The focus of Cleveland Cavaliers players and coaches is rightfully focused on the playoffs ahead of them. Whether it’s their most likely opponent, the New York Knicks, or not, the Cavs are going to be drilling down on how to slow down their offense, and how to score against their defense. That’s what this time of year is all about, and the playoff chess match is probably the best in sports.
Not everyone in the organization is looking at the playoff battle, however. Some portion of the front office will be looking ahead to the offseason. How will the new CBA change the landscape? Who will be available? What are the various cap scenarios if this player or that one is retained?
The Cleveland Cavaliers have to dwell on the present and the future
That’s the reality of the NBA calendar; it’s relentless. A team has to be continually looking to both the present and the future, and balancing resources between the two. They need to be scouting pending free agents on other teams, looking into draft prospects, crunching numbers for the summer.
Without taking our eyes too far off of the exciting battles directly ahead, what are some of those big offseason questions the Cavaliers are contemplating right now? Let’s dig into three important ones among a sea of many.
Should the Cavaliers bring back Caris LeVert?
Two things can be true at the same time. The first is that the Cavaliers seem to genuinely love Caris LeVert, a player who has accepted a downgrade in role to fit into a team that changed around him. He is having the best defensive season of his career and hasn’t outwardly chafed in any way at the reduction in touches. He seems like a great teammate and a positive piece of their team culture.
At the same time, the trade the Cavs made a year ago to bring him in was absolutely a mistake. They moved a first-round pick and a valuable second to bring him in, a player who was a tough fit from the start and only became more so when they traded for Donovan Mitchell. Would the Cavs rather have LeVert right now, or a wing they could have traded for last summer (say, Bojan Bogdanovic) and a top-flight second-round rookie (Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams and Jaden Hardy all went in the first seven picks of the second round).
The answer is obviously door number two, but there’s no use crying over spilled milk. The question now becomes how to move forward. Should the Cavs wipe their hands of the mistake, let LeVert walk in free agency, and move on? That’s an option, and better than drastically overpaying him, but they won’t open up enough cap space going that route to replace him.
Should they re-sign LeVert to preserve the salary slot and then look to trade him midseason? Or try to get him to ink a deal fit for a sixth man and keep him in the plans moving forward? Part of their calculus will be what LeVert wants as well. For all of the fit concerns, the Cavs are in a tricky position deciding how to move forward.
What is Isaac Okoro worth in an extension?
Here is the profile of two different players; which one do you want more? The first is a young player on a rise, a top-5 pick who has improved every season of his career. He is an elite defender, he fills a need on his team, and he is shooting a career-high from 3-point range.
The second player is a draft disappointment based on his draft slot, cannot create his own shot on offense and relies on an extremely high percentage of wide-open 3-point looks simply to approach league-average accuracy. He is too small to start long-term and has been a negative player according to some advanced metrics.
What I’m doing here is blatantly obvious given the title of this slide, but both players are Isaac Okoro. He deserves plenty of credit for how he has improved his shot, and his on-ball guard defense is truly special. At the same time, he is a low-volume outside shooter surviving on wide-open looks, and he isn’t tall or long enough to reasonably start long-term at the 3. What do the Cavs do with him?
He is eligible to an extension this summer ahead of his fourth season in the league. The Cavaliers don’t need to offer an extension, but they need some idea of their starting point in negotiations. Do they see Okoro as an option at small forward? Are they paying him to be their fourth guard? How do they wisely manage their books moving forward without insulting a home-grown player? It’s an important question they need an answer to.
How do the Cavaliers find their fifth starter?
Plenty of Cavaliers fans and perhaps a handful of analysts believe that Isaac Okoro can be the starting small forward on a title team. That’s fine; they certainly could be right. Given his lack of true floor-spacing playing alongside Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, added to his lack of size defending true small forwards, the Cavs probably have to look elsewhere for their ultimate answer at the 3.
Where do they look? Is it feasible to try and look inwards, most likely at Dean Wade? He remains an advanced stats darling, an above-average defender and above-average shooter at a position that demands both. If he has an impressive playoff run he could win the job.
If not, the Cavs will be looking elsewhere. They have limited resources to pursue an option in trade, but they should certainly be keeping their ear to the ground in case someone comes available. The most obvious tool is the full Mid-Level Exception, but it’s not clear how many worthy candidates will even be on the market.
The Cavaliers put together the core of this team last summer by trading for Donovan Mitchell; this summer they will focus on who belongs around the core. Do Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro fit into the long-term vision of this team? Who else will be added into the mix? These are important questions that the Cavs are already asking as the offseason inches ever closer on the other side of the playoffs.