ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst<\/a> says he believes the Cavs have been active and there\u2019s a decent chance they\u2019ll make a move.<\/p>\n\u201cI think there\u2019s a decent chance the Cavs do something, they have been very active in calls\u2026 I think they\u2019ve considered making a home run swing and I think they\u2019ve looked for ways to shave off money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Windhorst also mentioned that he \u201cdoes not want to get aggregated here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorry, Windy. We couldn\u2019t resist.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth acknowledging how hamstrung the Cavaliers are by their financial situation. The second apron prevents them from taking back more money than they send out\u2014and from combining player salaries in any trade unless that trade puts them below the second apron (of which they are currently $22 million over the limit).<\/p>\n
Put simply, the Cavs either have to make a 1-for-1 swap (unlikely) or dump $22 million of salary while also matching the salary of whoever they trade for.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at Giannis Antetokounmpo as an example. He\u2019s making $54 million dollars this season. Add that salary to the previous $22 million figure, and the Cavs have to send out at least $76 million just to absorb Antetokounmpo\u2019s contract and duck the second apron.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a tall order for any team. Especially a Cavalier team that\u2019s currently on a five-game winning streak and just hitting its stride. Gutting the roster, even for a player of Antetokounmpo\u2019s status, is a difficult decision to make.<\/p>\n
Still, Windy says anything is possible for the Cavs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d Windhorst said in response to whether or not the Cavs could get Giannis. \u201cThere are trade scenarios that could make it happen. Do I think they are a serious contender? No. But it\u2019s not impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that we\u2019ve unpacked everything, I\u2019d say it sounds unlikely the Cavs make a homerun swing. But Koby Altman and the front office are doing their due diligence and weighing all of their options. This isn\u2019t a team that\u2019s sitting on its hands and accepting fate. If they stay put at the deadline, it\u2019s not for a lack of trying. The Cavs are listening to offers.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trust that if there\u2019s a star player out there, the Cavs have had a discussion about it,\u201d Windhorst said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the midst of their best stretch of the season. But all eyes remain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,147,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-569799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cavs-news","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115981631374277255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}