The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to have plenty of belief that they would be able to acquire a quality asset and/or a valuable future NBA first-round draft pick in exchange for the trading of J.R. Smith and his unique contract.
Smith will instead finally just be waived at this point, though.
Smith, whose full-guarantee date of his contract was set to maybe be pushed back to August 1 (according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor) in order for the Cavaliers to keep pursuing possible trades, was reportedly likely to be waived at some point on Monday, according to The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon, and it was then reported Monday late afternoon that Smith was indeed waived, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.