Re: Cleveland Cavaliers

2977
Of course they wanted Barrett. They had no chance for that to happen.

As far as nothing happened that I speculated. Did the Hawks make a trade to move up or not ?

Hawks and Cavs have been negotiating on a trade since the lottery. The Lakers were taking Garland at 4 before they traded the pick to New Orleans. Everyone felt that the team moving up to trade for the #4 would take Garland or Culver not Hunter.

The Cavs thought there was a chance that Hunter or Reddish would be available at #8 and they were trying to acquire the #8 from Atlanta as part of the package for #5. The other thing they wanted was their own #1 pick in 2020 that Atlanta owned (Kyle Korver trade) back and was eventually traded to New Orleans.

Atlanta was only offering the #10, #17 and the 2020 pick to the Cavs for for #5 and #26

Would have been interesting if Garland had gone at #4 if the Cavs would have traded Hunter to the Hawks or selected him for their own.

Don't remember ever saying that all of the things I posted would actually happen. I thought I posted that they were possibilities.

Re: Cleveland Cavaliers

2978
Jason Lloyd in for Bruce Drennan today on STO, and made some interesting comments.

He said look for the Cavs to release J.R. Smith themselves instead of trade him.

They have been looking to trade that contract, as we know, tried on draft night, but teams have been trying to dump bad money on them in return. And the Cavs are just refusing to take on any more bad money cause they are right up against the tax threshold.

The way it works, is because they were repeat offenders during LeBron's years the tax kept going up. Last year for the first time they were below. If they stay below again this year then it wipes their slate clean. Where as if they go over the threshold they will be taxed even more again.

Hope that makes sense...

But any way, Lloyd thinks the Cavs will end up cutting Smith themselves now to save money, since the draft is over.

He said they wanted 3 first round picks. Since they struck out on JR Smith trade they did that bundle of 2nd rounders and 5 mill in cash instead. Still ended up with the extra 1st rounder.

Right now they are waiting on the league to approve some things in trades, more complicated crap, but he thinks the Cavs trade for Porter will go through in the coming days and they can start commenting more on him.

Re: Cleveland Cavaliers

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J.R. SMITH
SG, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

J.R. Smith may look to sign with the Lakers once he's bought out of his contract, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.

Only $3.8 million of the $15.7 million owed to Smith is guaranteed, but that changes if he's not waived prior to June 30. The Cavs are trying to trade him now, but they may be forced to simply waive him.

Per Haynes, he believes that Smith will wind up in Los Angeles, as they need shooting and don't have a ton of cap space. Haynes also mentioned Kyle Korver as another potential low-budget option, but he too needs to be bought out of his current deal.
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain

Re: Cleveland Cavaliers

2982
The Celtics have emerged as the frontrunner to sign Kemba Walker when free agency begins on Sunday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

While Charlotte can offer him more money, Boston can offer him a winning culture as a perennial playoff team, which also gives them an edge against Dallas. Walker would slide right into Kyrie Irving's role.
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain

Re: Cleveland Cavaliers

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So Kevin Love wins a ring and....I guess we can close the case on that trade....

The Timberwolves reportedly reached out to the Nets to offer Andrew Wiggins in a sign-and-trade package for D'Angelo Russell.

With Kyrie Irving expected to sign with Brooklyn, they'll be losing Russell for nothing, but adding Wiggins and his horrific contract would be subtraction by addition for Brooklyn.

The trade talks didn't get very far here, per Timberwolves reporter Darren Wolfson, but the main takeaway here is it would appear Minnesota is eager to part ways with Wiggins. He has another four years of max money left on his contract, though, so he's likely staying put.
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain