Cleveland Cavaliers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Cavaliers Promote RJ Nembhard To Standard Deal, Sign Moses Brown To Two-Way Contract

March 31st, 2022 at 11:18am CST by Arthur Hill

MARCH 31: The Cavs have officially promoted Nembhard to a standard deal and signed Brown to a two-way contract, reports Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link).

MARCH 30: The Cavaliers will convert guard RJ Nembhard to a standard contract and give his two-way spot to Moses Brown, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Nembhard, 23, signed with Cleveland last summer after going undrafted out of TCU and was given a two-way deal before the start of the season. He has played in just 12 NBA games, averaging 4.8 minutes per night, and spent much of his time in the G League, where he put up 22.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 13 games.

Brown, 22, was on the last night of his second 10-day contract with the Cavs, so the team had to make a roster move to keep him. He made his first start for Cleveland tonight, posting 12 points and nine rebounds in a loss to Dallas.

Brown, who was traded twice last summer, started the season with the Mavericks and averaged 3.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 26 games before being waived at the trade deadline in February. He has also spent time with the Trail Blazers and Thunder.

The Cavaliers will have a roster opening with Brown’s 10-day contract expiring, so no other moves will be necessary to complete the signings.

Cavaliers Notes: Windler, Mobley, Brown, Rondo

March 30th, 2022 at 6:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

Dylan Windler is getting the opportunity to prove himself at the most crucial time of the Cavaliers‘ season, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Windler was viewed as a floor-spacing shooter when Cleveland took him with the 26th pick in the 2019 draft, but injuries have slowed his development as his first two seasons were cut short by surgeries. He sat out five of the team’s first six games this month before coach J.B. Bickerstaff gave him another shot to contribute.

Windler’s chance has come at the expense of Cedi Osman, who was pulled from the rotation recently because of inconsistent play. The Cavs have been forced to use smaller lineups because of injuries to their front line, so Windler is a natural fit.

“Dylan’s always standing ready,” Darius Garland said. “We know he’s going to always be ready whenever his number is called. I mean, he’s a hard worker. Shots are going to start falling. Then on the defensive end, he’s going to do his job and that’s been Dylan since I’ve met him since I was in high school. He’s always going to be ready to compete and play hard. I just always tell him just stay ready. That’s for everybody down the line.”

There’s more from Cleveland:

Evan Mobley has been ruled out for at least the next three games with a sprained left ankle, but the Cavaliers are relieved that his injury wasn’t as bad as it looked, Fedor adds in a separate story. A source tells Fedor that an MRI on Mobley was “pretty clean” and “didn’t show much.” The rookie big man will work with the team’s medical staff over the next few days, but Bickerstaff said he’s not in a walking boot and there’s optimism that the injury is just short term. “The sooner we get him back on the floor the better. And for his sake too,” Bickerstaff said in a session with reporters before tonight’s game. “You don’t ever want to see a kid take injuries that are long lasting and impact him. He wants to play. He wants to be part of what we’ve got going on.”
Moses Brown, who’s nearly at the end of his second 10-day contract with Cleveland, is starting tonight in place of Mobley, Fedor tweets. Brown has played seven games since joining the Cavaliers, but is averaging just 5.4 minutes per night.
Rajon Rondo tested his injured right ankle after today’s shootaround, but has been ruled out for tonight’s game, according to Fedor (Twitter link). Rondo hasn’t played since March 12.

Evan Mobley Out At Least Three Games

March 30th, 2022 at 2:46pm CST by Luke Adams

Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley, who suffered a left ankle sprain in the team’s win over Orlando on Monday, will miss at least three games, according to a press release.

Mobley has been ruled out for Wednesday’s contest against Dallas and won’t accompany the club on its road trip to Atlanta (Thursday) and New York (Sunday), per the Cavs.

Having received an MRI to confirm the injury, Mobley will undergo a period of treatment and rehab, with his timeline updated when appropriate, the team said in today’s announcement.

The Cavs have had to deal with bad injury luck all season and will now be missing their two defensive anchors – Mobley and Jarrett Allen (broken finger) – for the foreseeable future. Cleveland is also playing without Dean Wade (knee) and Collin Sexton (knee), who are both out for the rest of the season.

