The Cleveland Cavaliers have dug themselves out of the rebuilding pit step by step over the past few years. Drafting Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, trading for Jarrett Allen and hiring J.B. Bickerstaff gave them a solid foundation. Last offseason they made the blockbuster deal to bring in Donovan Mitchell. That resulted in 51 wins and the team’s first trip to the playoffs since 2018, and their first trip without LeBron James since the 1990s.
Despite one of the league’s best records last year, and its second-best point differential, the Cavs were easily defeated by the New York Knicks in five games. To take the next step, from regular season success to legitimate playoff threat, Cleveland needed to add the right support pieces this offseason.
The difficulty was that most of their bullets were already spent in the Mitchell trade. They entered the summer with the No. 49 pick in the draft, no first-round picks available to trade, and a pair of salary cap extensions to try and take their big swing.
How did the Cavaliers do this offseason?
Those limitations didn’t stop them from making a number of moves to reshape the roster. How did they do? Let’s take the Cavs back to grade school and give them a report card on the offseason; instead of P.E. and Social Studies, we’ll grade them on each move they made this summer.
Grades in the ‘A’ range excellently brought together the team’s needs, the value of the pick and took advantage of the opportunity (for example, the Cavs never had the scratch to trade for Jaylen Brown or the money to sign Khris Middleton). A grade in the ‘B’ range was worth making, a ‘C’ was questionable, a ‘D’ looks like a mistake and a ‘F’ was clearly a disaster, a “Lakers trading for Russell Westbrook” type of trainwreck.
Let’s walk through every move and see if the Cavaliers passed the summer, or if they’re going to repeat sixth grade. We start with the biggest signing they made.
1. Max Strus sign-and-trade
Traded Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens, two seconds for Max Strus; signed him to 4-year, $63 million contract.
The Cavaliers’ best weapon for adding a player this summer was the Mid-Level Exception, which started at $12.4 million for this upcoming season. As they (unofficially) canvassed the free agent market for a 3-and-D wing, two things quickly became apparent: there were not any high-end two-way small forwards likely to change teams, and that the limited market was going to drive prices above the MLE.
Kudos to Koby Altman and the front office for managing to find a way to spend above the MLE without cap space. They took advantage of the new CBA and its increased allotment for matching salary at mid-range levels to move two fringe rotation players in Cedi Osman and Lamar Stevens and bring back Max Strus, allowing them to shop above the MLE and retain that exception to sign another player or two (more on that in a moment).
Is Strus a good fit? He’s a versatile and high-volume shooter who is not intimidated by the playoff lights. For a team that certainly looked unsure of itself in its first trip to the playoffs, that steadiness will be a welcome addition.
Would it be better if Strus was taller than 6’5″, or a more accurate shooter than the 35 percent he shot last season? Absolutely. Would Strus ideally be a strong defender able to take on the toughest backcourt assignments in place of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell? Certainly. A player with all of those attributes wasn’t available, and Strus will step in and make an immediate difference for their floor spacing. The Cavs had to shop from the market available, and they did that.
Grade: A-
2. Signed Georges Niang
Signed to 3-year, $26 million contract
Adding Max Strus in a sign-and-trade allowed the Cavaliers to retain access to their Mid-Level Exception, and they used a large chunk of it to sign former Philadelphia 76ers forward Georges Niang.
Niang has one true NBA skill: he shoots the basketball. He shoots early and often, he can hit from anywhere around the arc, and if you ask him to do much else you may be disappointed. He has hit over 40 percent of his 3-pointers in each of the past five seasons, and last year 76.5 percent of his shots were from beyond the arc, one of the higher percentages in the league.
Defensively, Niang tries hard but lacks the physical tools to be a difference-maker; he is striving to be average, not great. He’s a heady player who understands the playbook well and will move the ball, but he isn’t a good enough passer to run any offense through. The Cavs will want to use Niang primarily, if not exclusively, as a floor-spacing play finisher.
If the Cavs wanted to add a shooter, it’s hard to argue with the signing of Niang. He can play as a stretch-4 alongside either Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley, or occasionally at the 3. The question becomes one of opportunity cost; would the Cavs have been better off making a run at Grant Williams for the full MLE, or Josh Richardson at something around Niang’s salary? Perhaps, but the Cavs identified their greatest need and took a swing at it.
Grade: B+
3. Signed Ty Jerome
Signed to 2-year, $4.6 million contract
Last season the Cavaliers brought Ricky Rubio along slowly after he tore his ACL the season before, integrating him into the rotation late in the season. He did not play particularly well, and whether or not he will improve further removed from the injury or whether he is on the steep downslope of his career is an open question.
The Cavs needed to therefore address the point guard position this offseason in such a way that they weren’t breaking the bank for a third point guard but were signing a player that could assume backup duties should Rubio be on his way out.
Cleveland landed on Ty Jerome, the former Virginia point guard who played last season on a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors. He played well, a fixture in their rotation for most of the season, but their financial situation was such that they couldn’t match a deal higher than the veteran’s minimum.
That’s how the Cavs struck, giving Jerome a deal using a sliver of that leftover Mid-Level Exception. He joins the backcourt and brings a useful combination of ball handling, crafty finishing and steady passing. He hit 38.9 percent of his 3-pointers last season, a major step up from the rest of his career. If the shooting is real, Jerome will end up a steal on his contract. If not, and if the defense stays shaky, he may not have solved any problem but in the process prevented the Cavs from adding a different option at point guard.
Grade: B
4. Re-signed Caris LeVert
Signed to a 2-year, $32 million contract
Our discussion here is not about whether the Cavaliers should have traded two picks to the Indiana Pacers for Caris LeVert at the 2022 NBA Trade Deadline; the answer to that question is unequivocally no. Heading into this summer, however, the question became what to do with LeVert hitting free agency.
