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Kevin Durant Question

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bigfigga12

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First off, with a little maneuvering, I believe the Cavs for the first time this offseason can execute a sign and trade, unlike years past being over the apron. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but after some roster management, renouncement of some free agents etc....can this be done?

My basic understanding is you have a salary cap number, a luxury tax threshold number, and then the apron. In order to execute a sign and trade, a team cannot be over the apron, both before or after executing the sign and trade.

The salary cap for next season is as of today 94 million, with still some people believing that number may still raise another 2-3 million, some even speculate 5 million more. For the sake of argument, let's go with what we know for sure it can/will be, 94 million.

At 94 million, the apron would be set at 117 million.
http://www.spotrac.com/nba/cap/2016/
So that's the magic number relative to the Cavs. With their current cap holds, the Cavs are commited upwards to 150 million but it's irrelevant for team's already over the cap, crucial in calculation for team's under trying to sign free agents and remain under.

The ONLY player I would even consider a sign and trade for would be for Kevin Durant. Could you imagine a big 3 of Kyrie, Lebron, and K.D!??? It would be insane. Here is a great page to refeerence the Cav"s current salary cap situation..
http://www.hoopsrumors.com/cleveland-cavaliers

In order for my RIDICULOUS theory ( I believe anyway) to work, first the parameters of a deal. The nice part in discussing the value the Thunder would receive in this type of situation is they have absolutely no control over it... K.D simply would say this is where I want to go, take the value, or I'll sign somewhere else. Now even though the Thunder may simply want K.D's cap relief, Kevin Love would be a very interesting alternative for the Thunder rather than letting Durant walk for nothing. Remember Russell Westbrook and Love are former teammates at UCLA and are still super tight til this day. I believe Westbrook would completely be open to adding Love and the Thunder want a happy Westbrook.

In a sign and trade, either party can accept or receive 125% difference in salaries being exchanged. Durant can sign a max deal for 26,600,000 before being traded. Love's salary is $21,165,675. In a straight up swap, the Thunder would need a minimum $21,280,000 sent over from the Cavs ( $26,600,000 /1.25)which would leave the Cavs outgoing salary $114,325 short of what the Collective Bargaining Agreement allows. Actually, only $14,325 short, because they allow a $100,000 variance. So in order for this to be succesfull, the Cavs would need to convince Durant to sign for 15 grand less than the 26.6... lol.

I'm not adding any additional salaries or players to the deal for a reason. Once a team brings a player in via sign and trade and do so under the 117 million apron, they become hard capped and cannot exceed that number besides vet minimum and rookie exceptions. I believe once hard capped, the Cavs would lose any mid level, bi annual exception possibilities as well. So not only is it important to get under the apron in committed salaries enough to execute the deal, it's vital to have the majority of your roster and rotation solidified and fill out the remaining with vet min types.

For this to work, the Cavs would have to renounce all their free agents completely to release their cap holds, and renounce their trade exceptions as well I believe. That means they would not match Delly as a RFA, they would let Mozgov walk, renounce all of the rest in Kahn, JJ, Jefferson etc.

If the Cavs traded Love for Durant, they could add Durant and remain under the apron with 8 core players: Kyrie/Bron/Durant/Mo/Shumpert/JR/Frye/Thompson. Actually they wouldnt renounce JR, they would hold on to his bird rights and resign him. With my figures, if they resigned him at 8 million per year, they would still be $2,266,500 under the apron, so essentially they could go as high as 10 million per season with JR and still be ok.

Since Lebron does not have Bird Rights yet, he can only sign a 1 year deal for 27.5 million, which is what everyone expects. So once yo add Lebron's 27.5, K.D's 26.6, Kyrie/T.T/Shump and Frye combined equals $50,438,391, and then Mo's $2,194,500 as well as JR's 8-10 million, the total ranges from $114,733,500, onto anything additional of 8/year to JR staying under the apron.

Once the deal would be completed and they become hard capped, the Cavs could then add the PG they just drafted with a rookie exception, resign Jefferson and JJ to their same vet minimum deals, and then have about 3 roster openings left to add some ring chasers.

