We’re in the beginning stages of the Cleveland Cavaliers' offseason preparations, and there are plenty of plots and subplots to follow during July’s free agent push. Here are three things to know about their free agency plans:
**UPDATED: 6/30 7:48 PM ET**
Cavs interested in Mike Dunleavy
Dunleavy would fit right in to Cleveland's three-point centric system, and would give them one of the league's best shooters coming off the bench. The downside is his lackluster defense, but LeBron James and the Cavs front office really like him and think he'd be an upgrade over James Jones and Mike Miller off the bench.
Cleveland extends qualifying offers to Thompson, Dellavedova, Shumpert
The Cavs have extended qualifying offers to Tristan Thompson, Matthew Dellavedova, and Iman Shumpert, making them all restricted free agents. Cleveland intends to re-sign all three key players, and this allows them to match any offers the trio receives from other teams on the open market.
LeBron James and Kevin Love are expected to re-sign
LeBron James opted out of the last year of his current contract with the Cavs on Sunday, officially sending him back into free agency come July 1st.
Here’s ESPN’s Brian Windhorst with the initial report of LeBron’s decision to opt out:
LeBron is expected to sign another single-year sheet with the Cavs so that he can take advantage of a vastly-increased salary cap (due to the league’s massive new TV deal) starting in 2016-17.
As Kurt Helin of NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk puts it, there’s no chance Lebron will be “deserting Cleveland” once again:
He will re-sign with the Cavaliers, another max deal with another opt-out after one year. Then he will opt out again in the summer of 2016 and sign another max deal, this one under the new salary cap that spikes with the influx of money from the new television contract. He’s not taking a discount, and the leverage game is a reminder to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert that he needs to keep spending to win.
The reality is LeBron is not deserting Cleveland again. He will not even meet with other teams.
Cavs GM David Griffin Griffin told reporters recently that he expects LeBron James and Kevin Love to both opt out of the last year of their contracts, and that he expects to re-sign both players. So, there appears to be no panic whatsoever in the Cavs’ front office with everything seemingly moving along in the order they expected it to.
Mo Williams set for Cleveland return?
Cleveland has plenty of work in-house to do to lock up their own cache of free agents, but that’s not going to deter former Cavs guard Mo Williams from trying to get the front office’s attention.
According to a Cleveland.com report, Williams is “more than interested” in coming back to the team when free agency opens in July:
Soon-to-be unrestricted free agent point guard Mo Williams is “more than interested” in making a return to Cleveland, sources close to the guard informed Northeast Ohio Media Group.However, due to their own pending powerhouse free agents, the Cavaliers will be limited in what they can offer. All they will have at their disposal is the taxpayer mid-level exception and the veteran’s minimum. Williams is seeking a multiyear deal and the Cavaliers and Hornets are two of the teams at the top of his wish list, a source revealed…
Williams averaged 14.2 points and 6.2 assists in 29.1 minutes per game in time with both the Minnesota Timberwolves and Charlotte Hornets in 2014-15.
Cavs expect to re-sign JR Smith
Re-signing Smith will come with luxury tax implications, but the fact remains that the team is already operating $4 million above the tax line and will only have a $3.4 million taxpayer mid-level and some minimum wiggle room to play with. The question for the Cavs is this — is Smith worth it? Finding a reliable veteran that wants to go to battle with LeBron on a minimum deal won’t be hard, but none of those options will likely have the pure “heat check” upside that J.R. has when he’s cooking.
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