Cleveland Cavaliers are making moves to try and return to the NBA Finals next season but end the championship series with a different result. They’ve retained most of their impact players in Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert, Kevin Love and most importantly, LeBron James.
They’re still looking to have both J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson return soon but in the meantime, they’ve locked up their star from the NBA Finals, Matthew Dellavedova.
Following from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
Dellavedova, a restricted free agent, accepted Cleveland’s qualifying offer and will return on a one-year deal worth approximately $1.2 million, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told ESPN on Monday.
By accepting the Cavs’ qualifying offer, Dellavedova will become an unrestricted free agent next summer when the league’s salary cap is set to balloon.
Another motivation for the timing of the deal, a source told ESPN’s Marc Stein, is that Dellavedova wanted to get his contract situation resolved before competing for his home country of Australia in the FIBA Oceania Championship next month.
The Australian guard will comeback to the Cavs on a cheap contract but his role on this team will be vastly different from last year, even before this upcoming season starts. Delly was forced into the starting role and the Cavaliers didn’t exactly get a fantastic overall performance from the Aussie point guard. The Cavs regular starting point guard, Kyrie Irving, is expected to be healthy and ready to go when the 2015-16 season starts. The team also locked in a deal with former member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Mo Williams, to be their backup point guard.
With Williams, Irving and Shumpert along with the expected return of J.R. Smith, the guard rotation for Cleveland might not include Dellavedova. He might have robbed headlines all over the world with his play for two games in the NBA Finals but it appears that the Cavs and LeBron James know, ‘Dellymania’ might be over before it even gets going.
