The Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly declined big Ante Zizic’s fourth-year option, meaning that in the summer of 2020, he will be an unrestricted free agent.
Coming into the 2019-20 season, I would’ve thought that big Ante Zizic would be a nice piece for Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Beilein to have in his rotation. At this point, though, it’s unclear how many meaningful rotational minutes Zizic will have this year with the Cavaliers and if he has any real future with them.
Zizic is reportedly dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, and seemingly could be back for Cleveland in mid-November (per the team), but it’s uncertain how much action he’ll get when he comes back for Beilein and company.
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Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love have been workhorse bigs for Beilein, and key reserve big Larry Nance Jr. will be getting a considerable minutes-share going forward, and again, when Zizic is back, it’s unclear if he’ll be active all that often.
He is a traditional big that doesn’t have perimeter shooting range and can’t switch out against opposing ball-handlers, anyhow.
I still am a fan of the 22-year-old Zizic, who was a piece Cleveland received in the prior Kyrie Irving deal with the Boston Celtics before the 2017-18 season, as a low post player coming off the bench.
Zizic also flashed a nice mid-range game last season, and he had a respectable 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game in 2018-19 (per Basketball Reference).
Nonetheless, it was first reported by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps that the Cleveland Cavaliers declined Zizic’s fourth-year option for the 2020-21 season. This means he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2020.
The Cavs won’t be picking up the $3.8 million fourth year option on Ante Zizic’s contract, league sources told ESPN. Zizic came over to the Celtics in the Kyrie Irving trade two years ago. He will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) October 30, 2019
According to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, though, it seems that the Cavaliers could possibly bring Zizic back next offseason.
I’d be for that, but anyway, here’s what Fedor said in regards to the Zizic situation.
"“Sources say the Cavs like Zizic and there’s a ‘strong possibility'” they attempt to bring him back this summer. Per league rules, the Cavs will only be able to offer him a deal up to $3.87 million as an unrestricted free agent — the amount of the team option they declined Wednesday, one day prior to the Oct. 31 deadline.”"
Fedor would mention how Zizic having injury issues dating back to training camp and currently with the plantar fasciitis played into the Cleveland Cavaliers not picking up the third-year big’s 2020-21 option.
Along with that, Fedor hit on if the option compensation was lower, Cleveland would’ve picked it up, but not doing so right now “allows them to keep financial flexibility.”
According to Fedor, Cleveland is projected to “have around $30 million in cap space” in the summer of 2020, for reference.
So anyhow, though Fedor seemed to touch on how Zizic could be brought back by the Cavaliers, it again seems anything but clear as to whether or not he has a future with Cleveland.
As a side note, Cleveland reportedly picked up the third-year option on guard Collin Sexton‘s contract on Tuesday, and our own Tyler Marling gave his take on that, for the record.
Again, as Fedor stated, the Cavs are currently projected to have around that $30 million in cap space in the summer of 2020, so as Marling also hit on, perhaps Cleveland could throw some cash at restricted free agents.
Furthermore, though it’s not set at this point, based on this news involving Zizic, it again seems less and less clear whether or not he has a future with the Cavs.
With Tristan Thompson and John Henson (who is reportedly dealing with a hamstring strain currently) on expiring contracts, though, and with Cleveland having a player development focus in coming years, maybe Zizic can continue to gradually progress with the Cavs and Beilein, however.
Either way, hopefully Zizic gets ample chances to prove he can be a solid contributor for Cleveland in 2019-20.