Mobley’s absence will have an impact on both the Cavs’ push for a top-six seed in the East and on his own candidacy for Rookie of The Year. Currently, Cleveland is the No. 7 team in the conference, one game back of the Raptors for No. 6, while Mobley is vying with Scottie Barnes and Cade Cunningham for Rookie of the Year honors.

With Mobley unavailable, the Cavs figure to learn more on Lauri Markkanen and Kevin Love in the frontcourt, with Moses Brown and Ed Davis both candidates to pick up some minutes at the five.

Wade Returns To Canton Charge

March 28th, 2022 at 6:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Guard Kyle Guy has rejoined the Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers’ G League team, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets. Guy was waived by the Heat on Thursday. Guy signed a two-way contract with Miami in mid-January after playing with the Charge. He appeared in 19 games with Miami, averaging 3.9 PPG in 9.8 MPG.
Cavaliers forward Dean Wade has a six-to-eight week recovery period from his knee surgery, Kelsey Russo of The Athletic tweets. The meniscus surgery on his right knee will be a cleanup procedure and he should be a full participant in Summer League activities, Russo adds.

Cavs’ Wade Undergoes Knee Surgery, Out For Season

March 28th, 2022 at 12:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Cavaliers forward Dean Wade has undergone surgery to address the meniscus injury in his right knee, the team announced today (via Twitter). According to the Cavs, Wade will miss the rest of the 2021/22 season.

Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported last Monday that Wade sustained a partial meniscus tear in his right knee and would be out for at least several weeks. It appears the 25-year-old and the team took some time to determine the best course of action for the injury and determined that surgery was the right choice.

Wade, who has been with the Cavs since the 2019/20 season, averaged 5.3 PPG and 2.9 RPG in 51 games (19.2 MPG) for the club this season, posting a .456/.359/.667 shooting line and making 28 starts.

Wade is one of a handful of Cleveland rotation players who have gone down with injuries in 2021/22. Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio both suffered season-ending knee injuries earlier in the season, while All-Star center Jarrett Allen has been out since March 6 due to a fractured finger. Darius Garland, Caris LeVert, and Lauri Markkanen have all had short-term absences for the team as well.

The Cavs hold a $1.93MM team option on Wade for 2022/23, which they’ll likely pick up as long as they expect him to be available for most or all of next season.

Central Notes: LeVert, Sexton, Pistons, Vucevic

March 27th, 2022 at 5:28pm CST by JD Shaw

The Cavaliers are working to re-integrate Caris LeVert into their lineup, starting him against the Bulls on Saturday, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com writes. According to Fedor, the team may continue starting LeVert, who was acquired in a trade last month.

“We’ve got to do the best that we can to possibly help him,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We brought him here to be a big piece of what we were doing moving forward, and we’ve got to get him comfortable. His teammates have to be able to play with him.

“We’ve got to find longer stretches of minutes for him, where he can just go out and feel like he can be himself. His minutes have been kind of choppy. We want to find ways to get him longer stretches where he doesn’t feel like he has to press, press. press to get something done in a small amount of time.”

Cleveland owns the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference at 41-33. LeVert has averaged 12.6 points on 41.8% shooting since joining the team after averaging 18.7 points on 44.7% shooting with Indiana earlier in the season. The 27-year-old had also been dealing with a foot injury and no longer has a minutes limit.

There’s more from the Central Division tonight:

Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton is back in Cleveland taking shots, Fedor shares (via Twitter). Sexton, who suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee roughly four months ago, appeared in 11 games before the injury. He’ll become a restricted free agent this summer.
The Pistons’ centers have serious potential to improve their three-point shooting, head coach Dwane Casey said, as relayed by Steve Kornacki of The Detroit News. Detroit has been playing Isaiah Stewart and Marvin Bagley III significant minutes, but neither player is a good shooter. “They have the ability, too,” Casey said, “and it doesn’t matter which one. Marvin is coming up and setting the screens and Isaiah has the space in the corner. His next evolution in his pro career is that he has to be able to knock that 3-point shot down, and he will. I have no questions at all that either one of them is going to be able to. But we have to have that spacing when they’re in the game together.”
Bulls star Nikola Vucevic appears to be happy in Chicago and doesn’t want to discuss a potential trade, as relayed by Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. If the Bulls underwhelm the rest of the campaign, the team may consider making some offseason moves. ‘‘That’s something that’s totally out of our control as players,’’ Vucevic said. ‘‘Our job is to try and go as far as we can, then the front office makes the decision on the team going forward. I was in a limited amount of trade rumors in my time in Orlando, so it’s something I really don’t think about very much. What’s the point of me worrying about that when it’s completely out of my control? That’s how I approach things like that.’’

