The Cleveland Cavaliers are working on the returns of Tristan Thompson and JR Smith after bringing back Matthew Dellavedova on a free agent contract and the team also could look at signing Sasha Kaun, Glen Davis or Kevin Seraphin for front court depth and this comes as a Chris Andersen trade is very unlikely despite the team trading away Brendan Haywood.
The Cavaliers have been as active as any team this offseason and after trading away Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller, the team is poised to add back its major free agents left on the market. The team was shopping Haywood all offseason since he had a non-guaranteed contract and now he is headed to the Blazers, which allowed the Cavs to sign back Matthew Dellavedova. According to ESPN.com, Dellavedova is coming back on a one year deal and Marc Stein reports that the Cavs are now continuing negotiations with Tristan Thompson and JR Smith.
Andersen would be a nice fit for what the Cavs are looking for, but he is making too much money to bring on, even with him being on an expired contract. The team has trade exceptions and could use that on Andersen, but right now there is no movement on a deal. Miami has been desperate to trade Andersen and Mario Chalmers this offseason and they have already moved Zoran Dragic and Shabazz Napier to help cut costs. The Cavs could be an option for Andersen depending on what the team wants to do with their exceptions and if the team adds Kaun or not.
The team has the draft right to Kaun and Brian Windhorst at ESPN.com reports that bringing him over from Russia is a real option for the team, as they want some depth at center behind Timofey Mozgov and Anderson Varejao. The team traded Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to the Blazers to help clear cap space and get the tax down and that allowed the team to bring back Dellavedova. The backup point guard reportedly wanted $4 million per season and now he likely will be back on his qualifying offer deal.
The Cavaliers have made a number of important moves this offseason, including bringing back Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert while also negotiating with Thompson to return. LeBron James is reportedly looking for Thompson to get his deal done and he also wants Smith back. The Cavs had been shopping Haywood for a while and teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, LA Clippers and Phoenix Suns were interested before the Blazers deal got done.
Mario Chalmers, Jamal Crawford, Chris Andersen and Nick Young have all been mentioned in trade rumors recently and some of those players could still move this summer after the Haywood deal went down. Haywood was the top trade chip that the Cavs had and now he is moving along with Miller, who could be waived in the deal to become a free agent. The Cavs wanted to trade Haywood because of $10.5 million contract that is unguaranteed and they had to do it before the end of the month or the deal would have kicked in.
