The Cleveland Cavaliers have traded Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to the Portland Trail Blazers.
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The 35-year-old center is already on his twilight years and nothing is expected from him on the court anymore, but his non-guaranteed $10.5 million contract is what makes him interesting when it comes to trade value. If the Cavaliers trade during the season for a $5 million player, that turns into a $20 million bill for them including the massive tax they’re paying.
The Cavaliers, with or without Haywood, are heading into uncharted territory in terms of luxury tax. The 14-year veteran appeared in only 22 games for Cleveland last season and he’s unlikely to draw much interest as a free agent, but he could still garner a veteran-minimum deal to fill out some team’s depth chart.
Portland will likely waive Haywood, who has a $10.5 million non-guaranteed deal for the 2015-16 season.
Regardless, this is another example of how it can pay off to have copious amounts of cap space when rebuilding in the National Basteball Association. According to Windhorst, the team holds the draft rights to Kaun, who is playing overseas in Russian Federation. Christmas was no lock to even make the roster and since the Cavs are trying to win now, they felt getting the second round pick to trade was the most important outcome. Cedi Osman, the 31st pick in June’s draft and Dario Saric’s running mate at Anadolu Efes, would be an terrific sweetener in my opinion. As widely reported, LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert were able to haggle “fat checks” for the upcoming season. They used a trade exception to acquire Timofey Mozgov last January, for instance.
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In short, the Sixers could potentially get a 2nd round pick for literally nothing at all. It’s a no-brainer.
