Cleveland Sports Forum

how minimal is 80% of rookie scale?

1.29 million versus 1.93 million. But he is getting his full amount over 3 years. Taking less in year one to save the Cavs luxury tax money. They will be out of the tax by year 2.

Beilein said in his interview yesterday that everyone was taking the day off, but Windler asked if he could watch film with the coach. The coach also commented that basically all the young guys on the team were working their asses off. Including Cedi, Sexton, and Zizic. If those 3 really set the tone, maybe everyone reaches their potential.

Dylan Windler: Newly rich, sticking to simple life as Cavaliers’ standout Summer League player


By Joe Vardon 5h ago 7


LAS VEGAS — Since Dylan Windler left Nashville about two weeks ago, he’s signed his name to an NBA contract that will pay him just more than $2 million, laid eyes upon LeBron James for the first time and played at the highest level of competition in his 22 years for the Cavaliers’ Summer League team.

Windler has spent a week with the Cavs (and several other teams) at the opulent Four Seasons resort in Las Vegas, fielded questions over and over from the sizable media contingent at Summer League, and already drew a comparison to a “poor man’s Gordon Hayward.”

It’s been a lot to take in, especially for a young man from Indianapolis who played his college ball at Belmont — not exactly a hoops hotbed — and thought he was better at golf than basketball until his senior year of high school.

After the Cavs lost to Boston in the Vegas Summer League on Monday, in a game in which the 6-foot-8 forward scored 15 points with five rebounds, one would think he might be looking to cut loose a little.

Money burning a hole in his pocket. A little punch-drunk from NBA superstars sitting courtside for his games. On the road with a pro team for the first time. And an off-day Tuesday in Sin City? Get this man a tux and a roll of chips, right?

“Here’s how mature he is — he just asked me, just now, ‘Coach, can we watch film tomorrow?’” Cavs coach John Beilein said. “We’re not doing much with them, but he wants to watch film with me tomorrow. He just wants to watch the film himself, so that’s a great sign.”

Windler says his new NBA experiences haven’t changed him, even if so much around him has. He’s still the tall, quiet kid from Perry Meridian High School who likes to tee it up, yes, but otherwise describes his social life as simply “hanging out” with friends. He’s the same guy who can shoot, move without the ball and rebound — the skills he showed off while averaging 21.3 points and 10.9 boards per game as well as shooting .429 from 3-point range for Belmont as a senior.

“I haven’t really gotten any money yet,” Windler said, when asked if he’d made any big purchases since signing his rookie contract. “It’s obviously been a good feeling. It’s been a dream of mine to play in the NBA, and obviously a little bit of wealth comes with that. It’s a blessing to be in this position, but it’s kind of what you do with it from here on out. Like I said, I don’t really plan on changing. Live the same lifestyle I always have — it’s just a blessing to get that money and be able to do good things with it.”

One immediate difference between Windler, whom the Cavs drafted 26th on June 20, and their other two picks is that unlike Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr., who’ve missed the Summer League with injuries, the Cavs are getting a real look at what Windler can do.

In three games in Salt Lake City summer action, Windler averaged 10.3 points and 5.0 rebounds, and he shot 44 percent from the field. And in three Vegas contests, he averaged 15 points through his first two games before suffering a facial injury late in the first quarter of a game against New Orleans on Wednesday that knocked him out for good after scoring just three points. He is by far the Cavs’ summer player most likely to see real NBA time this season. Naz Mitrou-Long, who has previous NBA experience, is having a nice summer for the Cavs and led them in scoring with 19 in Wednesday’s loss to the Pelicans.

“(Windler) really just feels and sees the game at a pace you don’t see a lot of people do it,” Beilein said. “He’s got a great pace to his game; he really sees it well. I think he’s gonna have good numbers with us over time in both passing and assists, deflections, steals.”

Windler knows what he’s able to do on the floor now in Summer League will, of course, come tougher when training camp starts in September. Summer League games are filled mostly with players who won’t be in the NBA. Still, Windler said he’s watched film after each game, looking to see which mistakes he can correct, like “making better reads off the pick-and-roll, things like that.”

Windler plays the same position as Cedi Osman, who is also 6-8 and earned a spot in the Rising Stars game for the Cavs last season. Osman has been in Vegas with the Cavs, watching the games and working out and being studied by Beilein, who is trying to determine how to use Osman and Windler in his minutes rotation. If this sounds like another situation involving Cleveland’s most important younger players, that’s because it is.

Garland, of course, was the Cavs’ No. 5 pick, and he plays the same position as Collin Sexton — the No. 8 overall pick last year. Osman is entering his third season, but the Cavs invested in him in summer 2017 instead of signing Jamal Crawford for what would be Cleveland’s last NBA Finals run with James.

Garland and Sexton. Osman and Windler. Four players whom the Cavs have made a priority to develop as part of this franchise rebuild.

“Watching Cedi the last couple days has been really good because now I see where he is a little bit,” Beilein said. “I don’t know exactly where it’s going to be, whether we’re going to play (Windler) at a guard or a forward, but he’s going to be a player. His size (6-8) — with a pretty good handle, pretty good vision — he’s going to play a lot of spots.”

