[NBA Recap] Cleveland Cavaliers post trade deadline salary cap
This is a really good visualization. Would love to see something like this for the Raptors who made a few fringe moves to get under the luxury tax, but I’m not entirely sure how
The content creator should do this for all the teams. Pretty sure it’ll get a bunch of views
They did. I remember them posting and talking about everyone’s salary caps in the preseason. I’m sure they’ll post about all the teams that made major trades as well
That was such an easy and understandable watch for someone who needs visuals for the money explanation.
they already do
they did a bunch right as the season started too for almost every nba team
I follow the YouTube page, nba recap pod. They put out a lot great shorts showing data visuals for different nba teams/topics
They do usually - I follow them on tik tok.
An app with this visualization for team building would be really useful.
All I’m seeing is that my boy JA is a STEAL
Less so next year, I think his contract is going up from ~\(20mil (13% of the cap) this season to ~\)30mil next year (~17% of the cap). Still seems reasonable for a starting center. I love JA and have his jersey I hope he keeps up this strong play he’s had lately.
Strus needs to be traded. Not actually a good 3 point shooter and can’t stay on the court.
Barking up the wrong tree here bud, I’m a Strus stan. He might have been our 2nd best player in that Pacers series. Strus plays his heart out every night and plays with intensity every play. He’s probably an above-average defender. He’s been an above average 3p shooter a couple years of his career and a slightly below average in a couple others on 6-7 attempts per game. He’s not Steph or Sam Merrill, but he’s an above average 3p shooter. And he’s a jack-of-all-trades kind of player that can do everything reasonably well.
Still, next year is the last on his contract and we’re gonna need to make some decisions with him soon. Hopefully he comes back in good form after his ramp-up post-injury.
apparently Evan Mobley is worth 2 JA’s
Personally the second apron penalties are too harsh, but let’s see whether this actually has negative effects
It’s only truly bad if you are over it 3 out of 5 years. It’s basically a hard cap that you are allowed to violate every now and then, but you can’t forever.
Anyway don’t be shocked if Cavs trade Mobley for cheap
They don’t have to trade Mobley. They really only need to get rid of Dean Wade (or Max Strus or Dennis Schroder) they aren’t getting rid of Mobley for cheap.
Why would they do that..?
That won’t happen. He’s one of the very best big men in the league and young.
nah I think it’s a good change. we will likely dump someone after the season to duck under
Yeh finding a taker for Wade makes sense as he is like their 12th best player now
Wade’s main issue is that he gets hurt like clockwork. But when he’s available he’s easily one of the best defensive assets on the team. They will most likely get off Strus’ contract before Wade’s
I think Strus was a big miss for us in hindsight.
hell no. wade is like one of only 2 good wing defenders we have along with ellis, and he’s good depth at the frontcourt.
Then who will the Cavs cut? Best be Schroder next
a guard for sure, craig porter junior is about to drop way in the rotation and larry nance plays zero minutes. but i could also strus being an obvious choice with how much time he has missed and 15 million on the books
What do you think of cutting Max
Wade is a free agent after this season, so I think by simply not resigning him and instead filling his spot with a vet min, along with the projected rise in salary cap year to year, the Cavs can duck the second apron next year. Also hinges on Harden extension if he will take a small pay cut for more years guaranteed
This may sound odd at first, but I’d much rather ship Strus off than let Wade walk. Strus has become redundant with Tyson and Merrill playing so well and Wade helps cover the Cavs primary weakness which is lack of wing defense/size.
I know that NBA fans love their dynasties and all, but I think it’s a good way to ensure parity exists.
Spending your way out of poor management shouldn’t really be a thing.
You can be a second apron team by the way, just don’t do it consistently and you’ll be fine.
I might be in the minority, but those 2015-2018 regular seasons were super boring. Less so in 2015, but later in that run everyone knew year after year the Cavs/Warriors were going to be in the finals. Even as a Cavs fan it felt kinda pointless in the regular season.
