Cleveland Cavaliers Rumors: Another All-Star Could Sign With Cavs?
Cleveland Cavaliers rumors link the team to former All-Star David West. The Cavaliers want West to sign for the 2015-16 NBA season, and are apparently trying very hard to make it happen. A report from Cleveland.com states that the Cavs are aggressively pursuing West and that the team has a “huge interest” in signing him. It doesn’t guarantee that he will reciprocate that interest, but this might be a great chance for him to finally win a title.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the Cavaliers have had a lot of success re-signing free agents this offseason, with Kevin Love, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mozgov all getting locked up. Now, the team wants to add yet another player that could help to keep LeBron James happy and convince the former NBA MVP to sign a long-term contract. It has been suggested that James might wait until after July 9 (when free agents can officially sign new contracts) before he commits to a new deal.
David West opted out of a big contract with the Indiana Pacers, and he passed on making $12.6 million in the 2015-16 NBA season. A report from Sports Illustrated stated that West was simply unhappy with the Pacers and felt that the team was not a contender for a title. That has also seemingly ruled out a number of teams in free agency that have tried to lure him. These Cleveland Cavaliers rumors are a bit interesting, because the team already has a number of people who can play power forward. That includes Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, and presumably a healthy Anderson Varejao.
The oddity of the interest that the Cavs have in David West is that the team has a younger option in Tristan Thompson. After not having enough depth in the 2014-15 NBA season, it almost seems like the Cavs are trying to sign too many players this offseason. It’s extremely unclear how the minutes distribution would work, and that is something the front office in Cleveland is going to have to lay out for West. If he isn’t going to play many minutes, it’s likely he won’t be signing with them.
In order for these Cleveland Cavaliers rumors to work out for the team, David West is going to have to take a huge pay cut. To play for Cleveland, he would have to take the midlevel exception at around $3 million, or the veteran’s minimum at about $1.5 million.
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