Lineup:

PG: Irving/ Mo/ Oakland kid
SG: J.R/ Shumpert/ Macray
SF: Durant/ Jefferson/ ?
PF: Lebron/?/ JJ
C: Thompson/ Frye/ ?

Cavs could go after a David West or pipe dream Dirk N for backup 4 and try and add cheap rim protection.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong... is this even plausible??
 
Financially, a sign-and-trade is possible.

A sign-and-trade for Durant is only plausible as long as he tells OKC he is leaving either way.

Say, if we are choice one and Golden State is choice two. Golden State can sign him outright, which forces OKC to try to get something at least.

Kevin Love is a chip that no one else can offer. Most teams in the Durant sweepstakes, he's leaving to play with those guys. Not to be traded for them. We are unique as Love is expendable. And he and Russ are very very close.

We just need him hanging out with Kyrie at the Olympics, talking about titles and the future. A few visits from LeBron.

I think we can sell him on a move from OKC to CLE. We just don't know if our front office is trying to change a championship core significantly.
 
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Only problem FA is way before the olympics...
 
I'm curious as to why the national media isn't even mentioning the Cavaliers as an option for Kevin Durant, yet their pinning him on the Warriors, Spurs, Knicks, etc.

I don't know the relationship between Bron and Durant, but I don't picture it being bad and to the point LeBron wouldn't reach out to him, and seeing if he would consider the possibility of joining here.

It's still very unlikely KD would come here, it's still unlikely the Cavs would move Love, but if they did it'd likely only be for a Durant type player(example: Superstar).

If I had to guess, he stays at OKC. He has enough talent around him to win, honestly, so it's not like he can use the LeBron excuse when Bron left here the first time and joined Miami. However, his chances of winning a title go up a lot more if he elected to sign in Cleveland.

Considering Miami was a dark horse back in 2010 for LeBron, I guess the Cavs can be considered as one for Durant now.

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I'm curious as to why the national media isn't even mentioning the Cavaliers as an option for Kevin Durant, yet their pinning him on the Warriors, Spurs, Knicks, etc.

I don't know the relationship between Bron and Durant, but I don't picture it being bad and to the point LeBron wouldn't reach out to him, and seeing if he would consider the possibility of joining here.

Because every free agent/tradeable star is going to Boston or GS, bruh!
 
I think the Cavaliers could absolutely find a way to make it work if Durant wanted to join the team.

But much like everyone had said Durant would have a difficult time joining the Warriors if they won the championship, the same logic now applies with the Cavs. I don't imagine Durant will be wanting to pile on by joining a defending champion.

Further, I do wonder what adding Durant to the Cavaliers would do to roles on the team. It would be a great problem to have, and I'd love to see it. But we've talked about how in Miami and now in Cleveland, Bosh and Love have been relegated to a distant 3rd option. Would Durant struggle to find his rhythm? Would he want to deal with that struggle? Would Kyrie take a back seat?

And that question would need to be asked if he goes to the Warriors as well. But the difference is the Warriors are looked at as a team where the ball movement will find the open shot. I think Durant would be intrigued by that offense. But with 4 serious star caliber players, there would probably be some tension as someone's role diminished.
 
Only problem FA is way before the olympics...
Right, the Olympics start in August, but I'd like to think this team might... You know... Have camp and practice prior to August.
 
@bigfigga12

You're not wrong... everything you said looks fine to me, and I agree; it's exactly what the Cavs should do.

But instead of the Cavs making the approach, it really should be LeBron James reaching out to Durant behind the scenes.

If Durant is willing to have a closed door, secret meeting, where the Cavaliers don't basically advertise their willingness to trade away Kevin Love, then I think it makes all the sense in the world.

I think what we're seeing now is teams that have very little, if anything, to lose; and Harrison Barnes is gone IMO regardless of what the Warriors do.
 
@bigfigga12

You're not wrong... everything you said looks fine to me, and I agree; it's exactly what the Cavs should do.

But instead of the Cavs making the approach, it really should be LeBron James reaching out to Durant behind the scenes.

