The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bench revamped in flurry of moves
After Tristan Thompson left for the Celtics in free agency, the Cavs made a series of transactions to reconstruct their bench. Jeff Schudel has a rundown of the moves.
The Cavaliers have been busy since free agency began on Nov. 20, though none of their recent deals is going to vault them to the top of the Eastern Conference, or for that matter, the Central Division.
First, free agent center Tristan Thompson quickly agreed to a two-year, $19 million with the Celtics after nine seasons in Cleveland. That left the Cavaliers looking for a center to back up Andre Drummond.
The Cavs filled the void by trading forward Alfonzo McKinnie and guard Jordan Bell to the Los Angeles Lakers for JaVale McGee, 32, a 7-foot pivot who has played for six teams in 12 years. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN was the first to report the deal.
Wojnarowski is also reporting the Cavaliers and guard Damyean Dotson have agreed to a two-year, $4 million deal. Dotson, 26, was not given a qualifying offer by the Knicks and thus became an unrestricted free agent.
In another move that could make the Cavs stronger at the end of the bench if it pans out, the Cavs signed guard Charles Matthews to an Exhibit 10 contract, according to Cleveland.com.
An Exhibit 10 contract is a one-year deal for the league minimum of $893,310. It includes a $50,000 bonus if he is assigned to the G-League team (the Canton Charge in the case of the Cavaliers) instead of making it with the parent club.
Also, guard Matthew Dellavedova is reportedly rejoining the Cavs on a oneyear deal.
The Cavaliers announced the McGree trade late in the afternoon Nov. 23.
McGee, a first-round draft choice by the Washington Wizards in 2008, started 68 games for the NBA champion Lakers in 2019-20 and averaged 6.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game. He has also played for Denver, Philadelphia, Dallas and Golden State during his career. He was part of the Warriors 2017 and 2018 NBA championship teams, so if the Cavaliers, 19- 46 last season, make the playoffs he will lend valuable experience to a mostly-young locker room.
Dotson, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, was a secondround pick by the Knicks in 2017. He played in 48 games last season, all off the bench, and averaged 17.4 minutes and 6.7 points a game. His best season was 2018-19 when he played in 73 games with 40 starts and averaged 10.7 points a game.
Matthews played at Michigan for John Beilein, who started the 2019-20 season as the Cavaliers coach but resigned during the All-Star break in February. BJ Bickerstaff took over and went 5-6 before the season was stopped abruptly by the novel coronavirus. The Cavs were 14-40 under Beilein.
Matthews tore his ACL working out for the Celtics prior to the 2019 draft and consequently went undrafted.
“Yes! Great News for @1CMatthews,” Beilien tweeted. “He can become a 3 and D guy that every NBA team loves to have. He is also a fabulous teammate and a high character young man. Charles can guard the very best and did that many times for us.”
NBA training camps open on Dec. 1.
McKinnie played in 40 games for the Cavaliers last season with one start. He averaged 4.6 points a game. Bell played 27 games with Minnesota and two with Memphis last season. He averaged 3.1 points a game with the Timberwolves and five points a game with the Grizzlies.