The Cleveland Cavaliers are not done building their roster. With only twelve guaranteed contracts on the books (plus Sam Merrill’s non-guaranteed deal) the Cavs will at least add one player, and perhaps as many as three before the season begins.
They also sit just $2.7 million below the luxury tax threshold, and with the team’s salary likely to get more expensive in the coming years with Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell up for new contracts, the team probably wants to stay out of the tax and delay the clock starting on the repeater tax.
Could the Cavaliers look to Charlotte to upgrade the roster?
Those two factors together mean the Cavs are most likely to fill their final roster spots with players signed to the minimum, putting the best available free agents out of reach. The Charlotte Hornets are the common theme with the open market; Kelly Oubre Jr., P.J. Washington and Christian Wood are all former Hornets who define the top of the market.
The assumption that it would be another team stepping in to sign one of those three players was tested over the weekend, when a rumor was circulated (it appears to have been started by Jake Weinbach) that the Cavaliers are interested in a sign-and-trade for power forward P.J. Washington.
How could the Cavaliers afford to sign P.J. Washington? Let’s take a closer look at the money involved and see how such a move could be pulled off.
Could the Cavaliers sign P.J. Washington?
Let’s break down a few facts of the situation, then discuss how the Cavaliers could make the money work to add Washington. First, the Cavs do not have any available cap space, and their exceptions remaining are pieces of the Mid-Level ($3.6 million remaining) and the Bi-Annual ($2 million remaining); those won’t help in signing Washington.
Secondly, Washington is a restricted free agent. That means that even were the Cavs to dump salary to somehow get under the salary cap (not happening; they would have to move massive amounts of money) the Hornets could match any offer he signs. So a low, one-year “prove-it” deal like Christian Wood or Kelly Oubre Jr. might sign won’t work for Washington, as the Hornets would quickly match it.
That means the Cavs would need to work with the Hornets on a sign-and-trade, similar to what they pulled off with Max Strus. That means sending enough matching salary to bring back Washington’s starting number, and compensation to convince Charlotte to play ball.
Thankfully, the new CBA will help Cleveland out here. They used the updated salary matching rules to great effect in the Strus deal, sending out just over $7.5 million in salary to take back Strus’ starting number of $14.48 million; if you send out between $7.5 million and $29 million you can take back up to $7.5 million more.
How much would a Washington contract be?
How much would a P.J. Washington contract be?
How much will a Washington deal start at? It has to be a number too large for Charlotte to wish to commit to, and enough for Washington to accept and not simply play this season on his qualifying offer of $8.48 million and hit unrestricted free agency next season.
Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, Washington was reportedly looking for a four-year, $80 million deal this summer, paying him the same $20 million per season that Jarrett Allen is making. The Hornets have been far apart in negotiations this entire time, so given that Washington has no other premium suitors, he will likely be open to a lower salary number. But how low?
Assuming the Cavaliers aren’t going to trade one of their core players to Charlotte, and given that newly-signed players can’t be traded for six months, Cleveland has to build matching salary from the following players: Isaac Okoro, Ricky Rubio, Dean Wade, Damian Jones and Sam Merrill.
If the goal is to maximize their current roster, they could trade Ricky Rubio’s contract (who recently announced he was stepping away from basketball) of $6.14 million along with that of Damian Jones ($2.58). Those would total about $8.73 million, which means the Cavs could start a Washington deal at $16.23 million.
That would build a four-year salary of $69.95 million (let’s say $70 million to be simple), which averages out to $17.5 million per season. Would that be enough to make a deal work? It likely would, and perhaps the total amount could even be massaged down slightly from there with a few incentives. But it seems a reasonable framework.
Could this sign-and-trade work?
There are two problems with such a deal, however. The Hornets are going to want an incentive for facilitating this. Does a pair of second-round picks get it done? The Cavs don’t have a first to trade. If Rubio does officially retire then the Hornets can wipe his salary off of their books, although they have a low enough team salary for this season that it truly only matters for next year. Do they instead demand a player who can help them, such as Isaac Okoro?
The other problem is such a trade would push the Cavs into the luxury tax; they are hard-capped at the first tax apron, so this deal would push them very close to that level while needing to fill at least two more roster spots; that could force the salary down, which in turn could make it fall apart. If the Cavs try to include more salary they have to put in Dean Wade or Isaac Okoro instead of Jones, weakening their rotation.
Is it still worth it to Cleveland to sign Washington at the expense of, say, Isaac Okoro and Ricky Rubio, with two second-round picks? That’s an interesting question, and if the Cavs and Hornets truly are talking, it’s likely those negotiations that are key.
There is a financial path available to the Cavaliers if they want to execute a sign-and-trade for P.J. Washington. Each dollar will matter, however, making this a precise sort of negotiation for the teams to pull off.