Smith wants $15+M a year to stay with Cavs; not a lock to return - Love trade?

[TheFlex]

More than $15 million a year ?  For what?  Is he that out of shirts , lol ?

TP.

[PhoSita]

Smith should ask for that much. He's a streaky but deadly three point shooter at maybe the weakest position in the league. Fifteen a year is average starter money in this cap environment.

Remember that JR has made bench money for most of his career. Now he finally has a chance to get that one big payday, and hes coming off a championship run as a key role player.

[GreenWarrior]

can't believe I live in a world where JR Smith has a championship.

[PhoSita]

can't believe I live in a world where JR Smith has a championship.

I still have trouble processing that the 4th quarter of Game 7 happened.

[jpotter33]

I don't see much happening here.  LeBron hasn't signed his deal yet for a reason.  Smith will get his deal.  My guess is 4 years, a shade under $56 million, which would be $12.5 million this year with max raises.

Eh, Smith is going to be 31 before the start of the season, and he's not a very good fit next to Kyrie anyways. With the cap looking smaller than expected in the coming years, I'm struggling to see why they'd invest so much in a player like Smith.

I still think they ultimately want to move Love, and with the increase in GS's perimeter offense, they certainly need an upgrade in their perimeter D. If Bradley truly is on the table for a Love trade, which seems like a fairly safe bet, then something like a Bradley, KO, JJ, and Clips pick for Love trade makes too much sense for both sides not to consider. Bradley is much younger and a much better two-way player for next to Kyrie, and both KO and JJ are the type of stretch bigs that they want, with JJ being a perfect fit with his defensive versatility. It also clears up significant cap space for them next year while getting Bradley on a cost-controlled deal.

If the LeBron agency wasn't representing Smith, I'd think there might be something.  But LeBron really likes spending Dan Gilbert's money, and Smith will get paid.

I'm not sure how close he is with Smith, though. He got Thompson his contract, for sure. But Lebron is smart, and I'm sure that he knows that Smith isn't an ideal guy to surround him with as he ages. It does help that he's with the same agent, but I certainly don't think that it's a foregone conclusion that he stays by any means.

[TheSundanceKid]

Ray Allen is considering coming out of retirement. Just replace JR with him. That's Cleveland's leverage

[greece66]

I don't see much happening here.  LeBron hasn't signed his deal yet for a reason.  Smith will get his deal.  My guess is 4 years, a shade under $56 million, which would be $12.5 million this year with max raises.

I think this is the most likely outcome too. Last season JR Smith played 30.7 mpg in a contender; I do not think 2-3 more mill per year will be enough to make him leave that at the age of 30.

As for Love, I always doubted the rumours that they would trade him because it would be very hard to get a player of similar value in return. If they trade him for assets in order to get cap space, such a move would IMO only have made sense much earlier, before the best FAs had signed.

They can always make a deal with LAL or Philly for young talent as BitterJim suggests, but although I do not think this is impossible, it is unlikely.

Finally, I would like to know what is the OP's logic behind this post. The title literally reads  //Cavs might not sign player X, so they might trade player Y//. What is the connection between JR Smith and Love (honest question, no irony here).

[jpotter33]

I don't see much happening here.  LeBron hasn't signed his deal yet for a reason.  Smith will get his deal.  My guess is 4 years, a shade under $56 million, which would be $12.5 million this year with max raises.

I think this is the most likely outcome too. Last season JR Smith played 30.7 mpg in a contender; I do not think 2-3 more mill per year will be enough to make him leave that at the age of 30.

As for Love, I always doubted the rumours that they would trade him because it would be very hard to get a player of similar value in return. If they trade him for assets in order to get cap space, such a move would IMO only have made sense much earlier, before the best FAs had signed.

They can always make a deal with LAL or Philly for young talent as BitterJim suggests, but although I do not think this is impossible, it is unlikely.

Finally, I would like to know what is the OP's logic behind this post. The title literally reads  //Cavs might not sign player X, so they might trade player Y//. What is the connection between JR Smith and Love (honest question, no irony here).

Have to give up value to get value back, and they'd have to lose Love to get something like Bradley, JJ, and KO back, who could replace 85% of Love's and Smith's impact (while giving stuff that they didn't) at a third of the cost with more cap room next year and an overall better fitting team.