Cavs: FA Garrison Mathews could bring shooting pop off bench

The Cleveland Cavaliers were not going to make a big splash in free agency this go-round, once again really after a pretty dormant past offseason in that way.

The Cavs were set to have their $9.5 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and the roughly $3.7 million bi-annual exception. Cleveland did make a crucial move in selecting Evan Mobley at #3 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, although that was a no-brainer, but I do give them credit for filling a backup point guard need by trading for Ricky Rubio.

Mobley could very well be the player the Cavaliers build around from here, and at least for this next season, Rubio I believe will help stabilize things for Cleveland’s bench. We’ll have to see as far as if he could possibly stick around.

Circling back to free agency, while the market for wing shooters, among others, has dried up to a large extent with the Cavs basically being priced out of certain rumored targets, there still are some names that come to mind that could aid their rotation.

A couple that come to mind include James Ennis III, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, whose qualifying offer was recently rescinded by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Hamidou Diallo, who has not gotten a new deal from the Detroit Pistons yet, and another seemingly low-cost signing.

Garrison Mathews, whose qualifying offer was rescinded by the Washington Wizards last week (per a report from Fred Katz of The Athletic) is that potential target I’m referring to. The Wiz ended up having to cut ties with Mathews as part of their trade to bring in Spencer Dinwiddie, for reference.

Mathews, who was a two-way contributor for the Wizards the past two seasons after having gone undrafted out of Lipscomb in 2019, has looked to be a big-time shooter when given opportunities. And that’s the reasoning for his suggestion as a Cavaliers target here, via low-cost deal.

Mathews could bring shooting pop off the Cavs bench.

I’m not discounting Mathews’ solid defense on the perimeter, feasibly against guards and some 3s, as he is a competitor that gives 100 percent on every possession, and he could give Cleveland energy in spurts from that. But pure shooting is his calling card.