Cleveland Cavaliers guard/forward Rodney Hood has yet to sign a new contract with the team, even with little more than a month remaining before the 2018-19 NBA season begins. While the team supposedly plans to offer Hood a three-year contract valued at about $21 million, that doesn’t appear to be enough for the 25-year-old wing player, as a report from Cleveland Plain Dealer suggests that he might be looking for even more money per year so he could re-sign with the Cavaliers.
According to Plain Dealer’s Joe Vardon, the Cavs currently have 13 players scheduled to enter training camp on September 24, This list of players does not include Hood, whom the team acquired from the Utah Jazz before the 2018 trading deadline. Hood, who was demoted to a reserve role in Utah following the emergence of rookie Donovan Mitchell, averaged 16.8 points per game for the Jazz, but saw his numbers drop to 10.8 points per game after joining a Cavs team led by LeBron James and Kevin Love.
With Rodney Hood still a restricted free agent, the Cavaliers are reportedly waiting to see if he accepts the team’s one-year, $3.4 million qualifying offer or if he opts to sign a deal which sources described as being worth about $21 million over three years. Vardon’s sources, however, added that Hood is seeking a deal that would pay him “something in the $9 million range” per year.
Since the start of the summer, the Cleveland Cavaliers have not made any significant additions to their lineup despite losing LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers in July. As noted by ESPN , the team traded last month for small forward Sam Dekker, acquiring him from the Los Angeles Clippers and adding more depth to the forward rotation. Shortly before the Dekker trade, the Cavs came to terms with former Chicago Bulls guard David Nwaba, but as Vardon noted, it was only this week when the team officially signed him to a contract, which will reportedly be for one year and $1.5 million.
Rodney Hood is reportedly asking the Cavs for a 3-year, $27 million contract ( @Cavsanada ) https://t.co/7DhFBqbSk2 pic.twitter.com/dAzzvFqoJz
— FearTheSword (@FearTheSword) September 8, 2018
While there haven’t been any recent rumors about other teams wanting to sign Rodney Hood as a restricted free agent, a report suggested in July that the Sacramento Kings had “shown interest” in him, but had yet to reach a point in negotiations where an offer sheet was “imminent.” According to the Sacramento Bee’s Jason Jones, the Kings started considering Hood as an option after the team failed to sign Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine as a free agent, due to the Bulls matching the four-year, $78 million contract offered by the Kings.
