The summer of Cleveland has been relatively quiet. While other teams make headlines with their big acquisitions, the Cavaliers, being “cap-strapped”, have been very conservative in their moves.
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Instead of adding major pieces, David Griffin’s main focus has been regrouping the core that brought the franchise’s first ever championship. Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson are locked in, while LeBron James has explicitly told everyone that he’s coming back.
Which leaves us with J.R. Smith; the mercurial shooting guard is still without a deal, but chances are in favor of the Cavs retaining its best shooter from long distance. Recently, those odds just got better as Smith posted a photo on Instagram that could suggest some welcome development.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIZD5Sjj26t/?hl=en
Reports have speculated that Smith is looking for a long-term deal somewhere around $15 million per year. While that amount will send the team well over the cap, it’s not actually a deal-breaker as Cleveland owns the bird rights to Smith.
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Furthermore, Rich Paul is the one representing J.R. Smith in all these talks. It only gets interesting, and hopefully, in the coming days, something positive will come out from both camps.