The Cleveland Cavaliers made some major switching of their roster at the trade deadline, making moves that they hope can bring them another championship, and get LeBron James to stick around and sign an extension.
But one of the not so talked about sides of the trade deadline is what kind of luxury tax trouble they are in with the roster they have now.
According to Bobby Marks, a front office insider for ESPN:
Current post-trade deadline luxury tax breakdown: Cleveland ($50M), Golden State ($32.2M), Oklahoma City ($24.5M) and Washington ($6.5M). The Cavaliers will spend $4.25 for every $1 spent on a player. Cleveland has 2 roster spots open.
Although the Cavaliers do have those two open roster spots to work with, it wouldn’t be surprising to see those spots stay open, unless Dan Gilbert wants to fork over some serious cash.
A veteran’s minimum this year is $1,471,382 which means if the Cavaliers were to sign say a Joe Johnson if he was bought out, and he agreed to play for the minimum, it would actually cost them $6,253,373.
Now, of course, that would be pro-rated for how many games are left in the season when the player signs, but that is the option that the front office has to consider.
Is it worth paying a guy that much money, when he might not even make much of an impact on the team, or is it better to keep the roster spot open, and save the Cavaliers a little money, off the bill they are already going to have to write the NBA this offseason?