Working off a Christmas Day win over the Golden State Warriors, you might think the Cleveland Cavaliers are beyond satisfied with their roster, and past the point of considering any additions.
But you’d be wrong.
From Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today:
Why not just eat Williams’ salary and add a player? The Cavs are over the luxury tax and are expected to have another luxury tax bill to pay after this season — about $30 million right now — after paying $54 million last summer. Waiving Williams and adding a minimum salary guy would result in a $13 million payment in salaries and luxury tax.
But the Cavs have options. They can make a deal before the trade deadline, and they also have a $9.6 million trade exception to use. Depending on who that player is if they use the trade exception, it would add salary and increase the luxury tax payment. But for the right player, who can help win another championship, the Cavs are willing to make that deal.
The Cavaliers limited themselves to an eight-man rotation in their win against the Warriors. That’s fine in a vacuum, for one tilt, and it’s pretty standard once you get to the playoffs.
But the Cavaliers won’t want to burn out their key guys before the postseason. They need a backup point guard to replace Matthew Dellavedova and the retired Mo Williams; a wing to help offset J.R. Smith’s extensive absence and Mike Dunleavy’s suboptimal performance; and a backup big to cover up for the season-ending injury to Chris Andersen.
The issue, of course, is that Cleveland doesn’t have a ton of movable assets. General manager David Griffin has a handful of trade exceptions he can play with, but that limits the Cavaliers to basically absorbing unwanted talent. And if you’re going to dip further into the NBA’s luxury tax, you need to find that player who is both unwanted but can still be helpful.
Off the cuff, it’s hard to come up with a name for the Cavaliers to target. Maybe Raul Neto, but it seems like the Utah Jazz would want some sort of compensation for him. Ditto for Joe Ingles. Tyreke Evans might be able to be had, but getting a stopgap for J.R. Smith, especially one who isn’t a super-dangerous spot-up shooter, isn’t the biggest priority.
Trades of this ilk typically develop as we get closer toward February’s deadline. So keep your eyes peeled on the Cavaliers once we enter the 11th hour.
