Unfinished Business: Kevin Love is staying in Cleveland
July 1, 2015NBA News: Cavaliers re-sign Iman Shumpert to four-year contract
July 1, 2015It’s starting to get real, guys. Kevin Love declared today that he would stay in Cleveland, and word is that the Cavs are growing closer to locking up Tristan Thompson (on Canada Day, no less!) to a long-term, big money deal. From ESPN’s Marc Stein:
ESPN sources tell @WindhorstESPN & I that Cavs and Tristan Thompson are nearing agreement on deal that will pay the RFA in excess of $80 mil
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2015
The deal is assumed to be for five years. $80 million a big number — huge, even — but given some of the deals that have been given out on the opening day of the NBA free agency period, perhaps that’s just how the market is.
Assuming this deal comes to fruition, the Cavs’ payroll will be bursting at the seams. Kyrie Irving has a $90 million deal, Kevin Love is on the verge of signing one for nearly $110 million, and LeBron James will get as much as the Cavs are allowed to pay him. The salary cap is going up, but the Dan Gilbert will have to pay a healthy chunk in luxury tax penalties regardless, and that’s before taking care of guys like Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and Matthew Dellavedova.
With LeBron new max, Love 5/$109M, Tristan 5/$80M, I've got Cavs at $91.8M to 9 guys. Includes Haywood; doesn't include Shump, JR, Delly.
— Jacob L. Rosen (@JacobLRosen) July 1, 2015
It’s a lot of cash to throw around, but we knew from the jump that that’s what it would take to keep this group together. The Cavs have plenty of work to do yet, but with Love, Irving, Timofey Mozgov, and presumably LeBron and Thompson in the fold, they’re in solid shape.
They have a big chip left to play in the Brendan Haywood contract. It doesn’t look like Haywood will be traded to the Spurs as once thought, but we can be sure that Cavs GM David Griffin is searching near and far for a trading partner.
As always, stay tuned.
15 Comments
I have faith in Dan and the two David’s and it’s friggin’ refreshing!
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/cheering_minions.gif
Secret WFNY Ninja Cam footage of the Love and TT contract signings…
http://www.arcticblubber.com/gallery/d/751-1/lI33a7O_0.gif
So TT bets on himself last year, becomes an playoff boogie monster and scores an extra $40M. Is this Monopoly like money? 80 huge guaranteed for a guy who is not and won’t ever have a well-rounded game? 80?
I’m seriously starting to feel sorry for Dan Gilbert, which I didn’t think was possible for any number of reasons.
Dear Dan: HOW BOUT RE-UPPING DAVID GRIFFIN? Heard he’s one of the lowest paid GMs. Do it, now. Before your increased anxiety level caused by the tax load makes you completely unbearable to work for.
Man, as these contracts keep climbing it takes me back to the early 2000s when guys like Juwan Howard, Shawn Kemp, Mutombo and Scottie Pippen were all making $20 million a year.
It’s also an extra year, which they couldn’t offer him before he actually finished his contract. (because they offered the 5yr deal to Kyrie) That’s half the reason he turned down the previous offer, which was 4/52. So his bet paid off to the tune of an extra $3M per year.
Is that Bill Burr?
Maybe. He did have some bits in Breaking Bad.
So, they have $38M/yr committed to power forwards, lol. But what’ya gonna do? Gotta keep these guys if they want to get over the top.
On the plus side, $16M might be 24% of this year’s cap, but it will be down to 18% next year and 15% the year after that. (and that’s if those projections hold – it looks like this year’s cap might actually go up another $2M) For percentage of tax line, it will go 19.6%, 15%, and 12.6% respectively. Teams are signing deals this year with the understanding that they’ll be devalued pretty quickly.
Now we need a durable backup PG, because, well, you know why.
I think it’ll be Mo it’s just a matter of how cheaply they can get him.
I guess Memphis is in the lead for Mo now. So not necessarily a bad thing for Cavs fans.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CI24s89WgAA6c1G.jpg
$$$$$$!
Yes and yes
“Love” it! Gonna send to my boss in LA. He insisted that Love would sign with the Lakers. Last year, he also insisted that LeBron would never come back and would also sign with the Lakers. Dreamer.
Sounds more delusional but if the Lakers don’t land Aldridge which I expect to be the case it should signal to Lakers fans just how tarnished their franchise has become.