 G League games.
Smith played part of last season in Australia before joining the Charge in March and averaging 14.3/4.3/8.1 in eight games. The former Dayton standout played for Cleveland’s entry in this year’s Las Vegas Summer League.
Kevin Love‘s duties in taking over for LeBron James as team leader include organizing the Cavaliers’ annual pre-camp workouts, writes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Love, whose leadership role was cemented when he agreed to a four-year, $120MM extension this summer, is hosting the voluntary sessions this week at the University of Miami.
Most of the players who are under contract are expected to attend. Coach Tyronn Lue is in Miami as well, but won’t participate if the players-only tradition continues. Tristan Thompson, Cedi Osman and Ante Zizic are all out of the country to play in World Cup qualifiers.
James, who signed with the Lakers in July, organized the workouts in each of the past four seasons. They are usually held in vacation spots, with coaches and front office personnel accompanying the team but letting the players run things.
There’s more today out of Cleveland:
- Osman can look forward to a much larger role in his second season with the Cavaliers, Vardon notes in a player profile. Osman may inherit James’ role as starting small forward, although Rodney Hood is also a candidate. The 23-year-old saw action in 61 games as a rookie, averaging 3.9 points per night. Osman played several years in Europe before coming to the NBA and appeared much more polished in this year’s Summer League, according to Vardon.
- Collin Sexton will need to improve his shot, especially from long distance, to become a Rookie of the Year candidate, Vardon states in another profile. Sexton tied with Suns center Deandre Ayton as the favorite for the award in a poll among players drafted this year. However, his success could depend on improving his accuracy from 3-point range, where he hit just .336 last year as a college freshman, and just .242 in SEC games.
- Thompson, who owns a championship ring and has made four straight trips to the NBA Finals, hopes to create that same atmosphere of success on the Canadian national team. He has been playing for his home country for nearly a decade and believes there’s an opportunity for Canada to become a major player in international competitions. “Right now we have a wave of really good players in the NBA,” Thompson said, “but who knows? Maybe 15 years from now we have a drought, so while guys are here and at a high level, let’s take advantage of it.”
The Cavaliers will need Kevin Love to post the type of numbers he put up regularly in Minnesota for them to remain a playoff contender after the departure of LeBron James, writes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Love had an eventful off-season, highlighted by his 30th birthday last week and a four-year, $120MM extension in July.
Love was an All-Star with the Timberwolves before a trade brought him to Cleveland to be part of a Big Three with James and Kyrie Irving. That trio reached three straight NBA Finals and won the 2016 title before Irving was traded to Boston last summer.
Love played 59 games last season and made his fifth All-Star appearance, but he was sidelined for much of the year by a broken hand. He has become the face of the franchise now, Vardon notes, and the Cavaliers will be expecting much more than the 17.6 PPG and 9.3 RPG he averaged last year.
There’s more news out of Cleveland:
- The Cavaliers should ignore calls to trade Love and accelerate the rebuilding process, David Aldridge of TNT writes in a mailbag column. Cleveland doesn’t have a great history of attracting free agents, Aldridge argues, and that path would be much more difficult without an elite player on the roster. Love can keep the Cavs competitive for the next couple of seasons, then be traded if the organization decides to commit to a youth movement.
- Rodney Hood will be competing against a talented group of shooting guards when he becomes unrestricted free agent next summer, notes Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report. After failing to get a contract he liked as a restricted free agent, Hood opted to accept Cleveland’s $3,472,887 qualifying offer, reportedly turning down a three-year deal from the team in the neighborhood of $21MM. Also hitting the open market next summer will be Klay Thompson, J.J. Redick, Tyreke Evans, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Austin Rivers, Mario Hezonja, Danny Green, Terrence Ross and Jeremy Lamb.
- Hood’s body of work through his first four seasons suggests his best days might still be ahead of him despite his playoff struggles, Joe Gabriele of the team’s website opines. Hood could have a breakout season since he’ll have more of a scoring and leadership role with the James-less Cavs, Gabriele adds.
- The Cavaliers have their work cut out for them building another serious contender in the Eastern Conference, fortunately the club isn’t afraid to take risks. Joe Gabriele of the Cavs’ team site recently broke down the biggest trades in club history.
It’s official, Rodney Hood‘s long, humbling summer is over. We wrote earlier today that the restricted free agent was planning to accept his qualifying offer from the Cavaliers and now, per Shams Charania of The Athletic, the paperwork has been submitted.
Hood will land back in Cleveland for one season at $3.4MM but will try his luck again as an unrestricted free agent next summer. While Hood had initially hoped to land an eight-digit offer sheet and put pressure on the Cavaliers to match, such a generous offer never materialized.
As Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets, prior to Hood’s decision to sign the qualifying offer both he and the Cavaliers explored sign and trade options. Alas, the 25-year-old didn’t quite command what many – including us here at Hoops Rumors, admittedly – thought he might.
- The Cavaliers have their work cut out for them building another serious contender in the Eastern Conference, fortunately the club isn’t afraid to take risks. Joe Gabriele of the Cavs’ team site recently broke down the biggest trades in club history.
- Want to know more about Rodney Hood‘s terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad summer? Check out our summary of the initial announcement that he’d accepted the Cavaliers‘ qualifying offer, as well as some reporting about how he was angling for twice as much as recently as yesterday.
