- After being traded to the Spurs last summer, Cedi Osman still has fond memories of Cleveland, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Osman will make his return to the city on Sunday as his new team takes on the Cavaliers. “They really do care about their sports teams, with the Guardians, the Browns, the Cavs,” Osman said. “I always felt their support during games, even during a bad stretch. In my second and third year when we were kind of rebuilding, they were supporting us no matter what.”
Veteran point guard Ricky Rubio gave up $5.4MM in his buyout agreement with the Cavaliers, according to reports from Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, Keith Smith of Spotrac, and Bobby Marks of ESPN (all Twitter links).
That’s a significant portion of the remaining guaranteed money that was owed to Rubio, who initially had a salary of $6,146,342 for 2023/24 and a $4,250,000 partial guarantee for ’24/25 (his full cap hit for next season would have been $6,439,025).
While Rubio had earned a prorated portion of this season’s salary, he was still owed about $3.5MM in 2023/24, along with his $4.25MM guarantee for next season, for a total of $7.75MM. He’ll receive approximately $2.35MM of that total, but the Cavaliers will recoup the rest, giving the team some extra cap flexibility this season and next.
As Marks notes, Rubio’s new cap hit this season is approximately $3.7MM and he’ll be on Cleveland’s books for about $1.3MM in ’24/25. The Cavaliers’ team salary this season had been about $752K below the luxury tax line prior to the buyout, but that cushion has increased to approximately $3.2MM, Marks adds.
That extra flexibility puts the Cavs in position to immediately sign one or two players to their roster to fill out their 15-man squad. Now that the 10-day contract window has opened, Cleveland may opt for short-term additions for now, maintaining some roster flexibility ahead of the trade deadline, but the team technically has enough breathing room below the tax to add two minimum-salary players for the rest of the season.
Since teams are only permitted to carry fewer than 14 players on standard contracts for up to two weeks at a time, Cleveland will have to make at least one roster addition by January 18, two weeks after officially parting ways with Rubio.
Appearing on a B/R Live stream with TNT and Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes (Twitter link), Bucks guard Malik Beasley said he bypassed offers worth more money from the Lakers and Mavericks to sign with Milwaukee.
Beasley opened up about his experience in free agency, saying it was “tough” because he closed out the year on a rough note, averaging just 3.0 points per game in the playoffs with Los Angeles after averaging 11.1 PPG during the regular season. The 27-year-old guard said the Lakers wanted to re-sign him on a deal worth about $6MM but explained there were some unknowns regarding his role with Austin Reaves re-signing early in free agency.
Beasley also said he had an offer from the Mavericks worth between $3-6MM, but was again unsure of what his role would be, given that Dallas had a roster filled with guards and shooters.
The seventh-year guard ended up signing with the Bucks on a one-year, minimum contract for a chance to have a bigger role.
“[Bucks general manager] Jon [Horst] is such a great person,” Beasley said. “We talk a lot and he was like ‘You have an opportunity to start here, you have a chance to win a championship.’ And I think for me, most importantly, [the Bucks have] some veterans around [the] team. Most of the teams I have been on, aside from LeBron and AD, they’ve been young.”
Beasley earned a prominent role with Milwaukee right away, starting all 33 of his appearances this year. He’s averaging 11.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per night while shooting a career highs of 48.8% from the field and 46.9% on three-pointers (on 6.3 attempts per game). He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
We have more notes from the Central Division:
- Opening up about his time with the Lakers, Beasley blames himself for how his tenure in L.A. ended (Twitter link via Haynes). “It was more of the past things that happened in my life that caused me to not play at my best,” the Bucks wing said.
- Out of the Bucks‘ 10 losses this season, four have come at the hands of the Pacers. Giannis Antetokounmpo is bothered by those losses, writes The Athletic’s Eric Nehm. “Now, when you go back home and you sleep and you wake up, you think about it,” Antetokounmpo said. “Now, when you go back and work out, you think about it. In the All-Star break, when you’re gonna be on an exotic beach with your family, I hope you think about it, you know? … But at the end of the day, it’s good because it gives us time to fix things.“
- Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell had a feeling former teammate Ricky Rubio was going to retire, Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor writes. “I feel like he could breathe,” Mitchell said while paying tribute to Rubio. “I’m not speaking for him. But I feel like it’s just one of those things where it’s kind of like that indecision of what you want to do can be a lot. I’m just happy that he finally has time to feel like he can breathe and go pick up his son from school and be with his family in Spain. He’s been playing this game professionally at the highest of levels and had this expectation of himself since he was a teenager.“
- Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff also paid tribute to Rubio, as detailed in a story from ESPN. “I owe Ricky a debt of gratitude that there’s only a couple of guys who I could say at this point have had the impact on me that way,” Bickerstaff said. “He helped us, in a brief period of time, turn this organization into what you see in front of you. His presence allowed me to coach the team in a certain way where no one was too big to sacrifice.“
- The Pistons are widely expected to make a trade of some sort after setting the NBA record for consecutive losses in a season, and The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III thinks Detroit will add some veterans around the margins. In his mailbag, Edwards confirms there’s great interest league-wide in Pistons vet Bojan Bogdanovic but says he doesn’t expect Detroit to trade him just to trade him. The Pistons are in a difficult position, Edwards writes, because the young players who would bring in a difference-making haul are guys the team should build around.
