The Bench’s Bird Rights

Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson are the Cavs bench. Big T is even pushing starter minutes and Matty D is finishing fourth quarters, while both Shawn Marion and Mike Miller are failing to log just fifteen minutes a game. TT has played around 55 minutes this season while Anderson Varejao has played about 56 minutes. Delly finished the game against the Bulls playing more time than Dion Waiters, and he has the best plus/minus of anyone on the Cavs this season. He’s +21 for the year and other people, at least people outside of the Cavs:The Blog writing staff, are noticing. Jason Lloyd penned a piece for the Akron Beacon Journal with lots of praise for the Australian wonder after just two games.

Delly is in many ways the perfect complementary piece to the Cavs’ Big Three. He is a chameleon who can fit with most any other player on the floor. He keeps the ball moving offensively. He’s a gritty defender (something the Cavs sorely need right now) and he doesn’t feel an overwhelming need to shoot. In 48 minutes, he has taken just six shots (four 3-pointers).

Matthew and Tristan will both be restricted free agents after the season. Because of Matty’s contract structure, his eligibility for an extension was non-existent. TT’s contract, on the other hand, was eligible for an extension; however, his management camp turned down the Cavs offer. Terry Pluto has more information about that contract situation for The Plain Dealer.

I heard there were talks about a Faried-type deal for Thompson — about $50 million for four years.

But the two sides couldn’t settle. They also knew they could resume discussions again in July.

However, it’s not really about Thompson feeling like he received a low offer. It’s seems to be more about him not wanting to take a below market contract relative to the salary cap. He doesn’t want to appear in a “Best Deals in the NBA” piece. Pluto discusses that point.

The big issue for players, agents and owners is the rising salary cap.

Because of a new TV contract expected to kick in during the summer of 2016, some estimates have the salary cap rising more than 25 percent that summer…

But there is some concern that the salary cap may even rise by 15 percent in the summer of 2015 — rather than the usual 7 percent.

So, theoretically, Thompson might need that $50 million offer upped by eight percent to be in line with a new salary cap. For the Cavs, if TT and Delly continue their relevancy, there will be almost no choice as to whether they match offers for the pair. The organization will have to use their Bird Rights because signing these two reserves will take the team over the salary cap considering that the Big Three and Andy will be on large contracts in the coming years. The Wine & Gold will actually be approaching the salary cap apron, a sort of hard cap. Jason Lloyd has more information on this.

In an effort to simplify an always-complicated salary cap, the most important aspect to understand from the Cavs’ perspective is crossing the apron means the team will have less money in cap exceptions to offer prospective free agents and they cannot execute a sign-and-trade to obtain other players. That second part relates directly to Haywood.

His contract is one of the most valuable and unique in the league because of what it offers next season: a $10.5 million non-guaranteed salary to use in trade discussions. That gives the Cavs an opportunity to add a high-salaried player without having to come up with the financial component to match.

When they acquired Haywood’s contract on draft night, the Cavs roster looked far different. They didn’t have any max contracts on their books. Now they’ll have three.

So what’s it all mean? If Roy Hibbert declines the player option on his contract for next season and becomes a free agent next summer, the Cavs wouldn’t be able to acquire him in a sign-and-trade using Hawyood’s contract. The same is true of any other free agent on the market. The Cavs will be limited to using Haywood’s deal to acquire a player already under contract for at least one more season beyond this year.

The Cavs are going to have some money issues going forward, and this is really good news for Joe Harris. Harris is on a cheap contract and will be with the team for at least three years. At some point, no matter how willing Dan Gilbert is to pay the luxury tax, there will be no way to spend for production, and Harris will be looked to to develop. Instead of pitty minutes, he’ll

He has the look of someone ready to be a stoic shot sinker.

be getting cash strapped minutes. It also helps that Mike Miller looks like he may be done. He has shot one time (and missed) in 13 minutes on the floor this year and has just one rebound.

Slam has a LeBron profile by Ryan Jones. It’s a different type of profile piece because instead of soley talking about LeBron’s relationship with Cleveland, it also talks about Slam’s relationship with LeBron. That’s a new take on the LeBron profile, but LeBron’s quotes are still the highlight of the feature.

“If we don’t shortcut the process, we’re going to give ourselves a good chance of competing at the end of the year,” LeBron says. “But it’s going to be tough. We’re a new group that’s coming together. We have a new coaching staff, a new system for all of us. It’s not going to be easy at all.”

LeBron has officially reached championship getting machine quote status. If he doesn’t say something wrong soon, I might have to analyze basketball instead of quotes this season. Bloggers across the world are going to lose it if LeBron keeps up his professionalism.

Over at 120sports.com, their NBA commentators were asked what teams are a threat to the Cavs and Bulls this season. They said the Heat and Wizards are serious competitors in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards look good; however, I fear that LeBron could lock down John Wall, and the Cavs vs. Wizards games would come down to Marcin Gortat and Nene having other worldly performances. That doesn’t scare me. Also, Bradley Beal is currently injured, and when he gets healthy, Dion is sure to play anger defense on him because of Wall’s best backcourt comments, which were made before the season started.

The Heat are not competing for a title this season as long as they are relying on Dwyane Wade. I flipped to their opening game against the Wizards at the precise moment Wade hobbled off the court. He came back, but it’s a bad sign that I wasn’t surprised to see him in an injured state after watching less than 20 seconds of a Heat game.

Tristan Thompson is looking to get annoying against the Blazers.  Chris Haynes has the scoop.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge, Utah’s Derrick Favors or Denver’s Kenneth Faried, Thompson is going to lay a body on somebody in hopes of making life as difficult as possible for the opponent.

“Being that guy that when I check in guys on the other team are like, ‘Damn, he’s here tonight.’ That’s my mentality,” [Thompson] said.

The Cavs reserve big man is meant to be annoying, it’s becoming tradition. The past two years Andy got to be the player that made everyone wish they weren’t rebounding or inbounding the ball. TT learned from the best and is ready to fufill the “tries harder than everyone” role. Delly does a good job being an agaitator too. The Cavs might have the most frustrating bench in the league this season.

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