Cavs: Mfiondu Kabengele, Brodric Thomas being cut was hardly shocking

The Cleveland Cavaliers and other NBA clubs are close to tipping off their 2021-22 season, with the Cavaliers set to begin the campaign on Oct. 20 at the Memphis Grizzlies.

Meanwhile, the Cavs have had four preseason outings so far, and have one left to play, in which they’ll wrap up those exhibitions with a game at the Indiana Pacers, who they played and lost to 109-100, albeit in an entertaining game on Friday.

In any case, with the season set to start soon, the team is going to be finalizing their roster, which means some players will end up being waived before then. They’ll have to trim the number to 15 at max, whereas teams can have 20 players throughout training camp, but a number of those are either training camp invites, or non-guaranteed players and/or guys vying for two-way spots.

With that in mind, the Cavaliers will be busy here in coming days, and along those lines, Cleveland general manager Koby Altman recently announced on Tuesday afternoon that the team waived big Mfiondu Kabengele and guard/wing Brodric Thomas. Neither of those guys being waived was surprising, really.

Cavs: Neither Kabengele, nor Thomas being waived was shocking.

Even with Brodric Thomas having been signed again via two-way deal over the offseason, with his qualifying offer essentially for that being picked up, with him being a ways away offensively, and not seeming to have a path for NBA viability, I thought he could be waived still.

Now, Thomas, who was signed via two-way last season after having been a notable performer with the Houston Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, in the league’s Orlando bubble, did have some chances last season. He played in four games with the Rockets, also. With the Vipers, he did have 18.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals per contest in 14 games, too, and hit 41.3 percent of his three-point attempts.

Unfortunately, with the Cavs, he often seemed out of sorts when the opportunities did come for him at the 2 and 3, and while with it was understandable, he looked over his skis in an on-ball sense mostly, and off-ball, he hit just 28.3 percent from three. Many of those were pretty open as well.

There were some positives from Thomas in his 28 appearances last season with the Cavs, though, and his defensive activity, which even led to some outstanding blocks as a rotator, was a key positive.

He did show some legitimate finishing ability in his time with the Cavaliers last season, too, but in this coming season, with the uncertainty regarding his shot, and with him mightily struggling as a de facto 1 option in Las Vegas Summer League, I didn’t think he’d stick. I can’t grill Thomas too much about the Summer League issues, as that’s not his role, however, I didn’t expect him to even be kept around as a developmental 2/3 primarily playing with the Charge.

It’s difficult to foresee a path for him to possibly be a viable NBA wing, as the handle needs work to help him create separation in that realm, and it’s unclear if against NBA length his shot can be respectable off-ball.

Either way, I give the 6-foot-5 Thomas a ton of credit for making it on a two-way in some capacity, as he had to have worked his butt off to get to this point as a product of Division II Truman State, most notably. He’s been a cool story, and I don’t discount that in relation to the 24-year-old.

So, shifting gears a bit from there, it was again hardly a shocker when it was announced by Altman/the team that Kabengele was being waived.

Kabengele, who was signed following the 2021 trade deadline as injury insurance it seemed after he was traded to the Sacramento Kings by the LA Clippers and promptly waived, did play with a ton of effort, but looked to have his work cut off for him. I was on-board with the Cavaliers taking a flyer on him initially; that flamed out, though.

He’s sort of a tweener at 6-foot-9 at the 4/5, however, his offensive limitations were apparent from the jump, and his lack of touch and ability to utilize his strength if occasional switches did come hampered his impact.

Kabengele’s path is realistically as a rotational rim protector at the 5, and he showed some things in that area, both in some minutes with Cleveland last season and in Vegas Summer League. In 16 appearances with the Cavs, in which he appeared in 11.6 minutes and averaged 4.3 points and 2.9 rebounds, his block rate of 4.8 percent was what jumped out, in my opinion.

That said, as we hit on, Kabengele is not really a player that could even in rotational minutes look to be a factor for the Cavaliers, even with them previously signing him via multi-year deal earlier this year.

His deal from there was non-guaranteed after last season from that point, though, and whether or not Dean Wade and Lamar Stevens are non-guaranteed, they did show some NBA skills last season, whereas it’s tough to say Kabengele did, nor in Summer League.

So, lastly, in terms of players that could potentially be in-line for a two-way deal, fellow training camp invite Mitch Ballock seemingly could, given his shooting abilities, and/or Tacko Fall. Fall would appear to be a real candidate for the 24-year-old Kabengele’s former Cavs roster spot, however.

We’ll keep on the lookout for what’s to come involving roster cuts from here for Cleveland, and/or potential candidates for their two two-way slots from here, anyway.