Some ramblings

 The past two seasons have seen the Cavs actively avoid clearing cap space, they sent expiring contracts out with minor draft compensation for Andre Drummond, and this past year added Markkanen, and re-signed Allen to deals that fill it next season barring a Love dump that doesn’t include salary coming back.  Instead of bringing in Lauri they could have traded Nance for a draft pick and an expiring contract, and then attached that pick to the last of Love’s deal to open up perhaps $40 million in space.  But why do that?  Or conversely why not?


The why not is that cap space is difficult to roll over, and for the Cavs doubly so.  Starting in 2022 they have 4 straight seasons in which they hope to have a rookie deal expiring with that player deserving a large extension.  Sexton’s cap hold this summer is $20 million, Garland’s in 2023 will be a few million more than that while the rookie deals of Okoro and Mobely will be adding a few more each year as well.  Trading Nance for the right to dump Love and open up space gives you a one year window to spend, while leaving you with not many upgrade options.  Being not a destination city and not having a destination team it is unlikely that they would have been able to land an actual star level player and would have been in the position Chicago was this past year and feeling forced into overpaying a former star.  


The additions of Rubio and Markkanen should shore up weak areas and add wins to the Cavs team, but they also represent the contract swapping path forward to improvement.  Rubio could well finish the season on the Cavs and if he did he could function as a 2nd MLE for the team, where they bring him back as a 3rd guard to finish out his career but through his bird rights rather than the MLE.  Or he could be packaged at the deadline with future assets to upgrade a position.  


Lauri needs to be looked at the same way, but rather than being a tradeable contract this year its year 3 and 4 of his deal where the Cavs should have a clear idea of Sexton and Garlands’ costs and productivity, Okoro and Mobleys progress, Allen’s ceiling and the status of their fringe youth in Wade, Windler and Stevens.  Instead of a one year window in a season with less clarity they get a 3-4 year window through which there should be more information.  The Cavs should have a lot of potential turnover over that time frame and while I wouldn’t completely discount a 2024 starting lineup of Garland, Sexton, Okoro, Mobley, Allen- I also wouldn’t bet on it.  To speculate I think that Garland and Mobely are the safer bets to remain, with Sexton’s general value around the league making him an attractive trade chip and Okoro needing a lot of growth to get to the point where the Cavs don’t need to upgrade the SF position.

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