The Cleveland Cavaliers came into this offseason without a lot of flexibility. As has been the case for nearly a decade, the Cavs were dealing with a relatively full cap sheet, with multiple hefty contracts that often belied their status as a rebuilding team in the post-LeBron era.
This summer the Cavs were something different, a team that missed the playoffs by a whisker and finished last season with a winning record. Even so, their tools were limited by those pesky contracts they had previously handed out. Kevin Love, Jarrett Allen, Lauri Markkanen and Caris LeVert are all on the books for at least $16 million this season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were just graded for their free agency moves. How can the Cavs make that grade too low…or too high?
How did the Cavs do with those limited tools? Our sister site Hoops Habit recently handed out grades for the entire league in free agency. How did the Cavs do?
They were handed a B+ by Hoops Habit. The summary of their free agency was that “The Cleveland Cavaliers came into this offseason with three primary needs to fill: a third center, a backup point guard and a 3-and-D wing. Yet again they ignored that last need in free agency…the other two questions they answered very well.”
Was that the right grade? Time will key us in to how effective their moves were and the impact they had. Let’s evaluate why the grade may end up too low, and then do the same exercise about why is might be too high.