Manziel, Pryor, Chemistry, and Offseason Daydreams
June 24, 2015Cavs’ J.R. Smith opts out to test free agency, wants to return to Cleveland
June 24, 2015It doesn’t mean he’s signing with the Lakers, it doesn’t mean he’s unhappy, and it doesn’t mean that we won’t be seeing his handsome mug in a Cavs uniform ever again, BUT: Kevin Love opted out of the final year of his contract with the Cavs today, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.
ESPN sources say Cavs forward Kevin Love has opted out of the final year of his contract and will be a free agent July 1
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 24, 2015
This is no surprise. The NBA salary cap is going up, and Love stands to make more money signing a new deal than he could have by exercising the player option in his old one. As WFNY’s Jacob Rosen wrote in breaking down the Cavs’ future salary picture:
As a reminder, Kevin Love holds a $16,744,219 player option for the 2015-16 season. As a seven-year player, and given next year’s expected $67.1 million salary cap, a new maximum contract would start at about $18,960,174 in year one.1 This means that Love would make just over $2 million more next season by not using his player option and signing a new max deal, even of the one-year variety à la LeBron this past summer.
The cap is expected to make a huge jump in 2016-17, so it would not be shocking if Love signed a new short-term deal with the Cavs that allows him to opt out again after next season so he could sign a mega-deal a year from now. LeBron James is widely expected to take that exact route.
Love could also decide to sign a new five-year max deal with the Cavs this summer, which would sacrifice some earning potential in exchange for long-term security. After ending the 2014-15 season with a shoulder injury and putting up less gaudy statistics compared to his last year in Minnesota, that may be a tradeoff Love and his camp are willing to make.
Love will be a true unrestricted free agent come July, so I suppose anything can happen, but no other team can offer him as much money (or as many LeBrons) as the Cavs. Don’t expect Kevin to go anywhere, unless an offer like this one sounds better to him than playing with LeBron and Kyrie Irving:
Sources: If Kevin Love goes forward with visits in July, expect Boston to sell him on pursuing group of Love, Robin Lopez and…Paul Pierce.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 24, 2015
I think the Cavs will take their chances.
- How this was calculated: Max contracts are based off 42.14% of Basketball Related Income, as opposed to the 44.74% for the the salary cap formulation. Then, a seven-to-nine year veteran can receive up to 30 percent of that figure. ESPN Insider’s Amin Elhassan projected this value for Love at $18,922,200, just slightly lower than my figure. [↩]
34 Comments
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Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA
Sources: If Kevin Love goes forward with visits in July, expect Boston to sell him
on pursuing group of Love, Robin Lopez and…Paul Pierce.
Wait…they’re trying to sell him on coming THERE, right?
That’s right. So he can play with Olynyk.
HEY KEV, BABY…WE GOT THE OKAY LOPEZ, THE WASHED UP TRUTH AND THE DUDE THAT RIPPED YOUR ARM OUT THUSLY RUINING YOUR CHANCE AT A RING!
You had me at “okay.”
So, last night, there I was, on the treadmill, sweating like Antonio Cromartie at a child support hearing, when I became possessed by the spirit of departed Carnac the Magnificent, and I had a vision….
Love opts out and Boozers us. Griffin in turn signs the best friend of The King. The King smiles and leads his minions toward the Iron Throne…then the wife said dinner’s ready and that was all I remember.
DUH NO ONE WANTS TO LIVE IN CLEVELAND SO ITS DEFINITELY BOSTON OR THE LAKERS CUZ THATS THE WORSE KEPT SECRET WHAT EVERY ANALYST IS HEARING EVERY ANALYST SAY.
Or the Knicks, for sure. Because every player dreams of playing for a STORIED FRANCHISE in the MECCA of carmeloisness.
Is this intentionally the worst gif of all time, or is my crappy internet just making it horribly choppy?
The sky! She is falling!!!!!
LOL @ that Wojbomb. He wants Love in Boston so bad he doesn’t realize that an awful awful selling point.
Fun dream, but I think the Cavs are still well over the cap without Love. If Love leaves and the Cavs get nothing for him, there is only regret.
“DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED” – Ben Cox
I also totally love how Woj completely dismisses Ainge saying just a month ago they no longer are interested in pursuing him.
CAUSE YA KNOW….There are 0 exciting free agents this year…..so CLICKS!
You were good up until the point where we sign Wade and not Aldridge.
LaMarcus Aldridge ain’t a bad consolation prize. But it doesn’t matter because he’s not leaving.
…
Nice Cleveland! No Andrew Wiggins and No Love smh dummies! Knew it! Lmao..
He’s not bad at all, but again I can’t see how the Cavs could sign him. If Love doesn’t sign, the Cavs still don’t have enough room to take on another max contract in free agency.
Intelligence!!!!
Oh Dave.
It’s silly season!
is that the GREATEST cartoon of all time?? D&D?
Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier, and Acrobat.
Yep.
That is gif-probation worthy.
Be careful.
No, it’s DUCK SEASON.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ocaZb-bGg
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/emote.gif
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ZOMG YUR SO RIGHTZ! TOTES LULZ BRUH.
The simplest way to think about Love is to consider the fact that he will NOT sign a 4/5 max contract under the current salary structure. Given said proviso, who would Love sign an effective one year deal with over the Cavs? Why wouldn’t he give the Cavs (over LA or what-have-you) a one year trial contract? Cleveland is the safest bet for next season.
*also Bird rights
I looked at the draft which said $9958@mk7
/.
http://www.GlobalworkworldCrowd/lifetime/work...
Love walking would put them below the apron (barely) so they could theoretically receive a player in a sign-and-trade, but they’d still be over the cap so they’d have to match salary. It would take more than Haywood’s contract, so it would entail some significant roster upheaval. (along with some future 1st round picks probably)
Been kind of a long time since any of those stories about that franchise were good ones.
Because Wonderworld > Cedar Point.
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This is interesting because with Love’s current salary – the Cav’s are already in Cap hell & after LeBron James, who also opted out, Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert are also free agents. Cap demands will cause the loss of Thompson who believes he should be a max contract but will not find any offers at max. This would leave a substantial rebounding hole but the Cav’s front office has a ton of work to do building a roster capable of winning that elusive championship. Best guess is to allow Love to sign elsewhere as his last season performance saw him disappear in many 4th quarters averaging less than 17 points per game.