Acording to Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, the Cleveland Cavaliers are in no rush to make a decision on Russian center Sasha Kaun. The Cavaliers dined with Sasha Kaun to start the dialogue about possibly playing for the team next season.
“The Cavaliers “aren’t in a hurry” to make a decision on Russian center Sasha Kaun, a league source told the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Cleveland front office personnel dined with the 7-foot Kaun Friday night in Las Vegas after he watched the team’s Summer League finale courtside with LeBron James and coach David Blatt, among others. The Cavs control Kaun’s NBA rights and could pay him at least the veteran’s minimum of $525,000, in addition to the roughly $1.3 million left of the team’s taxpayer’s salary cap exception, if they so chose. They invited Kaun to Las Vegas to start the dialogue about possibly playing for Cleveland next season.”
#NBA l’ex @CSKABasketball Sasha Kaun a Las Vegas seduto vicino a LeBron James. Futuro ai @cavs per il centro russo? pic.twitter.com/Rf5GmYyKz3
— Basketcaffe.com (@Basketcaffe) July 18, 2015
Kaun is now a 30-year old center from Russia, who played at Kansas and was selected in the second round of the 2008 Draft. The Cavs acquired his rights that night from the Seattle SuperSonics, but Kaun has played the last seven seasons for CSKA Moscow. Kaun averaged 10.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in 67 games with CSKA last season, shooting 68 percent from the field. Kaun recently told the Lawrence Journal-World that “as of now, I’m done playing in Russia and pretty sure I’m done in Europe.”
Kaun’s presence with the Cavs’ team and management on Friday is a clear sign that he may be willing to make the financial sacrifice, plus he has a history with Blatt. Along with current Cavs center Timofey Mozgov, Kaun played on the Russian National Team, coached by Blatt, at the 2010 World Championship and the 2012 Olympics, where the Russians won the bronze medal.