If Durant is willing to have a closed door, secret meeting, where the Cavaliers don't basically advertise their willingness to trade away Kevin Love, then I think it makes all the sense in the world.

I think what we're seeing now is teams that have very little, if anything, to lose; and Harrison Barnes is gone IMO regardless of what the Warriors do.
The fact that Durant keeps saying this is a basketball decision, nothing to do with geographic location, marketing, etc. makes it at least possible. I think he at least considers us if approached by LeBron, pitched about taking over this team's scoring next season. He is rather close with LeBron, and I can see LeBron moving into the facilitator role even more.

I doubt it happens, for sure... I think he signs a 1+1 in OKC to give leverage based on what Westbrook does (even though he's hated this free agent summer of rumors).

But I wouldn't count us out... we just pulled off a huge upset in the playoffs and this team is magic right now. Perhaps we have some more magic...
 
Everybody calling a move to GSW a "bitch" move aren't considering that it'd be the same thing if he came to Cleveland. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we did just win the title. So while it sucks to admit it, he'd be front-running worse if he came here over going to Oakland.

And I do think that deep down KD isn't going to feel vindicated until he beats LeBron. Joining up with LeBron to win titles wouldn't nearly mean as much to him as defeating the one guy who has consistently been held above him in his time in the league.
 
Everybody calling a move to GSW a "bitch" move aren't considering that it'd be the same thing if he came to Cleveland. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we did just win the title. So while it sucks to admit it, he'd be front-running worse if he came here over going to Oakland.

And I do think that deep down KD isn't going to feel vindicated until he beats LeBron. Joining up with LeBron to win titles wouldn't nearly mean as much to him as defeating the one guy who has consistently been held above him in his time in the league.

I think the biggest difference would be that you are joining an already established Big3 who has a recent championship, 73 win season, and was 1 win from back to back. In Cleveland, you would only be joining a Big2 because we would have to ship off Love. I still don't understand why there isn't more hate thrown towards KD and Steph for this even being a possibility. No one has ever had a Big4, and LBJ was torched for both his Big3 in Miami and his Big3 in Cleveland.

My thoughts are if Cleveland/LBJ aren't at least secretly reaching out to gauge his interest, they are failing. No matter what team you are, you look to improve your team. Cavs only real way to improve this team is through trade. I'm not a "you have to trade Love" guy, but I'm very open to explore that possibility, and what a win/win situation for everyone for there to be S&T for Durant to come to Cleveland.
 
eh.. Durant not signing w/Cleveland via S/T, nice to dream I guess.

Frankly I think you need guys who shoot less and pass more anyway. That was the problem with Love was that you paid him all this money to essentially defer shots/post ups. An A+ 3D guy would be ideal.
 
eh.. Durant not signing w/Cleveland via S/T, nice to dream I guess.

Because?

There have been reports suggesting he's looking to sign max deal, not a 1+1. If that's the case, a S&T is quite possible.

From a basketball standpoint, how does Golden State, New York, or Miami make more sense for Durant than Cleveland?

Frankly I think you need guys who shoot less and pass more anyway.

Why?

In the Finals, we only got consistent offense from Kyrie and James. Why do we need more passing?

That was the problem with Love was that you paid him all this money to essentially defer shots/post ups. An A+ 3D guy would be ideal.

Are you saying a 3&D guy would be better than Kevin Love? Or that a 3&D guy would be "ideal" over Kevin Durant?
 
eh.. Durant not signing w/Cleveland via S/T, nice to dream I guess.

Frankly I think you need guys who shoot less and pass more anyway. That was the problem with Love was that you paid him all this money to essentially defer shots/post ups. An A+ 3D guy would be ideal.
An elite 3&D guy would be out of our price range--and are hard to come by.

I like a guy like a Courtney Lee. Very heady player--not flashy, but a solid piece. He also brings us a good bit of flexibility. Then again, he may be priced out of our range based on the exploding cap.

Jared Dudley-another guy who adds versatility.

We'll see. It will be very interesting to see if someone is willing to take a pay cut to be a part of something special here.
 
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