Let LeVert walk, and the Cavs probably have a more balanced rotation, but certainly less talent. Re-sign him to a long-term deal, and they are clogging the cap sheet and rotation with a player whose skillset meshes incredibly poorly with this team’s stars.
The solution? The Cavs re-signed LeVert to a two-year contract, splitting the difference and ensuring flexibility the summer Evan Mobley’s contract extension will kick in (and presumably, hopefully, Donovan Mitchell’s next contract). That’s assuming LeVert is even still around, as this deal is very tradeable as soon as this year’s trade deadline.
The Cavs love LeVert, and to his credit, he has fully bought into a lower-usage role and played the best defense he can. He’s done everything asked of him and seems to be a positive locker-room presence. Ideally, the Cavs would have found a sign-and-trade partner to go hunting for a small forward who can shoot; perhaps that move is simply delayed a few months.
Grade: B-
5. Traded for Damian Jones
Used minimum exception to trade for Damian Jones
Another second-tier need for the Cavaliers this season was at backup center. Robin Lopez did fine work filling up space behind Jarrett Allen, but with Isaiah Mobley waiting in the wings it seemed more likely that Cleveland would look for a different kind of big man rather than a traditional drop center like Lopez.
They took that swing by trading for Utah Jazz center Damian Jones, who has traveled around the league over the past few seasons looking for a long-term home. Jones is ostensibly a stretch-big, hitting 38.3 percent of his career long-balls, but he barely takes them. In fact, he barely does anything at all on offense.
Jones is a solid defender, moving his feet well and altering shots without racking up a ton of blocks. He has consistently had a positive defensive impact at each of his stops over the past few years, even if his poor offensive game makes him a questionable part of any team’s rotation.
Perhaps Jones has a career year with Cleveland, but more likely there were a number of better options available on the free-agent market. Mo Bamba signed a minimum contract to have to battle two other centers for minutes just to back up Joel Embiid. Dario Saric signed for the minimum in Golden State. Christian Wood, Omer Yursteven, Bismack Biyombo and Willy Hernangomez are all still available as well.
Spending a roster spot on Jones is fine, but there seem to have been a number of better options out there.
Grade: D
6. Drafted Emoni Bates
Drafted 49th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft
Drafting with the 49th pick in the draft should lower expectations a significant amount. Very few players selected that late end up making a difference, and many don’t even make NBA rosters. Whoever the Cavs chose was unlikely to amount to much of anything.
Even so, the Cavaliers took a low-upside, basement-floor swing when they drafted Emoni Bates out of Eastern Michigan. Bates was once a high-school phenom, dominating the competition and looking like the next top-tier prospect. Then he reclassified and played college basketball, where he was revealed to be little more than a smooth-shooting chucker with little else to his game.
Bates has always been a high-volume on-ball scorer, and he’s only marginally decent at that role. In the NBA he has no chance of making a roster if he’s trying to be that player. He has a smooth jumper, and his path to a rotation spot anywhere down the line depends on him leaning into that. His passing vision is terrible, he’s a defensive nightmare, he has poor shot selection and doesn’t finish inside.
To add insult to injury, Bates’ name value has tricked the Cavs and their fan base into thinking that Bates has a ton of upside, and that drafting him was a “high-upside” move. It’s not, because Bates can’t be the player he was in high school. It’s physically impossible given his frame and complete lack of skill development. This was a whiff by the Cavaliers, and he’ll likely go from a two-way contract to out of the league in a few seasons.
Grade: D
Full offseason report card and grade
Overall, it’s been a solid summer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, although hardly a perfect one. They aggressively addressed their biggest need, and despite a lack of resources made some real additions.
Sign-and-trade for Max Strus
The Cavaliers added a movement shooter who can hit a decent percentage at a high volume. He doesn’t have great size, but they creatively structured a sign-and-trade to add a valuable player who is battle-tested without giving up their MLE.
Grade: A-
Signed Georges Niang
Niang steps in to give the Cavaliers a knockdown shooter with size, a frontcourt player who will bomb away from outside. His defensive shortcomings can be papered over by pairing him with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, and he is on a reasonable three-year contract.
Grade: B+
Signed Ty Jerome
The Cavaliers went for a less proven third point guard in Ty Jerome, but one who showed some real shooting ability last season. They took advantage of the new CBA to steal Jerome away from the Warriors, and he could settle in as a viable backup point guard.
Grade: B
Re-Signed Caris LeVert
The Cavaliers maintained the asset, if you will, and kept around a beloved teammate in the process. LeVert’s poor fit is mitigated by the addition of shooting, and he’s on a short-term deal that is moveable and not financially burdensome.
Grade: B-
Traded for Damion Jones
The Cavaliers addressed a position of need by trading for a player multiple teams have declared that they don’t want. With a plethora of big man still available on the market, this was a move that didn’t need to be made.
Grade: D
Drafted Emoni Bates
The Cavaliers got plenty of name recognition when they took Emoni Bates, but that may be all they get out of the selection. Bates brings a good shooting stroke and very little else to the table, as his physical advantage from his high school days has disappeared into a thin, weak frame. Add in a chucker’s mentality and no supporting skills and he has a long road just to an NBA bench.
Grade: D
Overall Grade
The Cavaliers addressed their most pressing need this offseason, adding multiple talented shooters. Unfortunately, those players were nearly all one-way options, which will strain this team’s elite defense from a year ago. Do they find the right balance, or will they reach the playoffs and find themselves still without enough two-way players?
It was a good offseason, but it will still be on this team’s four stars to carry them through.
Grade: B