The Cleveland Cavaliers have some decisions to make.
That's not to say that they are particularly difficult decisions, or that it's not obvious which decision the team will make. But in a league whose contract details and dates play crucial roles, the Cavaliers do need to make a decision -- three of them, in fact -- by today's deadline.
In the NBA, unlike some other leagues, all contracts are naturally fully guaranteed by default. For a contract to be anything other than that has to be specially written into a deal, and it happens rarely. Many teams in the league entered this season with all of the players on the roster playing with fully-guaranteed contracts.
The Cavaliers, by contrast, have three different players on the roster whose contracts are not guaranteed. That means that if the team decides to cut them -- i.e. fire them -- they can do so without owing them the rest of the money owed and without any sort of money lingering on their salary cap to get in the way of signing other players.
Star players almost never have to deal with non-guaranteed deals, as a team has to hold a lot of leverage in negotiations to get a player to agree to such a deal. You generally see such contracts for undrafted rookies, second-round picks or fringe NBA veterans trying to hang around the league.
That fits the bill for all of the Cavaliers' players on non-guaranteed contracts. Stars like Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley are on fully-guaranteed deals, as are veterans in their prime like Max Strus and Dean Wade.
The Cavaliers have three non-guaranteed contracts
Who is on a non-guaranteed deal? Veteran big man Tristan Thompson, who is on a minimum deal and would qualify as an "end-of-roster" player at the end of his career; Craig Porter Jr., who is on his first contract he signed after going undrafted two seasons ago; and Sam Merrill, who signed a deal with non-guaranteed years out of the G League as he fought his way back into the league.
The extra wrinkle for NBA contracts is that they don't stay non-guaranteed all season long. At the midway point of the season all contracts become guaranteed: that date this season is January 10th. Because the NBA also has a waiver system when players are cut during the year, that means teams will need to decide by today, January 7th, if they want to waive someone before their contract guarantees.
There are 23 players who head into "deadline" day with a non-guaranteed or partially-guaranteed contract; if their teams don't waive them today, they are "safe" for the season of the season. That includes such luminaries as Zion Williamson, whose deal is only half-guaranteed due to games missed, and breakout role players like Lindy Waters III or Andre Jackson Jr.
Some teams have more difficult calls to make on whether to keep or cut their players, but things seem fairly cut and dry for the Cavaliers and their three decisions.
Merrill is a full rotation player who fills a unique and needed role on this team as their movement gunner, and he is not going anywhere. In fact, his deal is one of the better contracts in the league for a role player.
Craig Porter Jr. is not in the rotation but is deserving of such a spot on many teams in the league; if Cleveland decided to move on, they could trade him for value rather than cut him outright.
Finally, Tristan Thompson is a player who is simply not contributing to the Cavaliers at full strength, and when he does see the court he's something of a disaster. Yet the Cavs signed him largely because of his leadership and presence in the locker room and less because of his ability to contribute on the court.
That probably means that Cleveland will keep all three players and allow their contracts to guarantee for this year. They are still on the lookout for another big, but will probably look to sign him alongside Thompson instead of fully replacing him. Worst case, if they need to, they have enough room under the first tax apron to waive his guaranteed deal, allowing him to take home the full value, and then sign another minimum player on top of that.
It's perhaps an easy series of decisions for Koby Altman and the front office, but they are decisions nonetheless. On the "deadline before the deadline" the Cavaliers are going to keep their roster intact...probably.