The Cleveland Cavaliers have two important rotation players from last year that had yet to re-sign as of Thursday morning. Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith, who are going through some dramatically different contract negotiations, had yet to announce their future with the team.
Tristan Thompson is in negotiations with the Cavs to get himself a raise to a max contract this upcoming season but Smith was negotiating with the team for possibly less than what he would have made, if he accepted his player option for the 2015-16 season.
Late Thursday night, the former sixth man of the year announced that he would be re-signing with the Cavaliers. J.R. Smith took to his instagram account to make the annoncement.
Chris B. Haynes of Cleveland.com shed some light on Smith’s contract details.
J.R. Smith, Cavs agree to two-year deal, league source tells @Clevelanddotcom. Will earn $5 million next season and player option on second.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) August 21, 2015
Finally, Smith was officially welcomed back to the Cavs by his teammate LeBron James. The King welcomed back J.R. Swish on his twitter account.
Welcome back brother @TheRealJRSmith! Happy you're sticking around. #TheLand #StriveForGreatness
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 21, 2015
With Smith locked up, the rumors of the Cavs possibly acquiring Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford may be dead in the water. There’s no need for two ball dominant sixth men on the team, especially not when the team has yet to lock up Tristan Thompson.
Now the Cavs main focus going into training camp will be solely on locking up Tristan Thompson, who has yet to sign any sort of deal with the team. For Cavs fans, they will either keep Thompson around for the long-term or sign him to a qualifying offer and run the risk of losing him next summer.