After Darius Garland and Evan Mobley went down last month with relatively significant injuries, there was some speculation about whether the Cavaliers might become more open to the idea of trading Donovan Mitchell. However, multiple reporters have since shot down that speculation, with Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com becoming the latest to do so on an episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast (hat tip to HoopsHype).
“My sources tell me that the Cavs have zero interest in trading Donovan Mitchell,” Fedor said. “They haven’t even thought about that. In fact, my sources tell me that there are members of this front office that are sitting here today wondering why the hell people are even talking about the possibility of trading Donovan Mitchell.”
As Fedor observes, despite an up-and-down first half and their current banged-up roster, the Cavaliers have a 19-15 record, which puts them just one game out of the No. 4 spot in the East. That’s about where they were expected to be entering the season, and they believe they have the potential to improve beyond that, so they’re not “even interested in listening to what teams are going to offer them” for Mitchell. On top of that, Fedor says, Mitchell himself doesn’t appear to have any interest in a move.
“I’ve talked to Donovan about this multiple times, he is happy right now where he is at,” Fedor said. “He is happy being a Cleveland Cavalier. He believes in this team. He believes in this roster. He helped to recruit Georges Niang and Max Strus because he knew after going through that playoff series against the Knicks that the Cavs, if they were going to take the next step as an organization, needed to improve their shooting and their floor spacing. And he’s looking at it saying, ‘When Darius Garland and Evan Mobley coming back, let’s see how far we can take this team.'”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- In a press release confirming the Cavaliers‘ buyout agreement with Ricky Rubio, president of basketball operations Koby Altman thanked the veteran point guard for his contributions to the franchise. “Ricky Rubio embodied everything a franchise would want from such an accomplished player, who helped instill a confidence and leadership quality that still resonates within our team,” Altman said. “We wish Ricky nothing but the best and remain supportive of his decision to continue focusing on his mental health.” As Fedor tweets, Altman also lauded Rubio for the impact he had on the team’s younger players.
- The Bucks hosted a veteran free agent workout on Monday, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, who says the group seemed to consist of candidates for two-way deals. Lindell Wigginton, TyTy Washington, and Marques Bolden are Milwaukee’s current two-way players; they’ve combined to play just 17 total minutes this season.
- Bucks forward Khris Middleton, who underwent offseason knee surgery, played in both games of a back-to-back set on Wednesday and Thursday for the first time since April 2022, as Eric Nehm of The Athletic notes (Twitter links). Head coach Adrian Griffin continues to take a conservative approach to Middleton’s workload though, not bringing him back in the second half of Thursday’s win after he was effective in 15 first half minutes. “We just wanted to play him, see how he responded and I think he’s in a good place and we want to keep him in a good place and then we’ll just see how he’s feeling in the morning,” Griffin said, per Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- The offseason acquisition of Obi Toppin continues to pay off for the Pacers, with head coach Rick Carlisle taking the opportunity after Wednesday’s win over Milwaukee to praise the fourth-year forward for how he’s adjusted to being removed from the starting lineup. “It’s hard to put into words how impressed I am with Obi Toppin as a young man. He just is all about the team,” Carlisle said (Twitter links via Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star). “He’s raised his level since coming off the bench. … That kind of character and commitment to the group is what it’s going to take.”
11:28am: Rubio has announced his retirement from the NBA in a statement on social media (Twitter link).
9:31am: Ricky Rubio has reached an agreement on a contract buyout with the Cavaliers, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The move will likely lead to the end of the 33-year-old guard’s playing career, at least in the NBA.
Terms of the buyout haven’t been made available, but Bobby Marks of ESPN notes that Rubio has about $3.5MM left on his $6.15MM contract for this season (Twitter link). Rubio is also owed $6.44MM for 2024/25, but only $4.25MM of next season’s salary is guaranteed.
Rubio and the team began discussing an eventual buyout last month. He hasn’t played this season, announcing in August that he needed to pause his career for mental health reasons. Rubio has remained in his native Spain and there was reportedly little expectation that he was planning to make an NBA return.
Cleveland is $752K below the luxury tax, according to Marks, so any savings from Rubio’s contract will create financial flexibility. The Cavs are already carrying one open roster spot due to tax concerns, and they’re currently shorthanded because of long-term injuries to Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Ty Jerome. Teams can begin signing players to 10-day contracts on Friday, so that may be an option until those players return.
Rubio emerged as a star in Spain as a teenager and was selected by Minnesota with the fifth pick in the 2009 draft. He played for four teams in his 12-year career and averaged 10.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 698 total games.
The Cavaliers originally acquired Rubio in the summer of 2021, but a torn ACL ended his season after 34 games and he was sent to Indiana to help match salaries in the Caris LeVert trade. He re-signed with Cleveland in 2022, but was still slowed by the injury and was limited to 33 games last season.
With frontcourt sidekick Evan Mobley sidelined, Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen has pumped up his offensive production, notes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). He was challenged by coach J.B. Bickerstaff to make it happen.
“He knows everything that I can do,” Allen said. “He just wanted me to do it at a higher level.”
Allen is averaging 22.2 points, 15.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists over the last four games and has scored in double digits in each of the past eight games after doing so in just two of his first six contests in December.
“Jarrett’s one of those guys who just goes about his business that sometimes people forget how impactful and how good he is,” Bickerstaff said. “He doesn’t beat his chest, he doesn’t draw attention to himself, but we know how valuable he is to us, and I just wanted to make sure that he understood that if he wins his battle, we win the game. That’s the challenge for him.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Zach LaVine practiced once again with the Bulls’ G League team, the Windy City Bulls, on Tuesday with positive results, according to coach Billy Donovan (Twitter link via K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago). It’s possible that LaVine will return to action with the NBA club as early as Friday but it’s too early to tell, Donovan added. LaVine, a potential major trade piece, hasn’t played since Nov. 28 due to a foot injury.
- With Bulls center Nikola Vucevic also out with an injury, 6’4” Terry Taylor has seen some time at center in Donovan’s small-ball lineups. Taylor says he doesn’t mind banging with much bigger opponents, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. ‘‘I’ve actually played it my whole life, so I’m kind of used to it,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘I’m used to people not being sure about me playing center just because of my size. But I’ve got the heart and the will to go out there and compete against anybody. They’re gonna be hunting me and trying to get me to foul and make mistakes and just trying to get me off my rocker.’’ Taylor’s $2MM contract will become fully guaranteed if he’s still on the roster beyond January 7.
- The Pistons finally snapped their record breaking 28-game losing streak against the depleted Raptors on Saturday night. They followed that up with an embarrassing outing in Houston on Monday in which they allowed 47 points in the third quarter and lost by 23. Second-year guard Jaden Ivey was perplexed by the team’s effort, James Edwards III of The Athletic relays. “This is painful to go through. We’re in a season where we’re losing a ton of games, and it’s like … it comes down to pride at the end of the day,” he said. “The moment you step out there on the floor, ‘What can you do to help the team?’ both defensively and offensively. “In the third quarter, they were coming down and scoring. We need to wall up and chest the ball. It comes down to pride. We didn’t have that (Monday).”
An Illinois native, Max Strus was on a two-way contract with the Bulls earlier in his career, but was ultimately let go by the team. Chicago also didn’t show much interest in him during free agency this past summer. That’s why the Cavaliers guard took extra satisfaction in Cleveland’s win over Chicago in which he contributed 26 points, seven assists and two steals, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago writes.
“It’s always special,” Strus said of playing at the Bulls’ United Center. “Growing up here, coming to games, I get goosebumps every time the starting lineup (introduction) comes on. So, dreaming of moments playing in this building as a kid. It’s always special when I come back.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Despite the loss to Cleveland, Bulls wing DeMar DeRozan sees a lot of positives from his team during recent weeks, he told Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “We’ve been resilient,” said DeRozan, a free agent after the season. “The first part of the season, there was a lot of emotion, a lot of frustration. We dug ourselves out of that hole and found the positivity to lean on, kind of thrust ourselves toward the right direction.”
- The Pistons tied the NBA single-season record with their 26th straight loss on Saturday but coach Monty Williams says it hasn’t killed his team’s spirit. “Everybody feels down when you lose and you’ve lost this many in a row. You have to allow people to be human. But the way they come back the next day is something I’m blown away at,” Williams said on Bally Sports Detroit (video link). “I’ve been around a lot of teams. Not many teams have that type of resilience. Our guys don’t want to be a part of any kind of losing streak. But every day they come back with focus and drive and grit, trying to win a game.”
- The Pacers lack size on the wings, which is a major reason for their .500 record and inability to get stops, Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files notes. That has made it difficult for Indiana to slow down the opponents’ best player, since that is normally the job of an athletic 6’7″ or 6’8″ wing.
Fifth-year wing Cody Martin was unfortunately limited to seven games last season following left knee surgery, and he has yet to play in 2023/24. However, he could make his season debut on Saturday against Denver, as the Hornets have officially listed him as questionable (Twitter link).
As Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer tweets, Martin’s last appearance was on January 14, so it’s been 11-plus months since he suited up. Second-year center Mark Williams (low back contusion) seems likely to miss his seventh straight game though, as he’s doubtful for Saturday’s contest.
Here are a few more injury notes from around the NBA:
- After sustaining a left ankle sprain on Wednesday against Sacramento, Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis has been ruled out for Saturday’s contest vs. the Clippers, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Jayson Tatum, who missed his first game on Wednesday, is questionable with the same injury as Porzingis. Adam Himmselsbach of The Boston Globe speculates (via Twitter) that Porzingis won’t be sidelined for very long, as he spotted the Latvian big man carrying his own massage table at the team’s hotel on Friday.
- Timberwolves forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns (left knee soreness) is out for Saturday’s contest in Sacramento, the team announced (via Twitter). However, Towns’ absence is only “precautionary,” according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, who reports that the big man isn’t expected to miss extended time (Twitter link).
- Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell will miss his third consecutive game on Saturday due to an illness, while Sam Merrill is questionable for the matchup with Chicago with a right wrist sprain, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
Rival executives believe Pascal Siakam is more likely to be traded than OG Anunoby if the Raptors decide to shake up their roster, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. In fact, teams looking for help on the wing think Toronto “will do whatever it takes” to retain Anunoby as a free agent in 2024 — he’s widely expected to decline his $19.9MM player option for next season.
Scotto reports that top front office executives from the Pacers and Hawks had extensive conversations with Toronto’s brass at the NBA G League’s Winter Showcase in Orlando this week. Both teams have consistently been linked to the Raptors for several months, Scotto notes.
If the Raptors trade Siakam, they’d be looking for young players and draft capital in return, according to Scotto, with the goal of retooling around Scottie Barnes and Anunoby.
To that end, Pacers forward Jarace Walker, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2023 draft, could be a name to watch in trade talks. He hasn’t played much as a rookie this season, but he’s had some strong performances in the G League. Scotto also hears the Hawks would prefer to keep Jalen Johnson, who was having a breakout third season before sustaining a fractured wrist (he was recently cleared to resume practicing in full).
Here are more rumors and notes from Scotto:
- Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen has been the subject of some trade speculation this season, but Scotto is the latest reporter to reiterate that the Finnish star is expected to stay put. According to Scotto, there are three reasons for that: Markkanen wants to remain with the Jazz, the cost of acquiring him could be exorbitant, and he could renegotiate and extend his contract in the offseason, which would bypass 2025 free agency. Multiple executives told Scotto the idea of a possible Markkanen trade was “wishful thinking.”
- There’s a “strong belief” among rival executives that the Hornets will make front office changes “by next season at the latest,” Scotto writes. If president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak is fired or moved to a different role, Nets assistant GM Jeff Peterson and Wizards senior VP of player personnel Travis Schlenk are potential candidates to replace him, league sources tell Scotto. As Scotto writes, both Peterson and Schlenk previously worked with new Charlotte co-owner Rick Schnall in Atlanta.
- Kings guard Keon Ellis and Cavaliers guard Craig Porter Jr. are among the top candidates to be promoted to standard deals from their current two-way contracts, per Scotto. Cleveland has an open roster spot and wouldn’t necessarily need to release anyone to give Porter a raise (and make him playoff-eligible), while Sacramento has Juan Toscano-Anderson on a non-guaranteed deal.
Bulls guard Zach LaVine and Raptors forward OG Anunoby continue to be two names to watch as possible trade targets for the Sixers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who said during an appearance on FanDuel’s Run it Back (Twitter video link) that Philadelphia has monitored both players and has “a level of interest” in them.
The Sixers have several expiring contracts that could be used as salary-matching pieces in a deadline trade. The biggest of those expiring deals belongs to Tobias Harris, who is earning $39.27MM this season before reaching unrestricted free agency in 2024.
According to Charania, while the 76ers value Harris and want to keep him around, there are “a lot of teams” keeping an eye on the veteran forward, whose scoring output has slowed down recently (11.3 PPG in his past 11 games) following a hot start (19.3 PPG in his first 16 games).
Here are a few more trade-related notes from around the NBA:
- Zach Lowe of ESPN (Insider link) is the latest reporter to confirm that the Cavaliers have shown no inclination to make Donovan Mitchell available via trade. That stance may not change unless Mitchell expresses unhappiness in Cleveland, Lowe adds.
- Within the same ESPN story, Lowe makes a case that the Thunder should be active on the trade market this season, pointing out that there’s plenty of middle ground available between standing pat and trying to land a superstar. Oklahoma City is good enough that even overpaying for one starter-caliber player could make the team a legitimate title contender, Lowe argues.
- In the third article in a series examining the Heat‘s trade options, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald takes a closer look at 10 Eastern Conference rivals, exploring which of them might make the most sense as trade partners for Miami.