The Point Four-ward: In (Con)Tract-ion

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) It has become almost commonplace to say that LeBron James never stops surprising. For all the highlights, the masterful performances, and even this season’s Herculean Finals run, he’s just one of those players who can still surprise. He can surprise, in spite of how much more surprising his feats must be than those of other players. He can surprise, in spite of our judgement of him being set so ridiculously high.

This summer has been no exception.

No, LeBron hasn’t come out with a surprise on the scale of Summer 2014’s “The Return,” but in smaller ways, he’s proven just as difficult to anticipate.

Take, for example, James’s stance on the Tristan Thompson contract negotiations. First, when it was widely expected that James, who shares agent Rich Paul with Thompson, would wait for Thompson to come to terms before signing his own contract with the team, James did the opposite. On July 9, the first day that NBA free agent contracts could be signed, James informed the team that he’s be back on what amounts to a one-year $23 million deal (the deal’s second year, is a player option for $24 million).

Thompson’s negotiations, as Cavs fans well know, remain ongoing. But, LeBron, again somewhat surprisingly, hasn’t been throwing his weight around on the matter. In fact, just last Thursday at Cedar Point, where James announced his partnership with the University of Akron to provide scholarships to at-risk students, he said the following about Thompson:

Things need to be worked out from his side and the Cavs but we need him back. He’s an important resource.

This surprised me a little.

No, there’s nothing earth-shattering about that statement. But just the fact that James seemed to hold Paul and Thompson as accountable as the team for the current impasse in negotiations was huge for a player who is often characterized as the team’s de facto GM.

Maybe what’s going on between Thompson and the Cavs won’t devolve into a mean-spirited, qualifying offer-signing mess. Maybe this is part of the process. Or, more shockingly, maybe James is letting his agent and his team work on this deal for his teammate like the professionals both sides are. Maybe…

James also called re-signing Thompson to be the team’s “number one priority” going forward, a statement that the Cavs front office would agree with, as well.

2.) In a previous Four-ward, I discussed the reports coming out of the Las Vegas Summer League that the Cavs were meeting with their 2008 second round pick Sasha Kaun and that it seemed likely that Kaun would return stateside after playing the last six years professionally for CSKA Moscow and as a member of the Russian national team. Well, likely just got likelier.

NEOMG’s Chris Haynes reported that Kaun was in Cleveland on Monday for “house hunting,” among other things, and that while inking Kaun will likely be the final bone to fall in the domino train of the Cavaliers off-season, it’s now a question, no longer of if, but of when Kaun will officially join the wine and gold.

Kaun, 30, even in coming off a career best season in 2014-15, would be penciled in as the team’s fifth big man, behind starters Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov and top reserves Thompson and Anderson Varejao. But it is encouraging that Kaun is coming to the Cavs at his peak, even if his peak is only the 9.9 points and 4.5 rebounds a game he averaged last season. By contrast, when David Blatt needed a big other than Thompson off his bench during the second half of last season, all he had was Kendrick Perkins, also just 30 years old, but whose game has been on a steady decline for the last several seasons.

3.) The expected addition of Kaun leaves the Cavs roster, assuming they reach deals with Thompson, J.R. Smith and Sir’Dominic Pointer, at 14 [Correction: adding Kaun, along with retaining Smith and Thompson and signing Pointer would bring the Cavs roster to its maximum 15. But they could choose to hold off on signing Pointer, putting the final roster spot, again, in play.]. The Cavs don’t have to carry the league maximum 15 players. They could choose to only carry 14 — only 12 of whom can be active — and save the money that carrying a 15th player would incur in luxury tax penalties. But, as the Cavs learned last season, players get hurt, so there’s no harm in trying to fill the end of your bench with quality.

Of the two players — the team’s former first round pick Jared Cunningham and Duke alum Quinn Cook — recently inked by the Cavs to training camp deals, Cook looks like the far more interesting long-shot prospect.

4.) In 40 professional games, Cunningham is a 35% shooter from the floor and connected on just 30.8% of his three point attempts. Standing 6-5 in shoes, he does have good size and athleticism for a shooting guard. The low shooting numbers, though, make him a longer than long shot to make the team that originally drafted him.

The 6-2 Cook, however, is a much better shooter, hitting 40% of his three pointers for the Blue Devils last season. Here’s the book on Cook, per DraftExpress:

Cook is quick in the open court, both with and without the ball, and is great in transition, where he scored more points this season than any player in this draft class (on excellent efficiency at 1.35 PPP according to Synergy, #2 in this draft). He doesn’t get to the rim all that often in the half-court, though, shooting just 91 shots inside the paint and hitting only 45% of his attempts. He will need to improve on his touch on his floaters to become a more effective scorer in the paint, as he doesn’t always have the size or athleticism to get all the way to the basket against a set defense.

Much of Cook’s offensive value comes from his shooting ability, which is much improved from his freshman season. In his first year at Duke, he shot just 25% from beyond the arc but has since grown to become a 40.1% shooter,third among point guards in our top 100. He has a fundamental stroke that should allow him to translate his shooting to NBA distance and give him a way to contribute when off the ball. He’s much more comfortable in catch and shoot situations (39%) compared to jumpers off the dribble (34.8%) but he doesn’t force many tough jump shots off the dribble that he is uncomfortable attempting.