The Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly signed former Philadelphia 76ers’ first-round pick Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to a training camp deal.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly signed another player to a training camp deal in former first-round pick Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot according to The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon.
The deal will be a training camp deal and the 20th player they have signed (the maximum allowed in NBA training camps).
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This will give Luwawu-Cabarrot the opportunity to compete for the Cavs’ 14th roster spot with Exhibit 10 signings Daniel Hamilton, J.P. Macura and Marques Bolden, and non-guaranteed contract signings in Jarell Martin and Sindarius Thornwell.
Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (on Tuesday while touching on the latest Luwawu-Cabarrot signing again) and Vardon have highlighted (as KJG contributors have often mentioned) in previous reports that the Cavs will likely only carry 14 players on their active roster so it allows for the front office to have flexibility heading into the 2019-20 season.
It is possible that the Cavs could allow one of the previously mentioned signees to be the second two-way player alongside Dean Wade to begin the season.
The training camp invite for Luwawu-Cabarrot signifies the Cavaliers’ front office is trying to find some depth at the small forward position, where they are very thin.
Behind Cedi Osman, they have a pair of rookies, who are both tweeners between shooting guard and small forward in Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr.
The third small forward position is up for grabs between Luwawu-Cabarrot, Thornwell, and Hamilton.
While Thornwell is the most proven, and likely the most reliable option as a third small forward, Luwawu-Cabarrot still has a lot of potential as a strong, defensive-minded wing who has a lot of length with a 6’11” wingspan according to his DraftExpress profile.
Luwawu-Cabarrot hasn’t exactly panned out since being selected with the 24th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers; he’s been previously traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder by Philly, and last season, he was also reportedly dealt to the Chicago Bulls, as Bleacher Report’s Joseph Zucker hit on. However, Luwawu-Cabarrot is worth a flyer with a training camp invite due to the fact that he is only 24 years old, athletic, and a physical wing defender.
While he had a reputation coming into the 2016 NBA Draft of a good wing defender, Luwawu-Cabarrot has been anything but that. In his brief three-year career thus far, according to Basketball-Reference, his best defensive rating came in the 2017-18 NBA season is a paltry 110.
As his defensive rating is, Luwawu-Cabarrot would immediately vault to the top wing defender on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster next season, his career defensive rating of 112 (per Basketball-Reference) jumps that of Osman’s career defensive rating of 117 (per Basketball-Reference).
Another item to note is players do improve as they gain more experience, it is possible, if not highly likely, that Luwawu-Cabarrot will be a better defender this coming season than he has been. Again, he has the requisite size, length, and athleticism to be a very good wing defender.
His other per-game averages over the course of his career, per Basketball-Reference, do leave quite a bit to be desired as he has averaged 5.7 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 0.9 assists. He has also shot a very low 38.7% from the floor.
He hasn’t had much of an opportunity in the NBA to this point in his career as his career-high for appearances in a single season per Basketball-Reference is 69 games played during his rookie season.
The Cavaliers could be Luwawu-Cabarrot’s last opportunity in the NBA. That last opportunity could be exactly what he needs to develop like he was expected to when he entered the 2016 NBA Draft. If he does, the Cleveland Cavaliers may have gotten a steal with a simple training camp invite.