Restricted free agent wing Rodney Hood has accepted the Cavaliers‘ one-year qualifying offer, reports Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. The one-year deal, worth $3,472,887, will set up Hood to become an unrestricted free agent during the summer of 2019.
Hood, who was traded from the Jazz to the Cavs midway through the 2017/18 season, struggled to produce consistently with his new club, averaging just 10.8 PPG on .442/.352/.813 shooting in 21 regular season games with Cleveland before falling out of the rotation for part of the postseason. He had recorded 16.8 PPG with a .424/.389/.876 shooting line in 39 contests for Utah.
Having spent more than two months as a restricted free agent, Hood was in a tough spot, given the lack of teams left with roster spots and the willingness to spend big on an offer sheet. According to Vardon, Hood was seeking a long-term contract in the range of $9MM per year.
The Cavs had been willing to offer a multiyear deal worth approximately $7MM annually, per Vardon, which the 25-year-old turned down in a bet on himself. If he has a big year in 2018/19 as a primary option in Cleveland’s offense, Hood could be in line for a bigger payday in 2019, when more teams will have cap space available. The Cavs will still hold his Bird rights at that time.
With Hood back in the fold and David Nwaba having signed a one-year, minimum-salary pact with the Cavaliers, the club is moving closer to being ready for opening night. The Cavs will now have 14 players with fully guaranteed salaries, totaling about $115.7MM. Isaiah Taylor will also attend training camp on a non-guaranteed contract, and the club figures to fill out its 20-man offseason roster with a few more camp invitees in the coming weeks.
A players who accepts his qualifying offer as a restricted free agent receives an implicit no-trade clause for that league year, since they’d lose their Bird rights if they’re traded. As such, Hood won’t be able to be dealt without his consent during the 2018/19 season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Restricted free agent Rodney Hood is still trying to get the Cavaliers to increase their current offer, which is about $7MM annually over three years, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. If they can’t come to an agreement, Hood could opt to accept the team’s $3.4MM qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Cleveland has 13 players under contract after David Nwaba‘s signing became official yesterday. The 14th spot is being held open for Hood, and the final opening will be determined by what happens in training camp. The Cavs went with a 14-man roster for much of last season because of luxury tax concerns.
Hood, 25, came to Cleveland in February in a deadline deal with the Jazz. He struggled to find a role during 21 regular season games, then cratered in the playoffs, averaging 5.4 points per night while shooting 42% from the field and 17% from 3-point range. Still, the Cavaliers like his potential and believe he can help replace some of the scoring that was lost when LeBron James left for the Lakers.
Hood saw a lot of leverage disappear this summer as teams used up their cap space. The only team that still has its full $8.641MM mid-level exceptions available, aside from Cleveland, is Utah, which reportedly isn’t interested in bringing back Hood.
The Cavaliers have officially signed guard David Nwaba to a one-year contract, the team announced in a press release. The two sides were close to an agreement early last month and today finalized the deal, which is worth approximately $1.5MM, Nwaba’s minimum salary.
Nwaba had a solid season for the Bulls in 2017/18, averaging 7.9 PPG and 4.7 RPG while playing strong perimeter defense in 70 games (21 starts). The former undrafted free agent has also suited up for the Lakers, appearing in 20 games during the 2016/17 season.
Initially a restricted free agent, the Los Angeles native had his qualifying offer rescinded by the Bulls in mid-July as Chicago prepared to finalize the signing of Jabari Parker. As an unrestricted free agent, Nwaba reportedly drew interest from the Lakers and Spurs, and had “dialogue” with the Timberwolves before agreeing to join the Cavs. Cleveland reportedly pursued Nwaba aggressively throughout July, contacting him shortly after the free agent period opened.
Nwaba’s new contract will be the 13th guaranteed deal on the Cavaliers’ roster, not counting restricted free agent Rodney Hood, whose negotiations with the organization have stalled.
SEPTEMBER 6: The Cavaliers worked out a few more free agents today, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic, who tweets that Kobi Simmons, Brandon Paul, and Rodney Purvis all earned a look from Cleveland as well. Simmons, Paul, and Purvis played for the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Magic, respectively, in 2017/18.
SEPTEMBER 5: A group of veteran free agents worked out for the Cavaliers today, sources tell Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype (Twitter link). According to Kennedy, Tyler Ulis, Alan Williams, JaKarr Sampson, and Marcus Georges-Hunt were among the players to participate in the audition.
It’s not clear if the Cavaliers are seeking depth at a particular position and looking to fill out their 15-man regular season roster, or if they’re simply familiarizing themselves with the various options remaining on the free agent market.
Cleveland only has 12 players on guaranteed contracts, but has a reported agreement in place with David Nwaba and seems likely to eventually re-sign Rodney Hood too, so there may not be more than a single open spot available on the regular season roster.
All four players named by Kennedy appeared in NBA games last season. Ulis played 71 games (43 starts) for the Suns before being waived in June; Sampson appeared in 22 contests for the Kings on a two-way contract; Williams returned from a knee injury to play five games at the end of the season for the Suns before being cut in July; and Georges-Hunt saw limited minutes off the bench in 42 games for the Timberwolves.