Cavaliers clean house

  On the eve before free agency, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Koby Altman made a few moves with their current roster to prepare for any potential moves from outside the roster with the free agency market opening.

The biggest move was re-signing guard Caris LeVert to a two-year contract worth thirty-two million dollars.

The twenty-eight-year-old LeVert averaged twelve points a game coming off the bench for Cleveland behind Donovan Mitchell at the two guard, shooting forty-three percent from the floor and thirty-nine percent from three-point range.

LeVert's deal came about due to the Cavaliers holding a salary cap exception that applied to LeVert and LeVert only, so Cleveland was unable to spend that exception on any other player, so they decided to keep LeVert since they wouldn't be able to use the money if they didn't.

LeVert's three-point shooting reached a career-high last season, and Cleveland deciding to keep LeVert isn't a bad thing under the circumstances.

Cleveland also decided to guarantee the contract of Cedi Osman for next season at 6.7 million but I still wouldn't bet my paycheck on Osman remaining with the team, although it wouldn't surprise me either way.

Osman averaged 8.7 points last season but his streakiness has been frustrating fans for years,

Osman's contract might be moved in a trade and while I like him as a high-energy bench player, it might be best for Osman to move elsewhere at twenty-eight if Osman is going to ever progress to a starter-level player, Osman may need to leave Cleveland.

Cleveland also did not give a qualifying offer to Dylan Windler and will allow him to explore other options elsewhere. 

Windler was one of three Cavaliers first-rounders in a 2019 draft that resulted in Darius Garland and the-departed Kevin Porter Jr and has been plagued by injuries since being selected, playing in only eighty-four games over four seasons, and just three of those games during last season.

Windler would have required a five million qualifying offer and Cleveland wouldn't and shouldn't have considered making an offer considering Windler's injury history.

Cleveland did give a second-year two-way offer to Isaiah Mobley, who the Cavaliers selected in the second round of the 2022 draft from USC.

Mobley spent most of the season with the G-League Charge, where he was selected to the G-League all-Third Team after averaging 24.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game.

Mobley played thirteen games for the Cavaliers, averaging 2.4 points and 1.5 rebounds per game in limited action.

Cleveland will be adding players, I would think, over the next day or so from outside the organization and I'll be offering my thoughts on those newcomers over the next few days.

Cavaliers select Dylan Windler

The Cleveland Cavaliers added Dylan Windler with the 26th pick of the first round that was obtained by the Cavaliers in a trade deadline swap with the Houston Rockets.

The 6'8 forward averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Belmont Bruins last season on a Bruins team that won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title and earned the rarest of all rare- a small conference non-qualifier that received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they defeated Maryland in the first round.

Windler shot 54 percent from the field and even more importantly over 42 percent from three-point range.
In other words, the Cavaliers, a team in desperate need of adding outside shooting, selected a player with shooting as his top skill.
Windler reminds me of Kyle Korver a bit, although Windler is only an inch taller, he's much more of a true forward than Korver, with big-time shooting range and the ability to hit the three.
On a good team, Windler would likely find a place as a designated three-point shooting specialist as Korver has been for so many teams over the course of his career, but in Cleveland, he'll be expected to do more and there is the question mark with Windler.
Is he a shooting specialist or is he a player that could develop into more than that as a more complete player to be counted on with a larger slice of playing minutes?
If I knew the latter to be true, Windler likely wouldn't have been available at 26 and the case for the former comes from Windler's statistics, which declined against Belmont's better opponents, although he did score 35 in the NCAA win over Maryland.
Windler will have to have plays set up for him to get his shots, but he's not a guy that has to have the basketball to play well.


In the end, Cleveland needed to upgrade their shooting and Dylan Windler gives them another possible upgrade in that department.
Windler proved he could shoot at Belmont, but his struggles against better and more athletic defenders have shown that it's possible that he may not be as effective without a specialized offense.
I was middle of the road with the selection of Windler.
He has some qualities that could mesh very well with what John Beilein intends to install for the Cavaliers, but there was one player available that I was hoping Cleveland would take a swing at instead.

However, the Cavaliers weren't finished yet and began to attempt to trade for another first rounder.
Were they successful? And if so, would they then select the player that I would have taken at 26?
Tune in next time for those answers. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!