Cleveland Cavaliers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: R. Miller, NBC, I. Thomas, Trade Deadline

January 29th, 2025 at 11:35am CST by Luke Adams

Longtime TNT Sports analyst Reggie Miller has agreed to join NBC as one of the company’s lead NBA color commentators for the 2025/26 season, according to Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, who reports that Miller is expected to work alongside play-by-play men Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle on NBC broadcasts.

When the NBA’s new media rights deals take effect later this year, NBC will return as one of the league’s broadcasting partners while TNT will no longer have the right to broadcast games, so it makes sense that Miller – who been part of a broadcasting team with Kevin Harlan for many years – is making the leap.

As Glasspiegel outlines, the plan is for Miller and Jamal Crawford, who has also reached a deal with NBC, to rotate as the network’s lead game analysts. The two former NBA shooting guards will each get the opportunity to work with both Tirico and Eagle.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

When Isaiah Thomas joined the Salt Lake City Stars last March, he scored 30 or more points in each of his first four G League games, earning an NBA call-up with Phoenix. After rejoining the Jazz’s G League affiliate this week, the veteran guard got off to another hot start, racking up 40 points and eight assists on Tuesday in a loss to the Valley Suns, per an Associated Press report. Thomas continues to seek another NBA opportunity.
Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider link) weighs in on the best possible fits for 10 rumored trade candidates, including Jordan Clarkson (Lakers and Magic), Chris Boucher (Clippers), and Jonas Valanciunas (Lakers and Knicks). Meanwhile, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic shares some of the trade ideas he’d like to see come to fruition, such as Lonzo Ball to Detroit, a Patrick Williams/Jusuf Nurkic swap, and a three-team deal that gets both the Cavaliers and Warriors out of tax territory.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link) has shared his massive pre-deadline trade guide, breaking down the NBA’s 30 teams into seven tiers, including “the true dealmakers,” “megadeal facilitators,” and “bottom-line watchers,” among others. Marks’ guide, which features analysis, trade ideas, draft assets, and cap details for every team, comes highly recommended if you’re an ESPN subscriber.

Cavs’ Isaac Okoro Not Close To Returning

January 28th, 2025 at 1:03pm CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers confirmed on Tuesday (via Twitter) that forward Dean Wade has been diagnosed with a right knee bone bruise and will be out for at least the next two weeks, as Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com reported earlier. According to Fedor (subscription required), it’s possible another Cavs forward Isaac Okoro, will face a similar injury recovery timeline to Wade.

As Fedor writes, Okoro missed eight games in late December and early January due to sprained AC joint in his right shoulder. He returned to action on Jan. 8 and appeared in five consecutive contests, but aggravated the injury in a Jan. 16 matchup with Oklahoma City and has been unavailable for Cleveland’s past six games.

Okoro hasn’t done much on-court work yet and the Cavs are committed to taking it slow with him in order to get him fully healthy for the home stretch of the season, Fedor writes.

“Shoulders are tricky — as the complete amateur I am,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said recently. “He will never say this, but you could see that he was feeling it even before he got hit again. A lot of these guys aren’t 100 percent. But a shoulder is tricky. It’s like a pitcher. That is what you’re shooting with. Any kind of discomfort there … we’re going to figure that one out. I told him, ‘We need you as close to 100 percent as possible. You don’t have to rush this thing.’ I want him thinking long term. We need him down the road.”

The banged-up Cavs have also been down another wing, with Caris LeVert having missed five straight games due to a sprained right wrist. While LeVert appears to be trending toward a return, he continues to feel pain in that wrist when he tests it out, most recently in an on-court shooting session on Monday, per Fedor.

“I think that’s more day-to-day,” Atkinson said. “That’s my feel with it. Still not feeling right. These are sensitive things when it comes to shooting the ball. If a guy is not feeling it, we err on the side of caution.”

Max Strus, who didn’t make his season debut until December 20 due to health issues of his own, came off the bench in his first 13 appearances of 2024/25, but has started each of Cleveland’s past five games and figures to remain in that role for the foreseeable future with most of the team’s other small forwards battling injuries, Fedor writes.

Cavs’ Dean Wade Likely Out Multiple Weeks With Knee Injury

January 28th, 2025 at 7:05am CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

JANUARY 28: A scan on Wade’s injured right knee revealed a bone bruise that will likely sideline him for multiple weeks, according to Fedor (subscription required). There’s no structural damage and it’s not related to Wade’s past knee issues, including last season’s meniscus injury, Fedor writes, but he’ll need some time to get treatment and recover before he’s ready to play again.

The expectation is that Max Strus, who has started in Wade’s place since he went down, will remain in that starting role for now, Fedor adds.

