Ty Jerome will have a number of suitors in free agency after a breakout season. As much as the Cleveland Cavaliers want to keep him, he could leave for a large role and a significant payday elsewhere. Could an unexpected suitor emerge in the Los Angeles Clippers if they move on from veteran guard James Harden?
One of the difficulties of making offseason predictions in the NBA is that the entire league is standing on shifting sands. Each transaction triggers a series of reactions that trickle throughout the league and change team needs, spending power and which players will be available.
For example, the Orlando Magic just pulled off a surprise trade for former Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane. That eliminates them from the list of Ty Jerome suitors. What's more, to execute the move they had to decline the team options on Cory Jospeh and Gary Harris, sending both out into the free agency fray. Orlando now looks like more of a threat to court Sam Merrill than Jerome among Cleveland's free agents.
Predicting where Ty Jerome will land, therefore, is a difficult proposition. If his market completely dries up, the Cavaliers may be able to bring him back. If Cleveland finds a trade partner to take on the contract of Isaac Okoro, perhaps they can afford to offer him a larger contract. Yet all across the league other teams are counting their pennies and seeing if they have room to add a dynamic and efficient scoring guard to their roster.
The LA Clippers could be a surprise Ty Jerome suitor
One team that is not currently on the list of suitors is the LA Clippers. With James Harden and Norman Powell in the backcourt and Bogdan Bogdanovic coming off the bench, they are not in need of more offense-first guards who have significant defensive limitations.
Yet it has been floated that the Clippers could look to maximize their salary flexibility in 2026 by moving on from All-Star guard James Harden. While that's likely not at the top of their list for this summer, if the right trade came around the Clippers could very well move their bearded floor general.
Sam Vecenie of the Game Theory podcast proposed one trade idea that would send Harden to the Dallas Mavericks; it reunites Irving and Harden, which may be a good thing or may not; it also solves the Mavericks' on-ball creation needs for this season. What such a trade would not do, however, is bring back another on-ball creator to the Clippers.
Suddenly the team without a need for a guard like Ty Jerome desperately needs one, and the Clippers' mechanism to add one would be the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, starting around $14 million per season. Ty Jerome may be the best option on the market to come in and run the offense, either as a starter or as a high-minute reserve.
Such a trade for the Clippers is unlikely, but it's not insane, and it illustrates how what we think we know about teams that could pursue Ty Jerome could change in a heartbeat. The Mavericks may want to sign him unless they trade for someone else. The San Antonio Spurs may want to sign him unless they make a major trade; that could either take them out of the market or push the need to a 10.
The realities of the league's trade restrictions and salary cap rules make it as complicated as ever to sort through coming transactions, and any move could shift the landscape. One thing is certain: Ty Jerome is about to get a significant pay increase. Will he do so to stay in Cleveland, or join another team? The next few weeks will reveal all.
And perhaps, that could end up with the New York native landing on the opposite coast and playing point guard in Los Angeles.