Community Shootaround: Top Six In East

March 25th, 2022 at 10:26am CST by Luke Adams

On Wednesday, we discussed the race to earn a top-six seed (and a guaranteed playoff spot) in the Western Conference. Today, we’re shifting our focus to the East, where the top four teams in the conference have created some breathing room, but the fifth, sixth, and seventh seeds are bunched up.

After Thursday’s games, the 42-31 Bulls still control the No. 5 seed, but their lead over the No. 6 Cavaliers (41-32) and the No. 7 Raptors (also 41-32) is down to a single game, with just nine games left in the season for all three teams.

Both Chicago and Cleveland have been trending in the wrong direction as of late. The Bulls sat atop the East as recently as one month ago, when their record was 39-21. Since then, they’ve won just three of 13 games and their grip on a guaranteed playoff berth is slipping.

Zach LaVine has battled a knee injury for much of the year and DeMar DeRozan now has a left groin strain. According to Tankathon, Chicago also has the NBA’s fifth-hardest schedule for the rest of the season, beginning with a huge matchup against the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Saturday.

The Cavs should welcome the opportunity to pass the Bulls in the standings by winning that game (a victory would give them the tiebreaker edge for now), but they haven’t played their best basketball in recent weeks either. The No. 3 seed in the East as recently as February 17, Cleveland has six wins in its last 17 contests and dropped a crucial game in Toronto on Thursday.

The absence of starting center Jarrett Allen – on top of all the other injuries affecting the Cavs – has hurt. On the plus side, the team’s schedule the rest of the way, which includes a pair of meetings against Orlando, is manageable — it’s only the NBA’s 18th-hardest, per Tankathon.

The Raptors, meanwhile, don’t have the tiebreaker advantage over Chicago or Cleveland, so they’d need to finish at least one game ahead of one of those teams in order to avoid being relegated to a play-in. They look capable of doing that.

Seven of the Raptors’ last nine games will be at home, and they have the league’s sixth-easiest slate, according to Tankathon. Following a 14-17 start to the season, Toronto has gone 27-15 and is close to finally having a fully healthy starting five. Fred VanVleet is banged up and Gary Trent Jr. missed yesterday’s game with a toe injury, but OG Anunoby is back and Trent was listed as questionable earlier in the day on Thursday, an indication that he shouldn’t be out too long.

While it may be too late for them to make up the necessary ground, the No. 8 Nets (38-35) shouldn’t be excluded from the conversation. Buoyed by the NBA’s fourth-easiest schedule and the full-time return of Kyrie Irving, the Nets are in position to finish the season strong. But they’re still three games behind the Cavs and Raptors with just nine left to play (their tiebreakers vs. both teams remain up for grabs).

We want to know what you think. Will the Bulls and Cavaliers hold onto their top-six spots, or will one of them in a play-in game? If the Raptors move into the top six and secure a guaranteed playoff spot, which team will they pass? Do the Nets still have a chance to avoid the play-in?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts on the East’s race for the top six!

And-Ones: Evans, COVID Boosters, DPOY, Barnes, Mobley

March 24th, 2022 at 7:49pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Tyreke Evans‘ drive to return to the NBA took another twist when the G League’s Wisconsin Herd waived him on Wednesday, according to a team press release. He appeared in two games for the Bucks’ affiliate, averaging 8.0 PPG, 2.0 RPG and 2.5 APG and suffering an ankle injury in the process.

Last month, Evans was reinstated into the NBA after being suspended by the league since 2019 for violating its drug policy. Prior to joining the Herd in the middle of this month, the 32-year-old guard had not played elsewhere since his ban.

