Cavs should give Jaron Blossomgame another two-way go in 2019-20

The Cleveland Cavaliers got decent play out of Jaron Blossomgame, and they should give him a two-way deal again for the 2019-20 season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers got nice flashes from Jaron Blossomgame when he was given some run last season as a rotational player.

Initially, Blossomgame was acquired via trade, as his former organization, the San Antonio Spurs (of which Blossomgame played well for their G-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, in 2017-18), reportedly traded him for the rights to Cleveland two-way player John Holland, who mostly played for Cleveland’s G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, in November (per a Charge press release).

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A few weeks following that, Blossomgame was given a pro-rated two-way deal by Cleveland (along with at the time, Jalen Jones, who was eventually waived and whose two-way spot was reportedly given to Deng Adel in January), and he showed some spurts of good play, particularly on the defensive end of the floor as a help and/or weak side defender, as evidenced by his 0.7 blocks per 36 minutes (per Basketball Reference).

Blossomgame appeared in 27 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and averaged 16.3 minutes of action in those contests (per NBA.com), posting 4.2 points on 49.1% effective field goal shooting, to go with 3.6 rebounds.

While he has not proven to be a floor-spacer for either Cleveland (just 25.6% from three-point range last year) or in his two G-League seasons (just 30.6% from three in those, per Basketball Reference’s G-League statistics), he did have a knack for getting good putbacks from time to time due to his positional awareness and/or timing, which should not go unnoticed in the scope of games, and from a two-way player in particular.

He showed that here versus the Boston Celtics, per Fox Sports Ohio.

Additionally, he has shown both for Cleveland and in the G-League that he is an effective cutter, which combined with his high-flying athleticism, provides a solid offensive bench wrinkle in spurts.

His 69.0% accuracy on shots 0-3 feet from the rim (per Basketball Reference) this year is a good indicator of his effectiveness on the interior, and his 8.0 rebounds per 36 minutes last year shows he was active on the glass when given the chances. Factoring in his value as an energy player, it seems as though the 25-year-old Blossomgame should get another two-way contract from the Cleveland Cavaliers next season.

Adel does not seem as though he’ll warrant a two-way qualifying offer this summer from Cleveland, and I’m not sure Blossomgame will, either, but if they don’t extend one to Blossomgame, they should still try to eventually bring him back next year on a two-way again, even if he’s unrestricted, which could very well be the case.

With Cleveland’s cap situation not allowing them to do much in free agency, except perhaps give a flyer to an unrestricted player and extend a near $1.89 million qualifying offer to David Nwaba (per Spotrac) which would make him a restricted free agent, which seems likely, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Cleveland should very much consider bringing back an energy player like Blossomgame that has some defensive versatility with his 6-foot-7, 220-pound frame.

Even with Cleveland potentially having some luxury tax penalties ahead due to the addition of two first-round draft picks this year (of which owner Dan Gilbert will reportedly be more than willing to pay according to Fedor), they should be willing to add Blossomgame to the mix on a two-way deal again, as that shouldn’t cost them a ton financially; according to specifics detailed by Adam Johnson (with help from Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights) of 2ways10days.com, two-way contracts earned a maximum of just over $506,000 in 2018-19, and I wouldn’t think he’ll have a ton of other potential suitors, so let’s let him keep progressing with the Cavs.