Cavs rumors: Koby Altman reportedly hits on how CLE isn’t too focused on FA

We’ve touched on it before, but the Cleveland Cavaliers won’t likely be very active in free agency this summer, and general manager Koby Altman reportedly further emphasized that.

The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t going to be very active in free agency this summer, as we’ve detailed here at KJG a number of times, and offseason activity/roster shakeup by the 2020 trade deadline will likely come via trades of expiring pieces, of which the Cavaliers have a good amount of.

As it stands, with the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly likely to simply waive J.R. Smith, whose contract structure leads to cap relief by him making just $3.87 million instead of his full amount of $15.68 million (contract information via Spotrac), if he’s waived by realistically, June 30, as has been detailed ad nauseam, it seems as though the Cavaliers are focused on seeing what they have internally this offseason, and may potentially make a low-key free agent signing later in the offseason.

If/when Smith is waived, then according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, the Cavaliers’ roster will have 13 players (and likely would even after possible trades of expiring players), because the Cavs did not extend David Nwaba the qualifying offer per Fedor, who it seems now may not be back in the 2019-20 season, as according to Fedor, the Cavs will “most likely” fill their last two roster spots with minimum-contract players (and Nwaba reportedly wants a multi-year deal), and Fedor noted how Nik Stauskas could be one candidate for one of those slots.

Fedor would also note how Cleveland would be willing to bring back Nwaba on a different deal, but we’ll see on that.

Another option could potentially be the roughly $2.76 million Sam Dekker trade exception (per Spotrac), but what kind of bargain bin player would that be giving the Cavs?

I’d maybe be interested in the Portland Trail Blazers’ Jake Layman, a player that is a solid defender on the perimeter and averaged 7.6 points on 57.9% effective field goal shooting (per Basketball Reference) in his first year playing regular minutes, but I don’t believe he’d be available at that team-friendly price.

Nonetheless, general manager Koby Altman and the front office reportedly did not want to have owner Dan Gilbert dip more into luxury tax territory in exchange for a return from a Smith deal involving a first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft along with a bad contract, per Fedor, and though Gilbert reportedly was willing to agree to do so, it makes sense that Altman and company didn’t.

This year’s draft was noticeably weak, and likely going deeper into the luxury tax doesn’t make much sense with the Cavaliers likely losing a ton of games in 2019-20, anyway.

Furthermore, in relation to potential free agents, Altman reportedly said had this to say (per Sam Amico of Amico Hoops), and this is good to hear, because the Cleveland Cavaliers need to be focused on getting their young pieces, such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr. considerable minutes, anyhow.

"“I don’t know how big of a player we’re going to be in free agency,” Altman said. “Right now, we’re pretty focused on what we have.”"

As Amico would go on to mention, the Cavs will be watching intently to see if there’s maybe a player that can make an impression in summer league along with reported two-way signing Dean Wade, such as potentially guard Phil Booth out of Villanova, or perhaps international quality wing defender Yovel Zoosman (you can view Cleveland’s full Salt Lake City summer league roster here, courtesy of a Cavs’ official announcement).

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Along with Altman essentially saying the Cavs won’t be very free-agency focused in the coming months, Amico (along with The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon (who noted how Nwaba would likely become an unrestricted free agent earlier Friday in his article, by the way, and the article is subscription required) noted how teams that “strike out” in free agency will be interested in Kevin Love.

Amico would also mention Tristan Thompson as well, and highlighted the Los Angeles Lakers (due to the LeBron James connection) and Toronto Raptors (that’s where Thompson is from) as possible trade destinations, which are both logical, considering Thompson is expiring after next season (though he’s not a bargain one-year rental at over $18.5 million, per Spotrac).

As far as potential suitors for Love, Amico would mention the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers.

Obviously, I’ve noted (and Amico touched on this) why it doesn’t seem that Love will be dealt during this offseason, because potential trade suitors will need to see him healthy for a considerable chunk of the 2019-20 season, and from Altman’s perspective, that might allow Love to help the Cavaliers’ young guys in their development, and it could maybe increase Love’s possible trade value, though I’m skeptical of that as well, given Love’s injury history.

Though Love has averaged 17.1 points on 51.3% effective field goal shooting (and a 37.5% three-point shooting clip) 10.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in his four-plus seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers (per Basketball Reference), you never know how many games the five-time All-Star will be able to give you anymore, and I still believe it might suit Cleveland better to keep him around long-term, anyhow.

I’m sure I’m in the minority there, though, but at any rate, it’s encouraging to hear that Altman is not focused on trying to find talent in free agency this summer via either the $9.2 million full mid-level exception (which would take a ton of unloading of expiring contracts anyway, as Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale detailed) or the $5.7 million (both amounts per Hoops Rumor’s Luke Adams) tax-payer’s mid level exception that won’t really impact the team in a rebuilding year in terms of winning, anyway.

Doing so could cause Gilbert’s luxury tax bill to spike and repeater penalties to follow if Cleveland can’t really easily maneuver around the tax line as the 2019-20 season progresses, so the minimum contracts play (and perhaps leaving one spot open) seems smart.