The Point Four-ward: Roster-farian

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) We all knew it was going to happen.

But, when LeBron James re-signed with the Cavs for one year at $23 million (and a second year, a player option, at $24 million), a collective sigh could be heard across Cavs Nation. It wasn’t a sigh brought on by anticipation, it was a pure sigh of relief: relief that James wasn’t going to drag out his contract negotiations forever leaving the Cavs in an even relative limbo.

No more stories about how James planned to wait until last to re-up with Cleveland, putting symbolic pressure on the organization in their attempts to upgrade a roster that, even when greatly depleted, got to Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Now it’s official: James will be a Cavalier again.

Coupled with Kevin Love signing a 5-year deal — and assuming the Cavs do, in fact, reach a deal to keep Tristan Thompson in wine and gold long term — this team will be shockingly devoid of contractual drama for the foreseeable future. Kyrie Irving, like Love, is locked up long-term, as is Iman Shumpert. Thompson should be soon. James is committed to being in Cleveland.

Now, they can all relax and worry about, in Love’s words, “unfinished business.”

2.) I don’t know too many people who had anything to gripe about when Mo Williams announced his return to the Cavaliers.

Williams really embraced playing in Cleveland the first time around. The Cavs were the first team to give Williams some of the spotlight and he responded by being Cleveland’s only All-Star not named LeBron James in the 1.0 era.

A lot of Cavs fans remember Williams for not being able to deliver on his role as second offensive option when it mattered. But this is a guy who averaged over 17 points a game after being traded from Minnesota to Charlotte midway through last year. He’s an immediate upgrade as the Cavs backup ball-handler, and can even play in small line-ups with Irving and James… though that would leave the Cavs backcourt defense a little wanting. Still, getting Williams back is a big win for the Cavaliers.

The player I thought of first when I started thinking about Williams’s return: Leandro Barbosa. The veteran guard, who many would have called “washed up” by this point in his career, hit a bunch of very big buckets for the Warriors in the Finals. If the Cavs can get that kind of contribution from Williams, who should have more left in his tank than Barbosa, memories of some of Williams’ less spectacular playoff games his first time around with the Cavs will be washed away.

3.) Right now, the Cavs have ten players under contract: James, Irving, Love, Mozgov, Williams, Shumpert, Mike Miller, Anderson Varejao, Joe Harris and Brendan Haywood. If they are able to bring back Matthew Dellavedova and J.R. Smith (or a J.R. Smith-like player), and sign second round picks Rakeem Christmas and Sir’Dominic Pointer, the roster will be at 14 — and they still have to sign Tristan Thompson and likely give another veteran minimum deal to James Jones.

The team is said to like Christmas, but it’s unlikely that they retain both the big man from Syracuse and the former St. John’s wing defender, Pointer. That’s why GM David Griffin might be taking a good long look at the rumored Joe Johnson for the Haywood contract and Varejao. If the Cavs don’t think that Varejao will be able to contribute much this season, they’ll be looking at an end of the bench of Varejao, Miller and Jones (assuming Christmas and Pointer, at least, will be inactive with Pointer spending a lot of time in Canton)… which isn’t much better than not being able to use Haywood, Kendrick Perkins or Miller during the playoffs.

A two-for-one swap involving Haywood’s contract could both land the Cavs a higher quality player — Johnson could back up the two, three or four, depending on the match-ups — and give the Cavs a little more flexibility with their roster.

4.) I happen to enjoy watching NBA Summer League… I just don’t know how much I’m going to like watching this particular Cavs entry into the midsummer hoops-tacular in Las Vegas, NV.

The explosion of Summer League’s popularity the past few years happens to have coincided with a down period the Cavaliers faced during James’s four seasons with the Miami Heat. Just as the NBA Draft is much more exciting if your team is picking at the top, Summer League matters in a team-specific sense only inasmuch as your team is trotting out high quality future talent.

Over the past four summers, the Cavs have fielded teams in Vegas that featured two eventual NBA Rookie of the Years (Irving and Andrew Wiggins), and other high picks like Thompson and Dion Waiters. This year, though, the Cavs Summer League team is “headlined” by three second round picks: last year’s late-round selection, Joe Harris, and this year’s domestic duo of Griffin’s three picks in round two, Christmas and Pointer.

Of the three, I’m most looking forward to seeing what Harris can do as the presumptive go-to scorer of the team. If Harris can shoot the ball well and hold his own on defense, he might have a chance to crack the rotation occasionally on a team that will be looking to rest a bunch of guys over the course of the year.

Also, a strong showing by Harris could be the missing sweetener in a potential Haywood deal, as he is one of the Cavs few available young assets.

The Cavaliers full Summer League roster can be found here. They kick off league action tonight at 10:30 pm ET against the Golden State Warriors.