The crop of blue-chip NBA free agents are all off the board, but the league’s most interesting player is still on the market. JR Smith is still available for teams to pick up, yet the NBA veteran and his 500,000+ twitter followers haven’t found a home.
Smith is the biggest name left on the free agent market. Smith opt-ed out of a contract that would have paid him $6.4 million for this upcoming season. The mindset for Smith was to be able to sign somewhere for more then what he would have received this season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
While players like Enes Kanter and Brandon Knight are taking baths in money, Smith—the erratic long-range threat who helped the Cleveland Cavaliers get to the Finals but also helped them lose it—is still waiting.
Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, believes that Smith could just return to Cleveland for a reduced price.
As for the Cavs and the one and only J.R. Smith, both sides remain hopeful that a deal can be worked out.
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) July 23, 2015
It seems as if Cleveland is the only team willing to give Smith a contract at this point. Cleveland is way over the cap, but Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report explains that it really wouldn’t hurt the Cavs to bring back Smith.
“That production, if sustainable, isn’t something the Cavs can replace on the market. They’re capped out beyond belief, which means the only way to get a player of Smith’s caliber is to keep the one they already have. Cleveland can exceed the cap to retain Smith because it has his Bird rights.
The tax hit will be immense. But at this point, what’s another few million dollars?”
It would be hard to not have the NBA’s new Ron Artest playing in China….Again.
-King Jut (@KingJut92)
