Cavs: Garrison Mathews makes too much sense as potential FA target

It’s not as if the Cleveland Cavaliers were expected to be particularly active in the 2021 free agency period.

The Cavs ended up re-signing Jarrett Allen to a five-year, $100 million deal, which was reportedly an offseason priority for them, and their other notable roster move aside from drafting Evan Mobley was acquiring Ricky Rubio via trade.

Rumored potential free agency wing targets such as Reggie Bullock, Doug McDermott and Alec Burks seemingly priced themselves out of Cleveland’s range from there.

And either way, with the Wine and Gold having only their $9.5 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception and to some extent the $3.7 million bi-annual exception, their free agency period was going to be mostly quiet.

That said, a few possible free agency targets that come to mind that could still aid Cleveland’s bench shooting/scoring could be the likes of Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Garrison Mathews and Hamidou Diallo, and to a lesser degree, Langston Galloway. For a reserve/depth 5, with Isaiah Hartenstein potentially not back, an alternative such as Bismack Biyombo, Reggie Perry or even Tacko Fall could be sensible.

In relation to the rotational wing shooting element though, while I’d be on-board with Mykhailiuk or Diallo too, Mathews stands out for a possible Cavs free agency target still.

Mathews makes too much sense as a potential Cavs free agency target.

Despite being on a two-way deal after having gone undrafted in 2019, Mathews flashed as a rookie in 2019-20 and last season was an impact contributor in his minutes.

While his 5.5 points per outing last season doesn’t pop out, he did knock down 38.4 percent of his 3.1 three-point attempts in 16.2 minutes per game in 64 appearances. The year prior, though it was only in 18 games, he did hit 41.3 percent from downtown, too.

And in a four-year collegiate career at Lipscomb, Mathews deep shooting was on display a bunch, as he canned 37.4 percent of his 7.2 triple attempts per outing and had 18.5 points per game.

The gyst is, whether or not injuries played into it somewhat, Mathews could definitely help the Cavaliers’ deep shooting efforts. Cleveland was last in the NBA last season in three-point shooting percentage, 29th in made triples per game and 28th in deep attempts per game.

In rotational stretches at the 2 and 3, depending on matchups/gameflow, Mathews could provide the Cavs with a knockdown catch-and-shoot threat off movement, via spot-ups and in transition, as KJG’s Josh Cornelissen suggested.

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Mathews, whose qualifying offer was rescinded recently by Washington to help faciliate their sign-and-trade acquisition of Spencer Dinwiddie, is a player that I could see building off of his past season’s success and could provide meaningful depth. That’d be feasibly in spurts/stretches where he could fill in for either Collin Sexton or Isaac Okoro at the 2/3 I’d assume.

Furthermore, with the struggles Damyean Dotson had last season, along with the inconsistencies Cedi Osman had, and with Dylan Windler‘s health concerns, a potential Mathews signing would be very sensible.

And that’s even more so with Dotson seemingly having a good chance of being waived, and the same goes for Mfiondu Kabengele, whose deal is also guaranteed for next season.

Conversely, Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade I’d think could have a better shot of sticking around, regarding Cleveland’s four non-guaranteed players for 2021-22.

Circling back to Mathews, I wouldn’t expect him to cost much, either, but with what he’s shown with the Wizards, I would be on-board with him getting a standard roster spot still.

As the aforementioned Cornelissen touched on, maybe the Cavs could offer a bit more than a possible minimum deal via part of the bi-annual exception, or say, a two-year deal for $5 million or so via part of the MLE to him? I could maybe see that doing the trick.

All things considered, with how he could provide a great catch-and-shoot/off-movement shooting presence in rotational minutes for Cleveland, and with the 215-pound Mathews being a solid perimeter defender, he’d be a nice low-cost free agency add.

A potential signing of the Lipscomb product would seem to make too much sense, with how he could fit in a plethora of lineups, be a valuable floor spacer and could bring defensive toughness/energy.

Heading into his age-25 season, I’d be pleased with a Mathews signing by the Cavaliers.