The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to sign George Niang in 2023 NBA free agency, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Cavs will give Niang a three-year contract worth $26 million, Wojnarowski reports.
Georges Niang played last season with the Philadelphia 76ers. The new Cavs forward provides Cleveland with some much-needed shooting. After earning the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Cavs’ inability to make open shots was their undoing in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
The Cavs had a league-worst 101.9 offensive rating during the 2023 playoffs. The team had trouble finding reliable scorers beyond Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, particularly at forward. The Niang signing should help in that area.
Cleveland had the NBA’s best defensive rating during the regular season.
Niang averaged 8.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 78 games for the Sixers in the 2022-2023 NBA season. He made 40.1% of his 3-point attempts and is a 40.3% 3-point shooter for his career.
If Niang’s minutes increase with the Cavs, he has what it takes to potentially be a double-digit per-game scorer. When he averaged a career-high 22.8 minutes per game in the 2021-2022 season, Niang put up 9.2 points per contest for the Sixers.
After playing for the Indiana Pacers as a rookie, Niang spent the next four seasons with the Utah Jazz. He increased his scoring average in Utah every single year. In the 2020-2021 campaign, the forward made a career-high 42.5% of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Niang could end up being one of the Cavs’ biggest additions in free agency. Rumors that Mitchell or Garland could be traded have been debunked.