We have more from around the basketball world:

While Kyrie Irving can now play home games, the NBA is still concerned about another COVID-19 outbreak. As part of a memo on the rollback of New York City’s vaccine mandate, the Players Association is encouraging eligible players to get booster shots ahead of the playoffs, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. The NBPA is concerned about the “possibility of new variants on the horizon.” Approximately 75% of the league’s players have already received a booster shot, the NBPA tweets.
There’s no clear-cut choice for the Defensive Player of the Year award, according to The Athletic’s Seth Partnow, and he takes a closer look at six serious candidates for the honor. That group includes Bam Adebayo, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, Jaren Jackson Jr., Marcus Smart and Robert Williams.
The all-around ability of the Raptors’ Scottie Barnes and the Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley has changed the narrative on this year’s Rookie of the Year award, Eric Koreen of The Athletic opines. Unlike most high lottery picks, they’ve made a major impact on teams headed to the playoffs.

Cavs Re-Sign Moses Brown; Dean Wade To Miss Several Weeks

March 21st, 2022 at 9:46am CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers have brought back big man Moses Brown on a second 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. Brown’s first 10-day deal expired on Saturday night.

Brown, initially signed earlier this month to provide some frontcourt depth with Jarrett Allen sidelined due to a finger injury, appeared in four games during his first 10 days with Cleveland. He averaged 2.8 points and 2.0 rebounds in 6.3 minutes per contest.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Allen – who is taking a non-surgical approach as he recovers from his broken finger – is hopeful of getting back into the lineup within the next three weeks. However, it doesn’t sound like his return is imminent.

Additionally, Charania reports that forward Dean Wade has sustained a partial meniscus tear in his right knee and will be out for several weeks, creating another hole in the Cavaliers’ frontcourt. Wade had been a regular part of Cleveland’s rotation this season, averaging 19.2 MPG in 51 appearances. The hope is that he’ll be able to make it back by the end of the regular season or the start of the postseason, tweets Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

The Cavs will play five games in the next 10 days, starting with a matchup vs. the Lakers on Monday night. Their games on Thursday in Toronto and on Saturday vs. Chicago will be crucial in the race for a top-six seed in the East.

Central Notes: Wade, Cavs, Bulls, Anderson

March 20th, 2022 at 4:42pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Pacers signed swingman Justin Anderson to a 10-day deal on Thursday in part as a response to his efforts with their NBAGL club, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, and to give him a chance to prove he deserves to stick in the NBA going forward, writes Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. He certainly has his fans around the league.

“I don’t know what else Justin can do at the G League level to prove to teams he deserves to be back in the NBA,” a source that was not Anderson’s agent informed Agness. The 28-year-old previously inked two 10-day deals this season, one with the Cavaliers and another with Indiana earlier this year.

“He’s been the best player on the [Mad Ants],” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said, “and probably the best player in the entire [G League]. He’s earned this opportunity, he knows our stuff, he’s kept himself ready. And the one thing about him, he’s appreciative of the opportunity and he’s really fought for these chances to be back in the NBA.”

There’s more out of the Central Division:

Cavaliers forward Dean Wade, who has already dealt with some inconclusive imaging on his sore right knee, is set to undergo further testing on the knee this week after missing Cleveland’s last three games, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Fedor notes that there is “growing concern” about a meniscus tear.
The Cavaliers have exhibited strong mental toughness down the stretch of the regular season as they push for their first postseason berth since 2018, per Kelsey Russo of The Athletic. “For us, it’s a mental thing,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Our guys are pretty confident and pretty sound in our schemes. … And if you’re never in this position, you don’t gain that experience. You never are able to figure it out.”
The Bulls are struggling to find much of a response whenever opposing defenses opt to double-team All-Star forward DeMar DeRozan, opines Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Probably the most [double-teams] I’ve seen in my career, to be honest with you,’’ DeRozan said. “For me, it’s one of those things that we got to figure it out. It’s on me to help the guys figure it out as well… The best way to learn is to be knocked in the mouth like we doing. Now it’s a matter of us responding, letting it click. Once it clicks, we be fine.’’