These past 6 or 7 years have been exciting and it feels like a lot of teams have had a chance every year.
This holds more weight coming from you, a Cavs fan
Those years were stressful too. The team lost 2-3 games in a row and it felt like the sky was falling sometimes, the expectations were so high. It felt tense at times.
As a Cavs fan I obviously loved those years and would love to see our team make 4 finals in a row again, high stress or not. But as an NBA fan I’ve probably watched more regular season games and care more about regular season 2019+.
I mean the only one of these that is even applicable at this point in the season is that if we stay above it for enough years in a row we’re stuck with the 30th pick in the first round.
Everything else has to do with trades, but we’re past the trade deadline, or signing players, but we’re at the roster cap.
We can also very easily get out of the second apron basically any time we want by trading Strus or not resigning Wade after this season (personally I think Strus is more expendable than Wade, although admittedly that’s biased by the fact he hasn’t played all season)
Well our 2033 pick was a crucial trade piece that is no longer tradeable due to us being in the second apron. Starting at the 2026 draft, we would’ve been able to send a package of our ‘31 + ‘33 first for upgrades. Now we’ll have to wait another year to be able to package first round picks in a trade
If you’re over it for a season or two it’s really not bad
Watch baseball you won’t think that.
Amazing visualizations. Love content like this
Agree, salary cap stuff can be confusing as hell
where did u get this from?
This was a nice breakdown
You can find their videos on YouTube or TikTok, just look up NBA Recap
Edit: search NBA Recap Pod
Thanks man.
I like content like this
Do one on the Celtics beginning with the Tatum injury to now. They successfully moved out of the second apron to completely under the first apron in less than a year. Honestly in awe
I think I watched that one already, if you look at the YouTube channel, it’s all there
It’s from the offseason. We need one that goes until this most recent trade deadline.
By making tons of trades that looked like giving away value for nothing but then up steps Neemias, Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh out of seemingly nothing to keep them deep enough to be great
Respect for being willing to stay in the 2nd apron without having what most people would consider a top 3 title contender. Most owners wouldn’t be willing to do that.
I’m certainly very biased here but can you tell me what would be your top 3 rn ? I supose you’re talking about roster ?
Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets are clearly the top 3. Then you have to go Detroit just based off results then I would have Cavs right there with Philly and Knicks.
According to draftkings odds right now, Cavs have the 3rd best odds behind the Thunder and Nuggets. Sixers are 11th.
Hard to have a “clear top 3” all in the same conference - only one of them can make the Finals, Cavs have a far easier path to get there and have the NBA’s best record in ‘26.
That is fine I didn’t look up the actual odds just based it on what I have seen this year. I would take any of those three west teams over the Cavs.
And I feel like people are downplaying Detroit because the lack of shooting but if this playoff is like last year and they let teams play physical defense they are going to be a problem.
We are a bad matchup for Detroit. We have the ability to harass their front court and Cade. We blew them out by 30 at home and lost a close one in Cleveland to them because of lonzo ball meltdown.
You could be the 9th best team in the West and it doesn’t matter if you’re better than the best team in the East, you still have to win the conference to be a title contender. Right now there are 4 East teams with around a 20% chance to make the finals, while the West is the Thunder vs. the field. Spurs might be a better team but would have a much more difficult road getting there.
Why do people have Spurs in their top 3? I love the team but relying on REALLY young guns to take you to the promised land doesn’t seem to bode well for those kinds of teams in playoffs, apart from maybe OKC.
I’ll give them like 2-3 years away from a championship because the young guys could use some playoff experience.
They don’t really have any weaknesses and have a top 5 player. I also would be shocked if they won this early but the only reason I have to doubt them is age and that feels like a mediocre argument against good coaching and great talent.
Spurs haven’t proven anything yet. They’re just hitting postseason mode now. Cavs have been consistent playoff contenders for years now.
Same with Detroit. I would put neither of them above the Cavs. Thunder, Nugs, maybe Knicks, sure.
