The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed back Mathew Dellavedova to a free agent deal after a trade with Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to the Blazers and now the team may look at bringing back Tristan Thompson on an extension and JR Smith on a new deal in free agency, as the Cavs have freed up some space to make moves with the trades.
The Cavaliers pulled off the trade with the Blazers on Sunday night and now the team is poised to bring back some other players. According to ESPN.com, Matthew Dellavedova is coming back and Dave McMenamin reports that it is likely on the one-year qualifying offer. Dellavedova was a restricted free agent and reportedly wanted a deal around $4 million, but the Cavs were not willing to go that high. The team was interested in bringing back Dellavedova at the right price and now the sides have found a way to make it happen.
ESPN reports that the deal is $1.2 million for this season and this comes after the Miller and Haywood trade. According to Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo Sports, the Cavaliers traded Miller and Haywood for trade exceptions from the Blazers and those will be worth $10.5 million and $2.85 million for the team to use in trades this season. The moves with Haywood and Miller along with Dellavedova set up other transactions for the Cavs, as Marc Stein reports that the team is working to bring back both Tristan Thomson and JR Smith this summer.
Brian Windhorst at ESPN writes that the Cavaliers may look at bringing in Sasha Kaun on a deal from Russia, as the team has his draft rights from a few years ago. The Cavs have been looking for some depth up front and with Haywood on his way out, Kaun could be an inexpensive option. The Cavs have saved some money with the Blazers trade, but the team likely will end up over the tax line after bringing in LeBron James, Iman Shumpert, Kevin Love along with Richard Jefferson, James Jones and Mo Williams.
The Cavaliers have been positioning themselves to make more moves and after the trade last week with Rakeem Christmas, ESPN reports that Kaun could be an option to come over. Kaun could be an option behind Timofey Mozgov on the roster and he also can help as insurance if Anderson Varejao is not back to himself after dealing with surgery last season. The team has been interested in bringing Kaun over and after making the moves with Dellavedova, Haywood and Miller, it could be time for the Cavs.
Now that the team has brought back the scrappy Dellavedova, the Cavaliers are working to bring back Tristan Thompson on a contract extension. Earlier this summer LeBron James said that he was hoping the Cavs could bring back Smith and Thompson on deals and continue to make improvements to the roster and so far they have done that with low level free agents like Jefferson and Williams to give bench depth.
Check here for more on the Cavaliers offseason moves, the return of Dellavedova and more on the deals with Thompson and Smith.
