The season is over in Cleveland. The Cavaliers have fallen in the second round to the Celtics in five games after finishing the regular season in fourth place, the same result as the previous year. For the first time since 1993 they have managed to win a series without LeBron James in their ranks and the summer is looking interesting for the Ohio franchise. Because everything revolves around its star, Donovan Mitchell, and his future. And the situation has many aspects to analyze to understand what may happen in the coming months, or even years, with Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers.
The shooting guard, who this year will not be able to be All NBA because he has not played the mandatory 65 games, still has one year left on his guaranteed contract. Mitchell will earn $35.4 million in 2024/25 in addition to having a player option for 2026 for $37 million that he should decline. But like the rest of the Cleveland franchise’s top players, Mitchell is eligible to sign a contract extension this summer. In fact, he could have signed her from the start of the season for $149 million and three seasons, but he would be leaving a lot of money on the table. From July 1 she will be able to sign $200 million for four years and if she waits to enter free agency, the summer of 2025, even more. In that case, he could sign a contract that ties him to the Cavaliers for five more years, until 2030, for just over $260 million.
Viewed from a mathematical and financial point of view, it makes sense for Donovan Mitchell not to sign a new contract. Last October he already made it clear that signing is not a priority, and that there is still time, but with the clock hands passing at cruising speed, the pressure is inversely proportional to the years left on Mitchell’s contract. Because if the Cavaliers star doesn’t sign, there is the option that he leaves for free as a free agent and they lose him. After sending three first rounds, two swaps, to Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji and an All Star like Lauri Markkanen in September 2022, just the idea of him leaving in exchange for nothing scares Cleveland management. And if he doesn’t sign that happy extension, at the very least he will have to explore the idea of a possible transfer. The expression a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush made into an NBA situation.
From Cleveland, on the contrary, they are sure that it will continue. “He likes the situation in Cleveland because the players are young and we are putting the group together,” said Dan Gilbert, owner of the franchise. What Gilbert does not know is that virtue can at the same time be Cleveland’s grave. After two years with the same project, one with Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen around Mitchell, the ceiling has been a second round. Same ending that he had almost every year with Utah, after falling in the semifinals in 2017, 2018 and 2021, in the bubble. For a player who improves his performance in the playoffs, averaging 28.1, the seventh best mark in postseason history. Therefore, Mitchell’s name is one that should be followed in the next transfer market. And as always, the Lakers are already playing.
More post-elimination panoramas: Lakers | Suns | Heat | Bucks | Sixers | Clippers
“Lakers and Nets are among the teams that have their offers ready for Cleveland to get Donovan Mitchell,” said ESPN journalist Brian Windhorst, an expert on the Cavaliers. A list to which he has not added New York yet, with whom he connected with Mitchell ad nauseum. The Los Angeles franchise is looking for a third star along with LeBron James (who could leave in free agency) and Anthony Davis, and Jordi Fernández’s Nets need a scoring reference. In a second level appears the Miami Heat and the Houston Rockets. Any of the four can provide Cleveland with future assets such as draft rounds and rotation players, such as D’Angelo Russell or Dorian Finney-Smith, but none would fill the gap that Mitchell can leave in Cleveland’s offense. That reference at the point of attack.
Hand in hand with Mitchell’s future is that of Darius Garland. As published in The Athleticif Mitchell decides to stay long-term in Ohio, Garland’s representation, Klutch Sports, would ask the franchise for a new destination given the impossibility of sharing a backcourt. It is not the only breaking point in the Cavaliers’ future. As Adrian Wojnarowski explained this midnight, the first question that Cleveland has to answer is on the bench. JB Bickerstaff’s future is up in the air as management looks at options and the season.
And in the last few hours a new narrative has emerged. The presence of LeBron James at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to watch the fourth game of the series between Boston and Cleveland has awakened excitement in the heart of the franchise. The last time James attended Cleveland as a spectator was for Žydrūnas Ilgauskas’ jersey retirement, in 2014, and still as a Miami Heat player. The decision made Pat Riley very angry, and James ended up signing months later with the Cavaliers as a free agent. For a player who controls his image so much and does not make any decision without thinking about the consequences, appearing publicly in Cleveland and receiving the love of the fans was not a move in vain. And if Mitchell exits, who better to replace than hometown hero LeBron James?
Cleveland Cavaliers contracts, free agents and assets for the 2024-25 season
Player
2024-25
2025-26
2026-27
2027-28
Darius Garland
$36,725,670
$39,446,090
$42,166,510
$44,886,930
Donovan Mitchell
$35,410,310
$37,096,620*
Jarrett Allen
$20,000,000
$20,000,000
Caris LeVert
$16,615,384
Max Strus
$15,212,068
$15,936,452
$16,660,836
Evan Mobley
$11,227,657**
Georges Niang
$8,500,000
$8,200,000
Dean Wade
$6,166,667
$6,623,456
Ty Jerome
$2,560,975
Sam Merrill
$2,164,993
*Player option | **Equipment option | Partially guaranteed
The Cavs free agents will be:
- Isaac Okoro
- Damian Jones (Player Option)
- Tristan Thompson
- Pete Nance
- Isaiah Mobley
- Craig Porter Jr
- Marcus Morris
- Emoni Bates
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2024-05-16 05:38:36
#Contracts #future #free #agents
