The Cleveland Cavaliers had one remaining hole on their roster heading into NBA Free Agency. After a flurry of moves that saw $1.5 billion in new contracts go out on Day 1 of Free Agency, the Cavs still have that one hole to fill.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have weaknesses; they can use a third center with size, a 6’8″ two-way forward, a veteran wing who plays both offense and defense. They have options for each of those spots, however. What they don’t currently have is a backup point guard.
The Cleveland Cavaliers need to sign a point guard in free agency. After the whirlwind deals on Day 1, who is left for the Cavs to pursue?
Darius Garland is a dynamic on-ball player and the future of their point guard position, but the Cavs need someone to handle the ball when he is off the court. Caris LeVert and Collin Sexton, should he return, are capable secondary ball-handlers but shouldn’t be the team’s solution behind Garland. They are at their best with 48 minutes of solid point guard play.
Unfortunately, most of those solid point guard options are now gone. Tyus Jones re-signed with the Memphis Grizzlies at $15 million per season, a number the Cavs couldn’t rival. Delon Wright signed with the Washington Wizards for $8 million over two years, the kind of contract the Cavs would have offered. While he was way out of their price range, Jalen Brunson also signed a lucrative deal with the New York Knicks.
Who does that leave for the Cavs? Let’s look at three options still available in free agency, including the player rumored to be heading back to Cleveland.
Cavs point guard options after Day 1 of Free Agency: Raul Neto
The Washington Wizards went hard after upgrading their backcourt this summer, drafting Johnny Davis out of Wisconsin, trading for Monte Morris and Will Barton, and signing Delon Wright. That’s four new guards, and it likely leaves no room for Raul Neto.
Neto is a quintessential backup point guard. He can handle the ball and set up the offense, but he lacks the on-ball shot creation for himself to score or truly warp defenses to put his teammates in advantage situations. He is the kind of player on offense that you pair with another strong on-ball creator, which made him a good fit with Bradley Beal in Washington and could make him a good fit with Collin Sexton or Caris LeVert in Cleveland.
Last season was a down one for Neto in terms of shooting, as he shot only 29.2 percent from deep, but for his career he has shot 36.6 percent from outside the arc and a robust 80.4 percent from the free-throw line. He shouldn’t kill the Cavs when spotting up around another action, and he can take advantage of sagging defenders to cut into open space; he’s an underrated finisher when he can get to the rim.
Defense is where Neto butters his bread, however, with quick hands and a strong enough frames to take on both backcourt positions. Although John Hollinger’s model ($) valued him at $6.3 million for this season, he is probably available for the minimum. That would make him an excellent option if the Cavs use their mid-level exception on a forward or on Ricky Rubio, who will be out to start the season.
Cavs point guard options after Day 1 of Free Agency: Ricky Rubio
Last season the pairing of Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio was a resounding success. In fact, all aspects of the Rubio addition were excellent: he held down the fort when Garland missed time, he proved to be an excellent pairing with him in two-guard lineups, and he was a positive influence on the locker room and instantly a beloved teammate. That’s why it hurt so bad when he tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season.
The NBA is a business and the Cavs used Rubio’s salary to acquire Caris LeVert from the Indiana Pacers. Rubio can now sign back with the Cavs, but in doing so will lose his Bird Rights, which the Cavs transferred to the Pacers when they traded Rubio.
The consequences of that won’t change this season, but if Rubio were to sign a one-year deal to rehab and hopefully help late in the year, the Cavs would be limited in how much they could re-sign him for the following summer. They could give him a modest raise or would be forced to dip into cap space or an available exception.
That’s a ways off, however. The real implication of re-signing Rubio, which would obviously be a positive locker room move and provide another veteran voice to this young roster, is that they will still need a backup point guard until Rubio returns. Do they trust that job to Brandon Goodwin? Otherwise, they will need to bring in another outside point guard, be that the aforementioned Neto or someone like Goran Dragic or D.J. Augustin at the minimum.
Cavs point guard options after Day 1 of Free Agency: Aaron Holiday
The youngest of the three Holiday brothers in the NBA, Aaron Holiday has struggled to find a long-term home. After playing the first three seasons of his career in Indiana, starting just 41 of his 182 games, he was traded last summer to the Washington Wizards, who flipped him later in the year to the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns don’t appear to want him either, and he is an unrestricted free agent at the age of 25. Holiday is far from a washout, however. He is a career 37.3 percent shooter from deep and is nowhere near as streaky as some of his point guard compatriots, hitting at least 33.9 percent of his 3s every season and 36.8 ever year but his rookie one. As a career 84 percent free-throw shooter, the tough is real.
Holiday is also a good defender, an important factor in a backup point guard for a team with defensive sieves on the second unit. Signing a score-only guard like Lou Williams or Isaiah Thomas could juice the bench offense, but a team trying to survive with some combination of Collin Sexton, Caris LeVert and Kevin Love needs point-of-attack defense.
To extend his career in a meaningful way, Holiday will need to get stronger to improve his finishing inside the arc, but most of all he will need to dial back the score-first mentality to focus a bit more on facilitating. That’s his path to finding success with the Cavs or someone else.
Holiday fits their timetable beautifully and would be a great addition using the Bi-Annual Exception or a portion of the Mid-Level. While Neto is solid and Rubio has a track record of success, Holiday would be my top target for the Cavs now that the dust has settled after a whirlwind Day 1 of Free Agency.