An important deadline passed on Wednesday night for Craig Porter Jr. and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The undrafted point guard will have his contract fully guaranteed as he remains on the Cavaliers for the rest of the season.
Every good team needs to have some diamonds in the rough, some hidden gemstones that they discover in an unlikely place. It's great when you find a two-way All-Star with the No. 3 pick, or make a significant trade for an MVP candidate. Those are obviously franchise-defining moves.
It also matters what you do on the margins, however. The Cavaliers found Craig Porter Jr. in the undrafted pool of players following the 2023 NBA Draft and signed him to a two-way contract. His play that season as an undrafted rookie was so strong that they converted his deal to a four-year fully-rostered deal.
That contract exerted the usual leverage over Porter Jr., guaranteeing the first season but not the remainder. This year, Porter's third season with the team, the contract was completely non-guaranteed heading into the year.
That meant that at any time, the Cavaliers could have waived Porter Jr. and wiped his money entirely off of their books. That flexibility from the team side is why contracts given to two-way players are so team-friendly; they almost always contain partial and non-guaranteed language.
Craig Porter is making himself indispensable
To Porter Jr.'s credit, he made it impossible for the Cavaliers to contemplate such a decision. He has remained a full-time rotation player, appearing in 33 games for the Cavs and averaging 17.3 minutes per game. With Darius Garland in particular battling a toe injury, "CPJ" has stepped up and run the point for long stretches of time.
Porter is shooting 41.3 percent from 3-point range, attacking the glass despite his 6'1" stature, and spreading te ball around to his All-Star teammates. He has been a positive for the Cavaliers on both ends of the court, something that is hard to say about most backup point guards in the league, let alone undrafted third-year guards.
Of particular note is how well the Cavaliers play with both Porter Jr. and Donovan Mitchell on the court. Cleveland is outscoring opponents by an elite 19 points per 100 possessions when both players are on the court. When both are off, the Cavaliers are in turn outscored by 4.7 points per 100. His value and fit are exceptional.
Around the league, all contracts become fully-guaranteed on January 10th. Because a player needs to fully clear waivers before that deadline, it functionally means that if a player is not cut by the night of January 7th, their contract is fully-guranteed for the season.
That deadline just came and went, locking Porter Jr. in for the rest of the year. For that matter, it also means that longtime Cavalier Dean Wade and fourth center Thomas Bryant are also being fully-guaranteed alongside Porter Jr.
All three players could still be cut in a pinch, but the second-apron Cavaliers would get no financial relief from them doing so. They could also be included in a trade, although that makes much more sense for Wade and his contract than Porter Jr. on a minimum.
It looks like CPJ is here to stay on the Cavaliers, and likely in their rotation for the rest of the season as well. He has given Cleveland every reason to keep him around, and now they have responded by making their stance on him crystal clear.