Shooting guard J.R. Smith, to the surprise of many, has yet to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Smith is reportedly seeking a contract with an annual salary of around $15 million per year. Obviously, Smith and the Cavs’ management have not yet come to an agreement, and as a result of that, Smith is skipping the team’s training camp. At the Cavs’ training camp on Monday, GM David Griffin said that the team has made an offer to Smith:
Cavs GM David Griffin announces that Mo Williams is indeed retiring. Addresses J.R. Smith as well. #Cavs pic.twitter.com/BGUtS9Hxe0
— Hayden Grove (@H_Grove) September 26, 2016
As transcribed by James Herbert of CBSSports:
“J.R. Smith is not here today,” Griffin said, via cleveland.com’s Hayden Grove. “As we’ve stated and coach has previously stated, we think very highly of J.R. We love him as a member of our team. As a member of our locker room, he was essential to our success. And for that reason we’ve made an incredibly competitive and aggressive offer to re-sign him. We hope that gets done in very short order. At the same time, we’ve been a team that has really become accustomed to a ‘next man up’ mentality and we expect this will be no different, not at all something that’s going to be used as an excuse here in any way, shape or form. But we truly believe J.R. feels the same way about us and, as I said, we hope this is done in very short order.”
Smith is highly important to the team’s success. Though he’s a streaky shooter, he’s nearly unstoppable when he has the ‘hot hand,’ and it is quite possible that the Cavs would not have won last year’s championship without him.
