The Cleveland Cavaliers have to figure out a way to keep Ty Jerome around.
He’s about to become a free agent, and he’s coming off the best season of his career.
Multiple teams are reportedly keeping tabs on his services, and some of them can offer him either more money, more playing time, or both.
According to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Jerome is in for a big pay raise:
“I’ve talked to multiple people over the last couple of weeks to try and really get a sense of, of what Ty’s market is going to be like and what kind of price range we’re looking at. And a majority of the people that I’ve talked to about this, they all kind of fall the same way when it comes to Ty and they all use the same numbers, which is 12 to 14 million annually for somebody like Ty,” Fedor said.
The Cavs would clearly love to bring him back, but given their situation as a second-apron team, that will be way easier said than done.
The same goes for Sam Merrill, who might play for another team after spending all of his career with the Cavs.
Some believe that the Cavs will look to offload Isaac Okoro and the $22 million and two years left on his deal.
Nevertheless, as good a defender as he is, he’s a non-factor on offense, so other teams might not be incentivized to get him unless they get something else in return.
The Cavs don’t even have a first-round pick to trade this year, so that’s pretty much off the table.
That might mean that Dean Wade will be the odd man out, but he’s also a valuable piece because of his 3-and-D expertise.
Jerome was one of Kenny Atkinson’s most valuable pieces and the first guy off the bench.
He was vital when Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell were out, and failing to keep him might be a huge blow to this team’s rotation.
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