Beilein plans to play Sexton and Garland together. Of Osman and Windler, Beilein said: “They could play together or one could rest the other day. (Windler)’s left-handed, the other’s right-handed, so it’s a little complicated.”

Windler said Cavs guard Matthew Dellavedova sent him a text on draft night, and again after one of the Summer League games. “Being a veteran and making that extra step to reach out means a lot to me,” Windler said.

The most memorable thing about his new NBA life, even beyond signing a piece of paper that made him a millionaire, was walking through Thomas & Mack Center on Friday (for Zion Williamson’s debut) and brushing past James.

“First time I’ve ever seen him in person,” he said. “It was crazy. He’s obviously a specimen. Just a huge guy, so that’s probably my welcome-to-the-NBA moment.”

Holy crap - Westbrook to Houston to be paired again with Harden! For Chris Paul and picks.

Will be interesting to see what OKC is going to do with Paul. No way they are keeping him but what do they do.

Look for a possibility of OKC trading Steven Adams and a first round pick to the .....................................Cavs !

There were rumors that Cavs were talking to Thunder about Westbrook.

If it happens. It will be by the end of business Monday.

The Cavs are trying to get Adams and a draft pick for JR Smith and salary filler.

OKC is trying to get the Cavs involved in making the Westbrook trade a 4 team trade with Paul going to Miami and OKC getting JR Smith's contract to lessen the load of the contracts that OKC has to take back from Miami.

Westbrook was a straight salary dump. 4 years of contract for Paul's 3 years. Now OKC wants to trade Paul for even shorter contracts but for the same annual amount as Paul.

Miami is hard capped so they can not take on Paul without trading the same dollar amount of contracts back to OKC.

This is where the Cavs come into play with JR Smith. Smith's contract guarantee kicks in another $ 500,000 on the 15th. Should hear how this plays out by the 15th.

If Miami and OKC can not work a trade then you will see the Cavs and OKC try to work a trade for Adams.

For laughs:

Anthony Bennett has agreed to a non-guaranteed deal with the Houston Rockets.

That's a name we haven't heard in a long time. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle is reporting that the terms of the deal are still being discussed, but it's likely just a training camp invite to get a look at the former No. 1 pick.

Bennett appeared in 25 games in the G League last season, averaging 12.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 2.1 triples.

rusty2 wrote:The Cavs are trying to get Adams and a draft pick for JR Smith and salary filler.

OKC is trying to get the Cavs involved in making the Westbrook trade a 4 team trade with Paul going to Miami and OKC getting JR Smith's contract to lessen the load of the contracts that OKC has to take back from Miami.

Westbrook was a straight salary dump. 4 years of contract for Paul's 3 years. Now OKC wants to trade Paul for even shorter contracts but for the same annual amount as Paul.

Miami is hard capped so they can not take on Paul without trading the same dollar amount of contracts back to OKC.

This is where the Cavs come into play with JR Smith. Smith's contract guarantee kicks in another $ 500,000 on the 15th. Should hear how this plays out by the 15th.

If Miami and OKC can not work a trade then you will see the Cavs and OKC try to work a trade for Adams.

Jr Smith and Brandon Knight works. Clarkson also works in place of Knight but he may be more valuable.

The filler would be something small enough to make the salaries match up. OKC wants the bare minimum.

Chris Fedor

Plain Dealer


Waiting game
The first push-back date -- July 15 -- on the agreement between Smith and the Cavs is fast approaching. If nothing is decided by then, it can be moved back to Aug. 1 before his $15.6 million deal becomes fully guaranteed. The Cavs won't let that happen, releasing him by that point and moving below the luxury tax threshold.

The Cavs are surprised they haven’t found a taker yet, believing they made better salary-dump offers than others accepted this off-season. They've also been stunned by the bad, burdensome contracts teams have been trying to force on them.

According to sources, the Cavs offered lighter protections to the Golden State Warriors in a potential Andre Iguodala swap. Instead, Golden State made its trade with Memphis, giving up Iguodala, cash and a protected future first-round pick.

Smith’s partial guarantee, now worth $4.37 million, seems to be a hurdle. The Warriors sent Iguodala’s $17.1 million into Memphis' open cap space. Doing that allowed the Warriors to receive a trade exception, which is created when a player is traded to a team under the salary cap with space to absorb the contract. That could help future Golden State maneuvers. Had the Warriors taken Smith's partially-guaranteed contract in return, they would have lost out on that exception while also needing to perform cap gymnastics.

Taking on that extra Smith salary, even though it's a small guarantee in comparison to Iguodala's salary number, might have prevented the hard-capped Warriors from making other small moves to round out their roster.

There were a handful of other deals that involved teams dumping salaries into open cap space, including the Clippers getting a 2023 first-rounder from Miami for taking Maurice Harkless to facilitate the Butler trade. The Cavs were involved in these same discussions. There’s a clear difference teams see between open cap space and Smith’s partial guarantee.