Armed with the contract of J.R. Smith, it seems reasonable that the Cleveland Cavaliers could potentially trade for Charlotte Hornets veteran Marvin Williams and Charlotte’s 2019 first-round pick.
The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be interested in acquiring a third first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, at least to some degree, as we’ve touched on.
It appears that the best way to do that would be involving them trading J.R. Smith.
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As we’ve continually noted, Smith has a non-guaranteed salary of $3.87 million for 2019-20 (per Spotrac), despite his potential trade value counting for his fully-guaranteed next season salary of over $15.68 million, as we’ve often noted, due to it being from the last Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
It seems to be a foregone conclusion that Smith will only be compensated in the non-guaranteed salary variety, by the way.
That’s why Smith is a player that is seemingly always discussed when it comes to NBA trade rumors floating around, and with the 2019 NBA Draft coming up on June 20, in particular.
We hit on how it was reported recently that Cleveland may be interested in a trade return for Smith that does not involve a first-round pick in this year’s draft, and that the Cavaliers may prefer a first-rounder in coming drafts instead, due to a perceived weak 2019 class.
Nonetheless, the media member that reported that potential future draft preference by the Cavs, Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, also then noted that them still eventually getting a return of a 2019 first-round pick “may be unavoidable,” anyway.
Cleveland could still get a player that could eventually become a meaningful piece to their rotation from the 2019 NBA Draft, though, given that the Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is reportedly willing to take on bad or bloated contracts/additional salary in order for Cleveland to acquire more draft assets in the coming years.
A player that fits that bloated salary mold
Taking that into account, a potential piece that could fall into the bloated salary category that could be paired with a meaningful 2019 first-round pick could be the Charlotte Hornets’ Marvin Williams.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the soon-to-be-33-year-old Williams recently exercised his player option for the 2019-20 season, which is for just over $15.0 million (per Spotrac).
He’s been a solid player during his career, which started with the Atlanta Hawks and then Utah Jazz, and Williams is set to enter his sixth season with Charlotte; next year will be the veteran’s 15th in the NBA (per Basketball Reference).
In the 2018-19 season, he was a reliable starter, as he averaged 10.1 points on 52.9% effective field goal shooting, along with 5.4 rebounds per game in 75 game appearances (per Basketball Reference).
So to be clear as far as a potential trade would go, I would think a reasonable scenario for both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Hornets would go as follows.
Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz had a Smith-Williams trade swap idea back in last November, which was back when the Cavaliers’ last season wasn’t completely shot yet.
Looking at this proposed trade above involving Williams going to Cleveland in exchange for Smith to Charlotte (where he began his NBA career when the team was in New Orleans and Oklahoma City for a bit), it would help the Hornets from a cap relief perspective.
More relief for bringing back Kemba Walker
Williams’ player option for next season does not do any favors for the Hornets’ financially as they likely look to bring back All-Star point guard Kemba Walker, who could potentially get a $221 million super-max contract (h/t Cleveland.com’s Matt Goul) upon staying with Charlotte this summer (of which would be five years).
Plus, as Goul would go on to note, a deal such as Williams, combined with Walker’s aforementioned super-max, “could push the Hornets into the luxury tax.”
I would think Charlotte owner Michael Jordan would want to avoid that, and as Swartz previously alluded to in his aforementioned article, teams (in this case, Charlotte) can “save nearly $12 million should they waive Smith before the start of free agency.”
To be exact, here, Charlotte would be able to save $11.81 million by waiving Smith before the start of free agency, on June 30, and additionally, they wouldn’t have pay that 2019 NBA Draft 12th overall pick’s guaranteed salary of $3,189,100 (courtesy of Real GM).
Considering Charlotte’s situation with Walker, and the fact that a player they would likely want to re-sign in Jeremy Lamb is set to also be an unrestricted free agent (and he’s coming off a career season), I wouldn’t imagine Charlotte is really too concerned about having Cleveland’s 26th overall pick.
That pick will have a guaranteed salary of $1,694,300 (per Real GM), and with it not projecting as a key rotation piece on a team with likely postseason aspirations, I would think the salary relief from Smith would be more than fine as a return on Charlotte’s end.
A potential expiring trade piece or veteran leader for the Cavs
Additionally, another key reason for me for the Cavs to do this, would be that Williams, who has been a steady player throughout his career that can realistically play the 3 or 4 and has good defensive instincts, would be another expiring piece they could eventually use in a deal near the 2020 trade deadline.
I would think that with Williams’ postseason experience and ability as a functional floor-spacer (a three-point hit rate of at least 35.0% each of the last six seasons while shooting at least 3.4 per game, per Basketball Reference), he’d have some notable trade value for Cleveland.
Contenders can always use floor-spacers and high-IQ players near the deadline for the postseason, and with Williams reportedly being a great teammate as well, I would imagine with him expiring, that he could eventually warrant a first-round pick likely in a three-team deal if a bad, non-expiring contract is attached.
Think of Cleveland’s case with the Houston Rockets at the past deadline in how they had to take back Brandon Knight (who could be an expiring piece this year, by the way).
Or if Cleveland deems Williams to be a nice piece for their rotation and veteran leader, maybe they could bring him back on a more-team-friendly contract next offseason, anyhow, for head coach John Beilein and company.
Maybe Cleveland could view him as a leadership asset that could further develop Larry Nance Jr. and/or Osman and be of more value than say, John Henson (who is an expiring himself after next season)?
Along with the expiring/veteran presence, Cleveland acquiring the 12th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft with Williams could enable the Cavaliers to acquire a quality rotational piece for the coming years, such as Kentucky’s PJ Washington/Tyler Herro, Indiana’s Romeo Langford, Gonzaga’s Brandon Clarke or Texas’ Jaxson Hayes, for example.
Combined with the 26th pick, which could get some run next year for Cleveland, a team that is rebuilding, there should still be enough rotation time at certain points in the season for what would be all three of the Cavs’ rookies, anyhow, especially with Marquese Chriss, Nik Stauskas and David Nwaba all feasibly not returning.
We’ll see if Cleveland is interested in a deal such as this proposed one for an additional first-rounder, which would seem to be a realistic one involving Smith.