JANUARY 26: Cavaliers starting forward Dean Wade departed the third quarter of Cleveland’s 132-129 defeat to Philadelphia on Friday with a right knee injury, reports Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Wade was ruled out for the Cavaliers’ next contest, a 135-131 loss to Houston on Saturday, but there has yet to be an official update on his exact diagnosis. He is considered day-to-day for now.

“He took a hit,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said of Wade. “Praying he is OK. No update yet, but he got knocked out of the game, so we’ll see.”

As Fedor notes, Cleveland has regressed mightily on defense as of late. The Cavaliers have lost three straight contests, and have gone just 2-4 across their last six games. They remain the East’s top overall seed with a 36-9 overall record, but suddenly their grip on that perch feels somewhat tenuous.

Top defenders Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, and Caris LeVert have all also missed time with health issues of late. Their absences, and now Wade’s, can somewhat explain Cleveland’s defensive slippage. As Fedor tweets, the Cavaliers’ defensive rating in January is 118.9, which ranks 29th in the league, ahead of only the 6-38 Wizards.

Fedor writes that Wade is their second-best defender statistically, with a 97th percentile in defensive estimated plus-minus to his credit.

Through 35 healthy bouts this season, the 6’9″ pro is averaging 6.0 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.5 blocks per game. His shooting line is .408/.349/.520.

Central Notes: Williams, Buzelis, Jerome, Thompson

January 26th, 2025 at 3:46pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

In the first season of a new five-year, $90MM contract, Bulls forward Patrick Williams has continued to struggle to carve out a consistent gig as a role player. Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic wonders if Williams’ window to prove he can effectively do so is closing.

With the Bulls’ third-leading scorer, Coby White, unavailable, Chicago was hoping for the 23-year-old to take on a bigger offensive role in a 109-97 loss to Philadelphia on Saturday. Instead, he scored two points while shooting just 1-of-9 from the field and coughed up the ball in a critical possession with just over three minutes left in the game.

Following that turnover, head coach Billy Donovan quickly removed Williams from the lineup for the game’s final minutes, which has become increasingly common, Mayberry notes. In his fifth season, the 6’7″ pro is struggling both to finish at the rim and connect from long range for the 19-27 Bulls.

“He’s going to need to do that to continue to evolve,” Donovan said. “Earlier in his career, he never would have done any of that stuff. He would always defer and feel like, ‘I’m a young guy. I’ve just got to fit in.’ I think now he’s trying to do more, but we all want to have better results out of it.”

There’s more out of the Central Division:

Bulls rookie forward Matas Buzelis has played sparingly this season for Chicago thus far. The No. 11 overall pick has averaged just 12.7 minutes per game, which ranks 31st among first-year players. As Kyle Williams of The Chicago Sun-Times notes, Donovan doesn’t think Buzelis is capable of playing major minutes just yet. “[Buzelis] has to understand the things that go into winning, how he can impact winning and the things he has to do on a consistent basis,” the Bulls’ coach said.
Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome enjoyed a career night in a 132-129 loss to Philadelphia on Friday, scoring a personal-best 33 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the floor, including 8-of-8 shooting from long range. He also went 3-of-4 from the foul line. As Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com notes in a subscriber-only story, the 6’5″ guard’s big night wasn’t enough to help the club overcome the Sixers, but the 27-year-old is enjoying his best pro season since his 2020/21 run with the Thunder, averaging a career-best 10.8 points, plus 3.3 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per night.
Pistons forward Ausar Thompson, whose development was slowed by a blood clot issue that caused him to miss time at the end of 2023/24 and the start of this season, took a major step on Saturday, playing a season-high 29 minutes in a 121-113 loss to Orlando. Thompson, who scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, spoke after the game about gradually getting back to 100%, per Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). “I feel great,” Thompson said. “It feels good to almost reach the 30-minute mark. I feel great, feel conditioned and however many minutes they need me to play, I’m ready to play.” Thompson has been on a minutes restriction for much of the season. Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke glowingly of the second-year forward’s progress, Sankofa tweets. “His activity was great, his aggressiveness,” Bickerstaff said. “He was attacking the paint, making plays, rebounding the ball, four steals. I thought he did a great job of showing exactly who he is and how he can contribute to help this team win.”

Central Notes: Atkinson, Pistons, Vucevic, Ball

January 24th, 2025 at 7:04pm CST by Luke Adams

When Boston lost to the Lakers on Thursday, it guaranteed that the Cavaliers will hold the best record in the Eastern Conference through February 2. That, in turn, ensured that Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson will coach one of the four All-Star teams on February 16 in San Francisco, while an assistant on his staff will coach another of those four squads, the NBA announced (Twitter links).

In past seasons, the head coaches for the teams with the best records in the East and West prior to the All-Star break would coach their respective conference in the All-Star Game. It’s a little more complicated this season due to the new four-team format, which is why both Atkinson and Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault will be bringing an assistant to All-Star weekend next month.

