The Cavaliers looked thoroughly overpowered by the Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals, so it’s understandable that their offseason was punctuated by moments of panic and general uncertainty.
It wasn’t long before the Cavs’ plan of making a landmark move to emphatically one-up their Western Conference rival in Golden State quickly gave way to desperate attempts at self-preservation. After missing out on early targets like Jimmy Butler and Paul George, the franchise managed to survive, emerging from a substantial personnel shuffle with an oddly intriguing smorgasbord of assets.
Will the forced – but nonetheless decent – moves that the team made in 2017 be enough to convince James to re-sign in Cleveland in 2018? Well, that will be the story of next summer.
Key offseason losses:
When Kyrie Irving forced the Cavaliers’ hand into trading him over the course of the summer, the team had little choice but to oblige. Irving’s ability to create offense on the perimeter will be missed heading forward, as will his general presence as an unquestioned superstar talent who drew significant attention from opposing teams. There’s no single player that will make up the loss of Uncle Drew (not even a fully healthy Isaiah Thomas), so the best the Cavs can hope for is success from the backcourt committee they’ve assembled.
While the Cavs didn’t initially intend to part ways with Richard Jefferson this offseason, the opportunity to pick up a recently bought-out Dwyane Wade was too irresistible to pass up considering everything else that transpired over the summer. Fortunately for Cleveland, there are no shortage of valued veterans in the team’s locker room.
The Cavs didn’t exactly get what they hoped for when they brought Deron Williams aboard during buyout season last year, so the 33-year-old’s exit won’t have a major impact. Williams averaged 7.5 points per game for the team in 2016/17 and remains unsigned.
Key offseason additions:
Despite an MVP-caliber campaign and his role in the revitalization of the Celtics as a legitimate contender, Thomas doesn’t move the needle as much as Cavaliers might have hoped. Perhaps it’s the hip injury that could keep him out until Christmas; perhaps it’s the pending free agent’s affinity for measuring his salary in Brink’s trucks. Regardless, it’s hard to be confident in a guard who only transitioned from good to great last season, particularly because of the shoes he’ll need to fill when he gets back on the court.
The Cavaliers haven’t had a particularly physically imposing perimeter defender during their most recent Eastern Conference reign so the addition of Jae Crowder could add a much-needed element to their lineup. If he can provide value checking the likes of Klay Thompson and/or Kevin Durant, he could end up being the most influential component of Cleveland’s offseason haul.
It’s easy to disregard the idea of Derrick Rose as an NBA star these days, but the former MVP had a decent, if weird, lone season with the Knicks last year. The fact that the Cavs were able to lure him on a minimum contract could go down as one of the steals of the summer so long as he’s able to stay on the court. Rose will never again be the prolific threat to penetrate that he was during his heyday, but he finally appears to be trending in the right direction.
After one underwhelming year in Chicago, Wade and the Bulls parted ways, and it didn’t take long for the veteran to team up with James, his former running mate during their time with the Heat. Just what Wade can provide for the Cavs remains to be seen, but he remains capable of moments of greatness, as he showed sporadically last season. While Wade’s contributions in the regular season may be pedestrian, it’s inevitable that he’ll prove dangerous come playoff time.
It’s hard to know quite what to make of Jeff Green, considering the various forms he’s taken with five teams over the past four seasons. Still, in the worst-case scenario, he’s a long, experienced combo forward capable of getting hot intermittently throughout the season. Green is an underrated depth add and yet another massive bargain signed to a minimum contract.
Outlook for 2017/18:
The Cavaliers seem to be in good hands with Koby Altman at the helm (not that they were in necessarily bad hands with outgoing general manager David Griffin). Altman managed to cash in on James’ years of accumulated goodwill in the form of not one, not two, but three presumed rotation pieces signed to team-friendly, veteran’s minimum contracts.
Questions abound for the Cavs this regular season, but there’s no denying that they hastily patched together a veritable firing squad of established talent. On paper, at least. It may take some time for the acquisitions of Thomas, Wade, and Rose to bear fruit, but – in theory – they help make up one of the most prolific supporting casts James has been surrounded with in Cleveland.
If this team gets healthy and gels at the right time, the Cavs will be as scary as ever in 2017/18.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders used in the creation of this post. Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Luke Adams contributed to this post.