I guess. I don’t really give any credit or take any points away for making the playoffs in the east and getting bounced in the second round.
Experience is cool but it isn’t a deciding factor when one team has the clearly better player.
Experience together as a team absolutely matters in the postseason. There’s a reason why so many teams have tried to retain as large a core as possible year in and year out when they’ve had postseason success. Too many players and too many moving parts make it hard for all the parts to fit together until they click. The Spurs and Pistons can be annual contenders, but they’re going to need some time
I think the Cavs might be 4th. Talent wise they should run the east still imo. The east is total bums
Top 3 to win the ship. Thunder, spurs, and maybe Celtics.
Quick reminder that we wouldn’t be in the second apron if Mobley didn’t win defensive player of the year before his rookie extension kicked in.
Or we would be and still have Ty Jerome 🤷 either way Mobley winning and his salary kicking up as much as it did gave us no choice.
Anybody have any guesses what we can expect from their offseason? I’m not supe tuned into the Cavs
Harden has a player option. Wade, Ellis, Bryant, and Nance are UFAs. Porter has a Club Option. Tomlin and Miller will become RFAs.
I see that Allen gets a big jump in pay. I also would assume Harden would want to opt out and do the 2 year thing again and that the Cavs would want to re-sign Harden.
It doesn’t look like they will have much flexibility in the offseason, right?
What we decide to do depends heavily on how our postseason plays out. Go deep or make the Finals? We will try to retain Harden.
and sign lebron for the vet min (a man can dream)
Largely depends on LeBron and if he’s willing to come in cheap and how cheap if so. Best case scenario to be below the second apron is trade Strus and Schroder, and lower Harden’s cap hit a little to 40 million, which would leave about 38 million to gap to the second apron. Fit LeBron and Ellis or Wade into that gap plus filling out the rest of the roster. If Ellis and Wade are willing to sign for about an 8 million hit each and Lebron around 15 then all three could fit.
Man this is gorgeous to look at
“The Cavs are above the second apron. And after a few of these trades this season, the Cavs are still above the second apron.”
Absolute cinema.
Well, the part that’s unsaid is that they saved $100m on their tax bill.
I’d have made one more deal to move Schroder or Strus for ~$8m of worse salary, but maybe that wasn’t out there.
The fact that we traded McCain for salary cap reasons indicates to me that there was very little salary dump opportunities for bad players on the market
One minor mistake: Harden had a trade kicker, up to 15% increase in salary, took as much as his trade kicker as possible, which gets him up to exactly Garland’s salary in Cleveland.
I read he waved his kicker
I had heard he waived most of it– spotrac looks like he waived it all, but that’s still an estimate.
That’s possible, but even if he did they were like $200k apart in salary. So it’s not much if anything on this chart.
This is really good, would love to see similar visualizations for other teams that were active before the trade deadline
Such a dumbass trade by the Kings lol
Being a 2nd apron team because Mobley won DPOY is fuckin absurd and the NBA needs to fix it. Individual awards shouldn’t count toward cap penalties.
Interesting. The Cavs were once in the Second Apron, but after some very clever trades they are now in the Second Apron.
Amazing visual
Good job OP. Hard to understand and conceptualize all of the ins and outs. This makes it visual and easy to understand.
TIL Mobley makes more than Mitchell wtf
They make the exact same
They make the same
Bye bye Strus.
Why not waive a player to get under the apron 2 cap.
This tells me Mobley is hella overpaid. A max contract and the guy can’t even make all stars from the east
The NBA could use some deregulation policies for the next CBA. Like a one in two out rule for salary cap and apron rules lol. Shit has gotten way too complicated.
No one pointing out who OP is…
i get downvoted every time i say it but i dont mean it in a hater way. that mobely contract is absolutely atrocious
I mean he was literally the best defender in the league last year.
For the DPOY? Really?
in what world is DPOY worth 30% of the cap? it’s not like he’s lightning it up offensively. he’s passive and disappears enough to where it isn’t even a surprise. people have called him soft multiple times