State Of The Cavaliers: Free Agency

With the confirmed signing of C.J. Miles announced on the Cavaliers main website, it’s time to look further into free agent dealings that Cleveland could become apart of. Extending a qualifying offer to Luke Harangody (who accepted the one-year, $1.1 million offer he received), claiming forward Jon Leur from waivers off the Houston Rockets and the recent Miles signing are the moves that the Wine and Gold have made so far this summer. Alonzo Gee has yet to accept his qualifying offer and center Semih Erden decided to turn down the Cavaliers’ offer and head back to Europe to play.

So what is there to look forward to until training camp? There are three players that I’m watching right now that could still end up with the Cavaliers this season, and I’ll give you the lowdown on whether I think they will land here or not.

1. Since naming the Cavaliers as a contender of where he could land this upcoming season, forward Anthony Tolliver has said that “Cleveland has fallen off” his list of teams he was interested in signing with. It seems that the Washington Wizards, since cutting Andray Blatche, have emerged as a new favorite to land Tolliver along with his old team the Minnesota Timberwolves and Charlotte Bobcats. Tolliver made $2 million last season, so he is expecting to make that much this season. The Cavaliers, after spending money on Leur and Miles, pretty much took themselves out of contention for Tolliver.

2. 10-year NBA veteran shooting guard Leandro Barbosa could be next on the Cavaliers roster. Barbosa played great for Team Brazil in the Olympic games, even though his team lost in the quarterfinals against Argentina on Wednesday. He averaged 16.2 points in five games, in which Brazil went 4-2 in those games. Barbosa has averaged 12.5 points, 2.4 assists and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 82.3 from the free throw line in 10 seasons. Last season he averaged 11.1 points, 1.5 assists and 2.0 rebounds and shot 43.6 percent from the field and 83.5 percent from the free throw line. Barbosa has not started a game since the 2009-10 NBA season. Since Barbosa hasn’t really drawn big-time attention, he expects to sign a shorter contract, something the Cavaliers may be interested in doing. Maybe Anderson Varejao did some recruiting while playing on Brazil together with Barbosa. Barbosa has played off the bench for most of his career, so he could help in situations like a Daniel Gibson implosion or a nervous Dion Waiters. He’s a pretty good long-range shooter, so I think he could be a good role player for the Wine and Gold.

3. The Cavaliers could be after another Olympic basketball player in Carlos Delfion, who helped his team defeat Brazil in the quarterfinals. Delfino has averaged 15.3 points, 1.5 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals for Argentina in six Olympic games. Argentina will face Team USA on Friday, August 10, who has met the Americans in the semi-finals the past three Olympics. The seven-year NBA shooting forward has career averages of 7.7 points, 1.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 40.0 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from three. Last season in 54 games with the Milwaukee Bucks, Delfino averaged 9.0 points, 2.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds while 40.2 percent from the field and 36.0 from the field. He started 53 games last season for the Bucks, and with the Cavaliers already signing Miles, I don’t think the Cavaliers will waste their cap space on Delfino. They already have possible starters in Miles, Omri Casspi and soon-to-be on the roster Alonzo Gee, so paying four possible starting threes could be costly. Gee and Casspi have three years under their belt while Miles has seven, so Delfino’s presence is not really needed in the Cavaliers organization.