Ty Jerome may have priced himself out of the Cavaliers

Ty Jerome may have priced himself out of the Cavaliers

Heading into the 2024-25 season, guard Ty Jerome wasn’t viewed as anything more than an afterthought on the Cavaliers’ bench.

In all fairness, he was limited to just 15 total minutes a season ago due to an ankle injury. But he didn’t have a consistent bench role in any of his previous three spots (Suns, Thunder, Warriors).

However, with Jerome reuniting with former Warriors assistant coach Kenny Atkinson, he took on a role as the backup point guard and thrived. In a career-most 70 games (he never played more than 48 in any of his previous five seasons), he tallied 12.5 points, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals on 51.6 percent shooting and 43.9 percent from beyond the arc.

Now, as the Virginia alum enters free agency amid a career year, he may have priced himself out of Cleveland–just like everyone else predicted.

Cavaliers are in cap hell, and may not have enough to re-sign Ty Jerome:

According to Spotrac, the Cavaliers are $5 million above the projected $207.825 million second apron heading into 2024-25, a mark that nobody wants to be in for a prolonged period of time.

Since he’s an early-bird free agent, Jerome will be eligible to sign a four-year deal with the Cavaliers for roughly $60 million, with a starting salary north of $13 million. Assuming the Cavaliers offered him that, they would be adding over $70 million to their luxury tax bill. Spotrac already has them being close to a $300 million team already, which is quite expensive, especially after getting bounced in the conference semifinals in back-to-back years.

There are still ways that Cleveland can cut salary; Craig Porter Jr. has a $2.4 million non-guaranteed salary, Dean Wade has a $6.6 million partially guaranteed salary and Chuma Okeke has a $2.5 million team option. There are still decisions to be made.

The Cavaliers could additionally salary dump Isaac Okoro or Max Strus, with the latter being more unlikely (by my estimation; I don’t have any intel).

There could also be a shakeup in their core. Cleveland won’t trade Darius Garland for the sole purpose of re-signing Ty Jerome, per se. But Jerome could very easily earn the full $14.1 mid-level exception, which may be out of their comfort zone.

ESPN’s Shams Charania predicts upcoming NBA offseason will be ‘craziest’ ever

It’s probably smarter to try and trim salary (Okoro, Wade) while trying to obtain some draft capital and take a swing with Porter or second-year guard Jaylon Tyson behind Garland and Mitchell. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Jarrett Allen is on the move, too.

You simply can’t keep super expensive teams together in today’s NBA. Who knows, maybe the Cavaliers stumble into another gem on a rookie (or very cheap) contract in the near future?

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