Here are a few more items of interest from around the Central:

The Pistons traded their 2021 first-round pick during the 2020 offseason as part of a sign-and-trade deal that sent Christian Wood to Houston. However, that pick included heavy protections and has yet to convey while being traded three more times since then, from Houston to Oklahoma City to New York to Minnesota. As Jared Ramsey of The Detroit Free Press observes, 2025 may be the year that pick finally changes hands — the Timberwolves will receive it if it lands outside of the top 13 and the Pistons are very much in the hunt for a playoff spot in the East at 23-21.
Prior to Thursday’s matchup with Golden State, Bulls center Nikola Vucevic said he didn’t view the game – against a team rumored to have interest in him – as an audition, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s been many rumors in the past where I then played that certain team I’ve been linked to or not, and it doesn’t really affect me because I don’t think that way,” Vucevic said. If it was a tryout, the veteran big man didn’t exactly ace it, matching his season-low with nine points in a blowout loss to the Warriors, notes Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune.
In a separate story for the Tribune, Poe wonders if guard Lonzo Ball might end up being the Bulls‘ best trade chip at the February 6 deadline. His injury history is obviously a significant red flag, but Ball is the only one of the team’s highly-paid trade candidates who is on an expiring deal and Chicago has a +7.4 net rating during his minutes this season. In fact, it doesn’t seem as if the Bulls are especially eager to move on from the former No. 2 overall pick, who “quietly commands the locker room,” Poe writes.

Trade Rumors: Beal, Cavs, Pacers, Market Activity

January 24th, 2025 at 6:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking this week to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, Bradley Beal‘s agent Mark Bartelstein said that reports about specific teams his client would waive his no-trade clause for are “created out of thin air.”

Rumors this month have indicated that the Suns guard would be open to destinations like Miami, Denver, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles, but Bartelstein didn’t confirm Beal’s interest in those spots. He also suggested that he and Beal wouldn’t dismiss any possibilities without giving them some real thought.

“I never operate in terms of absolutes, meaning that we would never say there would never be a trade that you would not consider,” Bartelstein said. “You always keep an open mind like everyone does in all aspects of their life, and so if something was to come around that you were truly excited about, you always have to consider those things.”

Beal is considered a trade candidate because the Suns reportedly have serious interest in Jimmy Butler and Beal’s inclusion in an outgoing package would be the only realistic way to make a deal work. However, several recent reports have stated that Phoenix hasn’t come to Beal to discuss any trade scenarios, and Bartelstein has repeatedly said his client’s focus is on getting his ankle healthy and helping Phoenix win games.

Here are a few more trade-related notes and rumors from around the NBA:

The Cavaliers have conveyed that they’re fine with the idea of paying the luxury tax, given how well the team is performing, but rival NBA executives are skeptical and are keeping an eye on Cleveland as a candidate to make a small salary-dump deal before the deadline, says Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. The Cavs are currently operating just $1.7MM above the luxury tax line.
Within his look at potential suitors for Brooklyn forward Cameron Johnson, Scotto says the Pacers are getting inquiries from teams around the NBA on several of their young players, including Bennedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, Jarace Walker, and Ben Sheppard. After a 9-14 start, the Pacers have been hitting their stride over the past couple months, winning 15 of their past 21 games, so it’s unclear if they’ll have the appetite for a deadline deal that shakes up their roster.
According to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter links), teams around the NBA believe that the Butler standoff in Miami could be delaying some trade activity. “We have a deal basically done, but the other team could be in a four- or five-team trade involving Butler,” one assistant GM told Smith. “So, they need to hold for now. So, yeah, that’s going to be such a big trade that we all just have to wait it out.” The expectation is that the dam will break in the final days leading up to the deadline if there’s no traction on a Butler deal by that point, Smith adds.
Smith published his 2025 trade deadline primer for Spotrac this week, while Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has updated his 2024/25 trade board, with Butler, Zach LaVine, and Johnson at the top.

NBA Unveils 2025 All-Star Game Starters

January 23rd, 2025 at 7:01pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The 2025 All-Star Game starters were revealed on Thursday during Inside the NBA’s pregame show and confirmed by the NBA on social media (Twitter links).

In the Eastern Conference, a pair of Knicks made the cut, with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – in his first season in New York – earning nods. Joining Brunson in the backcourt is Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, while Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo secured frontcourt spots.

Lakers star LeBron James extended his all-time record to 21 consecutive All-Star selections in the Western Conference. Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander accounted for the backcourt spots in the West while Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Suns joined James as frontcourt starters.

The starters are selected by a weighted voting process with the fan vote accounting for half of the final outcome. The player and media portions of the vote each counted for 25 percent. Three frontcourt players and two guards were selected from each conference.

The reserves, who are picked by the league’s coaches, will be announced on Jan. 30. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets narrowly missed out on being a starter after ranking first in the fan vote, having finished third in player voting and seventh in the media vote. The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama also barely missed out, finishing second in media voting but fourth for both players and fans.

Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Anthony Davis, Jalen Williams, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young, Damian Lillard, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro, Evan Mobley and Jaylen Brown are among the names who could be voted in as reserves.

The 74th NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16 will feature a new format, complete with a mini-tournament composed of four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in a semifinal while the other two will play in another. The victors in each of those games will meet in a final. The winner of each game is the first to 40 points.

The format change means that the 10 players named starters on Thursday won’t be the only players who actually start on All-Star Sunday. The 24 players ultimately named All-Stars will be split among three eight-man teams, with the roster’s drafted by Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

The draft will air on Feb. 6 on TNT. The fourth team of eight players will be made up of the winning team from the Rising Stars event.

The four teams participating in the NBA All-Star Game will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the team that wins the final will receive $125,000, while members of the second-place team earn $50,000. Players on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.

The full voting results can be found here.

Darius Garland Faces Tough Competition For All-Star Spot

January 22nd, 2025 at 9:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Cavaliers guard Darius Garland is playing at an All-Star level, but tough competition might prevent him from being selected for the game, observes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. LaMelo Ball and Garland’s backcourt partner Donovan Mitchell are the leaders among Eastern Conference guards in the latest round of fan voting, leaving Garland to battle for reserve spots with Damian Lillard, Tyrese Maxey, Trae Young, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham and Tyler Herro. “Listen, I’ll fight for (Garland),” teammate Tristan Thompson said. “I’ll be the bad guy. I’ll be Charles Oakley. I think Darius Garland should be (an All-Star), and everyone you guys put in front of him, he’s rang the bell and did what he had to do.”

And-Ones: All-Star Game, Fernando, Snyder, NBRPA, Woj

January 22nd, 2025 at 8:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Six NBA reporters at The Athletic, including Sam Amick, Fred Katz, and Joe Vardon, made their picks for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star starters, with all six writers selecting the same three frontcourt players in the East: Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were the only unanimous choices in the West. Meanwhile, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama each showed up on all but one of the six ballots from The Athletic’s reporters.

The NBA will officially announce this year’s All-Star starters on Thursday evening during a TNT broadcast. The starters are determined by votes from fans (50%), players (25%), and the media (25%).

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Veteran NBA big man Bruno Fernando, who was waived earlier this month by Toronto before his full-season salary could become guaranteed, is in talks with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, as Michalis Gioylenoglou reports for Eurohoops.net. Gioylenoglou describes Fernando as becoming more open to making the move to Europe after having initially been reluctant to head across the Atlantic. However, no deal is done yet.
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder is among the candidates receiving serious consideration to become the next coach of Australia’s national team, sources tell Olgun Uluc of ESPN. The Boomers are seeking a successor to Brian Goorjian, who coached the national team at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.
Former NBA big man Antonio Davis, who appeared in over 900 games from 1993-2006 and made an All-Star team with Toronto in 2001, has been named the CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, reports Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). According to Spears, Davis will “drive the strategic visions, business operations, member services, and growth” of the NBRPA, a non-profit association representing former NBA players.
In a feature story for The New York Times, Bruce Schoenfeld checks in on Adrian Wojnarowski, exploring why the former star news-breaker, who was making $7.3MM annually at ESPN, accepted a job at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure, that pays him about one percent of that amount ($75K per year).

No Recent Talks Between Nets, Kings About Cameron Johnson

January 22nd, 2025 at 5:39pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings are considered to be among the top suitors for Nets forward Cameron Johnson, but the teams haven’t engaged in trade talks for several weeks, Marc Stein reports in his latest Substack column (subscription required).

A source tells Stein that Sacramento officials currently don’t see a way to complete a deal for Johnson before the February 6 trade deadline. The Kings are pursuing deals with other teams instead of focusing on Johnson, Stein adds.

A weekend report from Jake Fischer at the Stein Line confirmed that the Nets haven’t lowered their price for Johnson, as they continue to ask for two first-round picks and a young player. Earlier this month, Stein stated that Sacramento wasn’t willing to part with rookie guard Devin Carter, and it appears that stance hasn’t changed.

Fischer added that the Cavaliers have called about Johnson, but their interest seems to just be exploratory. He points out that Cleveland doesn’t have a first-round pick that it can trade until 2031, so it’s nearly impossible to meet Brooklyn’s demands.

Stein brings up the Pacers as another team to watch in the Johnson pursuit. However, Indiana has risen to fifth in the East after a recent hot streak, and Stein questions whether the front office would want to break up the current roster in light of its success.

It’s possible that the Nets will hang on to Johnson past the trade deadline and see if better offers arise this summer. He’s in the midst of a career-best season, averaging 19.4 points per game while shooting 49.1% from the field and 41.9% from beyond the arc.