NBA Free-Agency: Who Can The Cavaliers Bring In At A Reasonable Rate?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the NBA champs, but with so many of their free agents on the market and a team that is already over the newly bloated $94 million dollar cap, who can the Cavaliers bring in at a reasonable rate to defend the title?

There are two major priorities to G.M. David Griffin and the front office of the Cavaliers. First being the signing of associate head coach Tyronn Lue as the head coach ongoing. He guided the Cavaliers through the second-half of the season and through the playoffs all the way to an NBA championship as the associate head coach, never having signed a contract that made him the head coach after David Blatt’s firing in January.

The other priority? The “formality” of getting LeBron James under contract for next season. James has been signing two-year deals with a player option for the 2nd year and has both times opted-out and last year he re-signed for a higher figure because of the consistently increasing salary cap.

Of course, there are at least two more free-agents the Cavaliers cannot afford to lose: JR Smith and Richard Jefferson.

Shooting-guard JR Smith has proven himself and will most likely garner a deal in the neighborhood of $13-16 million a year for at least two years if not three. During the 2015/2016 season, Smith showed he can be an incredible two-way player.

Not only did Smith set a franchise record for the number of 3-point jump shots made in a single season (204), he has proven himself a very capable wing defender. As the starting shooting guard for the last two seasons, it is imperative for the Cavaliers to re-sign him.

Another key to the Cavaliers championship was small forward Richard Jefferson’s consistent play.

After the Cavaliers won the title, Jefferson was quoted (jokingly) as saying he was going to retire.

But alas, during the Cavaliers’ championship parade — attended by 1.3 million people in downtown Cleveland — Jefferson coyly asked the crowd if he should play another year, which was met by the chant “ONE MORE YEAR.” He publicly said he would be back for another year.

But within a week of winning the title, it was reported by The Vertical that he wants to play two to three more years. This is the Cavaliers’ chance to lock up Jefferson on a mutually acceptable two-year contract. His bird rights would garner him around $1.8 million (120% of the veterans minimum). But perhaps he would want more money to return. In this case, the only thing the Cavs can offer is the Mini Mid-Level Exception (taxpayer’s Mid-Level Exception) which is worth $3.4 million a year.

If the Cavaliers can indeed re-sign these two players, the core of the team (minus departed free agents Matthew Dellevadova and Timofey Mozgov) will be intact. The last player that they might want to re-sign is small forward/power forward James Jones. It has not been reported if he is open to returning for the veteran’s minimum, but his locker room presence was an important part of this teams championship run. He himself has been to six consecutive NBA Finals - like his friend LeBron James.

But there will be a few empty roster spots left open by the departing free agents Dellevadova (Milwaukee Bucks 4 years, $38 million) and Mozgov (Los Angeles Lakers 4 years, $64 million). So again the question: Who can the Cavaliers bring in at a reasonable rate to help defend the title and win a 2nd championship?

The team needs would be a 3-and-D backup guard (Jarret Jack/Aaron Brooks/Jason Terry?) and another wing defender (Matt Barnes/Tayshaun Prince?). But again this would have to be a player more concerned with winning a ring than collecting a big payday. The Cavaliers may have the $3.4 million MLE left if Jefferson returns for veteran’s minimum, but beyond that they can only sign veteran minimum players or D-League prospects to minimum contracts.

The Cavaliers also have five Traded Player Exceptions: $2,329,471 (Brendan Haywood, expiring 7/30/16 - portion of original $10.5 million partially used on Channing Frye), $2,854,940 (Mike Miller, expiring 7/30/16), $845,059 (Joe Harris expiring 1/12/17), $9,638,554 (Anderson Varejao, expiring 2/18/17 and $947,276 (Jared Cunningham, expiring 2/18/17).

The only way I see them using one of these exceptions is if a team needs to badly clear cap space for a high-priced free agent (and nowadays who isn’t high-priced). Will it be to clear space to sign Kevin Durant? We will see if the Cavaliers can pick up a nice young piece or older overpriced veteran with one of these exceptions.

The only thing holding this process up is that teams are generally flush with unused salary cap. Until a few more high-profile free agents come off the board, we will not see much action from the Cavaliers, except retaining their own.

Is David Griffin going to find a trade partner that helps make both teams better? Will he be stone-walled by the rest of the NBA as he was during this last off-season with a $10.5 million TPE available?

Only time and circumstance will tell. It is the new NBA!

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