After reporting last week that the Cavaliers have made a three-year offer worth approximately $40MM to restricted free agent guard Collin Sexton, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com said this week during an appearance on Zach Lowe’s Lowe Post podcast that he doesn’t get the sense Sexton is learning toward accepting that offer.
“The offer I reported, the three-year (deal) around $40 million, I don’t get the sense that Collin and his camp would take that,” Fedor said (hat tip to RealGM). “I don’t think they would take a multiyear deal at that number.
“In fact, I think it would be more likely that they would take the qualifying offer (and) go into unrestricted free agency next offseason. Try and rebuild the value before that, show that you can be healthy, show that the meniscus tear is behind you, show you can adapt to a lesser sixth man role, all those different things. I think that is more likely than them taking the multiyear offer that the Cavs have made at this point in time.”
A sign-and-trade deal remains a possibility for Sexton as he seeks a more significant contract than the one the Cavaliers have offered, but it’s hard to find a logical trade partner for Cleveland, Fedor tweets.
The NBA’s base year compensation rules and the Cavs’ current and future cap situation would be complicating factors, according to Fedor, who notes that the team wants to stay out of the tax this season while maintaining cap room in 2023.
Here’s more on the Cavs:
- Extension discussions between the Cavaliers and Caris LeVert remain on hold while the club determines whether or not Sexton will return on a multiyear contract, Fedor said on Lowe’s podcast. If Sexton is locked up for multiple years, there would be less urgency to complete an extension with LeVert.
- Fedor also offered the following interesting tidbit on LeVert and Sexton, while speaking to Lowe: “There are multiple people inside the organization that, if they had their choice between Caris and Collin, they would take Caris over Collin. Because of the size, because of the length, because of the versatility that he can bring on the defensive end of the floor. And they liked what they saw with Caris and Darius (Garland) together.”
- In part one of her two-part mailbag for The Athletic, Kelsey Russo examines the Cavaliers’ expectations for the 2022/23 season and the Ochai Agbaji draft pick, among other topics. Russo predicts the team will exceed its over/under projection of 42.5 wins.
- Part two of Russo’s mailbag focuses on Cleveland’s potential roster crunch, Kevin Love‘s future, Ricky Rubio‘s ACL recovery, and the possibility of an eventual reunion with LeBron James.