The Cleveland Cavaliers have the most meaningful March, April and May in front of them as they have had in five years. They are jockeying for playoff positioning as a team that will almost certainly be favored to win a first-round series and has a real shot at going further. No one is skipping ahead of the incredible basketball to be had.
Even so, every NBA team has to devote some of its attention to the coming offseason. The Cavs aren’t simply trying to win this year; they are trying to build a long-term contender, a team that will be a title favorite in two and three and four seasons. The core of this team is good enough, and young enough, for that to be a real possibility.
Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are all under contract for at least the next two seasons. Dean Wade just signed a new extension and is under contract for another three seasons. Isaac Okoro and Ricky Rubio are under contract for next season as well.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a lot of pending free agents this summer.
The rest of the roster, however, could hit the open market this summer. How the Cavaliers navigate the decisions of who to re-sign and who to let walk will dictate the shape of the roster around their core.
Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that the Cavaliers pick up the team option for Lamar Stevens and decide not to waive Cedi Osman, who has a non-guaranteed contract for next season. With Kevin Love already waived this season, that leaves seven free agents the Cavs have to make decisions on.
We’ll play “Return or Burn” to discuss whether the Cavaliers should bring each player back to the team next season, starting with the headliner of the Cavs’ free agent class.
Return or Burn: Caris LeVert
Two things can be true about Caris LeVert at the same time. First, he is a genuinely great guy, beloved teammate and committed worker who has played hard on defense and accepted his role. That all seems to be true, and the Cavaliers love having him on the roster. He has only enhanced the team’s chemistry even as he has moved into a bench role.
At the same time, the trade at last year’s Trade Deadline that brought LeVert to the team in exchange for a couple of draft picks looks like a mistake. He didn’t help the Cavs make the playoffs last season and, through no fault of his own, is not a great fit on a team with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. His on-ball creation is helpful to a team lacking that, but the Cavs have two of the league’s best and won’t play a minute without one or the other in the playoffs.
LeVert isn’t good enough off-ball to elevate lineups offensively, and despite his effort, he is a middling defender at best (and probably two steps below average in reality given that he can’t hide in lineups with Garland or Mitchell). He is a much more talented player than guys like Dean Wade or the newly-signed Danny Green, but they are better fits for a playoff rotation.
All of that means if the Cavaliers need to offer a contract comparable to the $18.8 million he made this season, they need to walk away or work out a sign-and-trade to land him elsewhere. Next season they need space under the hard cap in order to use their full Mid-Level Exception, and in future seasons as the team gets more expensive they will get more use out of the salary flexibility than overpaying LeVert.
If he is willing to re-sign for seven figures or less a conversation is more worth having, but that honestly doesn’t pay him what he deserves on a team that can better use his services. He and the Cavs are going to be better off moving on.
Verdict: Burn
Return or Burn: Danny Green
The newest Cavaliers (and also the oldest, in both ways of understanding that title) will be 36 years old this summer. If he can show that he is fully healthy, opposing teams might want to offer him more than the Cavs can without dipping into their full Mid-Level Exception, which they really should be using for a 3-and-D wing more on their timetable.
If he is healthy and still playing at a high level, but values his place on the team, using Non-Bird Rights to give him a slight raise on the $2 million he is making this season might make sense for both sides.
Verdict: Return
Return or Burn: Robin Lopez
Robin Lopez is a great locker-room vet to have around, and he has been a part of the Cavs’ best-in-class team culture this season. At the same time, he has not had much juice left on the court. If the Cavs have a roster spot left after addressing backup center by adding another player, Lopez is a good end-of-bench guy. Most likely, though, they will use his roster spot to do so.
Verdict: Burn
Return or Burn: Raul Neto
Raul Neto played a very important role on this team, filling in at backup point guard while Ricky Rubio was recovering. When Rubio, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland are all healthy he doesn’t have a spot in the rotation, which is fine and probably what he expected. The Cavs should sue this roster spot on a younger project point guard, be that Sharife Cooper or a rookie next season.
Verdict: Burn
Return or Burn: Dylan Windler
It’s a shame that Dylan Windler couldn’t realize his potential in the NBA, but injury after injury finally just sealed his fate with the Cavaliers. He is a great “second-draft” candidate for another team to take a flier on this summer. On the Cavs he won’t get any minutes to try and rebuild his career.
Verdict: Burn
Return or Burn: Isaiah Mobley
The older brother of Evan Mobley, Isaiah has been on a two-way contract with the Cavaliers this season. He has only played 26 minutes with the Cavs, but he has played often for the Cleveland Charge in the G League and absolutely dominated, averaging 22.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and shooting 36.1 percent from deep. He could return on another two-way deal, but he also has a very real chance at making the 15-man roster as the backup center.
Verdict: Return
Return or Burn: Mamadi Diakite
The trickest decision might come down to Mamadi Diakite, the former Virginia big man who will need to either convert into a full contract or leave the team this offseason. He played well when called into duty earlier in the season due to a brief injury to Jarrett Allen, helping to key a big win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Diakite has excellent mobility defensively and is a bouncy rim protector, and his ability to be a “poor man’s Evan Mobley” makes him an interesting fit as his understudy at the back of the rotation. At the same time, he doesn’t offer much upside at this point, and offensively he doesn’t offer any floor spacing. The Cavs could really use more of a stretch-big option to replace Kevin Love as their fifth-big. That’s probably not Diakite.
Verdict: Burn
It’s hard to move on from players, but now that the Cavaliers have their rotation set they can use free agency to fill in behind those players in specific ways. Hopefully, those moves will help the Cavs go from rising stars to blazing suns.