If David Nwaba is not back, Cavs should leave last roster spot open

With there seemingly being more uncertainty than before surrounding David Nwaba’s return, the Cleveland Cavaliers should leave their last roster spot open to have for potential trades later on this offseason/into next season.

The general thought a few months ago was that the Cleveland Cavaliers were reportedly likely to bring back David Nwaba for the 2019-20 season, and we’ve touched on reasons why Cleveland should try to do just that before here at KJG.

Nwaba, when healthy last season, was a quality contributor for Cleveland, and his 12.2 points on 52.7% effective field goal shooting and 6.0 rebounds per 36 minutes illustrate that, and he was an asset on the defensive end of the floor, in particular.

Nwaba was clearly the best defender on the perimeter for the Cavaliers in 2018-19, while also holding his own against small-ball 4’s, and ideally, I’d like to see Nwaba back.

Nonetheless, it seems less likely than before that the 26-year-old will be returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers next season, because according to a report from Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies, Nwaba is not willing to accept playing out the 2019-20 season on just the qualifying offer, as he wants to sign a multi-year deal this offseason.

That being said, a multi-year deal for Nwaba, who did miss 31 games in 2018-19 (per Basketball Reference) due to reported knee/ankle ailments, might not be something the Cavaliers are willing to do.

As Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale highlighted, regardless of whether or not the Cavs end up having the full mid-level exception (of $9.2 million), which will take a ton of maneuvering via trades of expiring pieces, or if they are in luxury tax territory, which would enable them to have the taxpayer’s mid-level exception (of roughly $5.7 million), if Nwaba comes back, he’ll take a chunk of either MLE.

Given that general manager Koby Altman and the front office reportedly did not agree to potential J.R. Smith trades centered around first-round picks in the 2019 NBA Draft likely due to further luxury tax spikes (per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor), though, the Cleveland Cavaliers shelling out a multi-year deal to Nwaba is becoming increasingly unlikely.

So, if Nwaba is not brought back, with Altman and the front offices’ stance on trying to not have owner Dan Gilbert pay a hefty luxury tax bill, even though he reportedly is willing to pay one to help the team’s rebuild (as Fedor alluded to), the Cavs should leave their 15th roster spot open this offseason, because of returns from potential trades of their many expiring players, and with them not being able to be big free agent players this summer, anyway, due to them rebuilding and having to navigate the $132 million luxury tax threshold as next season progresses.

For reference, we’ve touched on it before, but the Cavaliers, without Nwaba (and realistically, with potential trades later on, anyhow) are set to have 14 players on their roster heading into next season, according to Fedor; that’s the case now because of the 11 players on the roster before, the two rookies already in the fold, Smith being feasibly just waived, and now the previously-mentioned Kevin Porter Jr. trade involving (to some degree the Milwaukee Bucks) and Detroit Pistons now being official, courtesy of a Cavs’ official announcement.

According to Favale, potential free agent targets for the Cavaliers this offseason are Mario Hezonja, Furkan Korkmaz (who intrigues me as a project shooter to a degree but is not a plus defender), and restricted free agent Stanley Johnson.

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Adding those players to the payroll doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense, regardless of the trades certainly to come down the road by Altman and company.

Portland Trail Blazers restricted free agent Jake Layman, a 6-foot-9 combo forward that did some good things on both ends in 2018-19, and is very athletic, could be a potential target as well for the Cavs (as Rip City Project’s Aneesh Namburi suggested), but would Cleveland really want to possibly shell out a large portion of either mid-level exception for Layman, who has really only significant minutes in one season?

I wouldn’t think Sam Dekker‘s nearly $2.76 million trade exception (courtesy of Spotrac) is something that the Blazers wouldn’t match, and the Cavs shouldn’t dip into the MLE for Layman, again, anyhow.

Layman, though he did fall out of Portland’s rotation later in the regular season and in the postseason, did showcase some real value as a cutter last year, and had 7.6 points on 57.9% effective field goal shooting in 18.7 minutes per game, and has the athleticism and feel to be an effective defender against 2’s, 3’s and some 4’s, but again, is that sample size worth Cleveland adding to their payroll (and potentially luxury tax bill) for next year in a season that’s going to bring a whole lot of losing?

No, and Layman is not nearly the defender Nwaba is when healthy, and plus, if the Cleveland Cavaliers have a 15th roster spot open, that could leave more rotational minutes for younger players such as Porter, Dylan Windler and Ante Zizic, that will assuredly need them in 2019-20 and going forward.

So again, with the Cavs’ limitations this offseason/in free agency, if Nwaba is not back with Cleveland next season, which seems to be more likely than it was before, Altman and the Cavaliers should leave their 15th roster spot open, given their luxury tax/payroll situation and ability to have other younger players develop with more minutes-share.

Player statistics for this article were gathered from Basketball Reference.