The Cleveland Cavaliers had to figure out a way to keep Ty Jerome and Sam Merrill in free agency.
They couldn’t hold onto the first one, perhaps because they didn’t want to, but they at least managed to get their hands on the latter.
Merrill took a big leap on defense last season, and given his sharpshooting skills, he could’ve found more money somewhere else.
Nevertheless, team insider Terry Pluto argued that Merrill wanted to stay in Cleveland, and while some might think the Cavs overpaid to keep him, he will always be on a team-friendly deal:
“With Sam, the Cavs had real competition on a $10 million per year and up deal. He really wanted to stay, but there was real money out there for him. He’s a movement shooter who can defend and has real value in the marketplace. His deal will age well. The mid-level exception will grow to past $16 million during the length of the deal. So the $9.5 million per year will always be well below that,” a source very close to the Cavs said, per Terry Pluto.
Of course, Merrill isn’t a superstar by any means, and he might even go scoreless or barely play every now and then, but he’s also the kind of servicable 3-and-D player that often gets a lot of money in this league.
He wasn’t always a good defender, and he was often exposed and targeted on that end of the floor.
He put in a lot of work in that regard last season, taking pride in getting stops and even embracing tough defensive matchups.
The Cavs are a deep team, and they were never going to have a lot of money to make big-time moves in free agency, so keeping their own free agents was a must.
They got an improvement over Ty Jerome when they traded for Lonzo Ball, and it will be interesting to see what they do to round out their roster and bounce back after a disappointing end to the season.
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