J.R. Smith

After LeBron's departure, the Cavaliers have had a very quiet offseason. They extended Kevin Love to consolidate his value, but have otherwise largely stood pat, and the above three remain with the team despite their large contracts. Each of these contracts runs through 2020, yet each also has a very large expiring portion on their 2019/20 salary, making them essentially expiring if so desired. This in theory also gives them good trade value, as those salaries can be used to facilitate trades. Given their inaction, it remains to be seen what strategy the Cavaliers will choose to employ to find a path back to competitiveness; right now, it appears as though the aim is to tread water until next summer. And with that in mind, if any or all of these three make it beyond the February trade deadline with the team, they all become very strong candidates for March buyouts.

J.R. Smith
SG/SF - 6’6, 225lbs - 32 years old - 14 years of experience

Smith’s decline looks terminal at this point. His ability to hit incredibly difficult threes remains, as does his knack for the absurd. But beyond that, there is nothing.

The theory, it seems, is that Smith is playing some defence to go with those constant Hail Mary’s. And I guess sometimes he does. But for all the good plays he makes, there are far more completely missed rotations or switches. Occasionally, Smith will make a good read on a play and knock the ball away. But more regularly than that, he won’t read the play at all.

This would be fine if Smith was actually an excellent shooter. He does have a knack for hitting tough ones, yes, which makes him quite the broken play saver about twice a month. But he also mostly just stands there. A good shooter gets open. Smith instead just relies upon LeBron James to get him open.

Better options exist, including those already on the team. Kyle Korver shoots better and hustles far more. Rodney Hood defends about the same but can actually create off the dribble. Cedi Osman is similarly low usage but is far higher activity.

So why did J.R. just get a 2,950 minute season when not one piece of evidence other than anecdotal beliefs in the value of his jumpshot supports it?

Player Plan: Two years and $30.4 million remaining, the last year of which has only $3.87 million of $15.68 million guaranteed. That unguaranteed portion gives him trade value that this year that he won’t have next year. Not much trade value, of course, but enough that a team looking to move a bad salary with a good player might loosen their basketball-asset demands a little. Think Marvin Williams with Kemba Walker.

J.R. Smith
SG/SF, 6’6, 225lbs, 31 years old, 13 years of experience

A poor year, which, while it had very justifiable reasons behind it, needs rectifying. Smith is at his best when he is taking the shots no one else dare take; if he is just going to be a normal catch-and-shoot player, he is no better than Anthony Morrow. The slightly wild Smith is still the best Smith, and the mistakes and wasted turnovers that come with that aggression are worth it for what he can provide. Even with all the years of mileage in those knees, Smith still has the athleticism, it appears. So he needs to get back to using it while it is still there.

Player Plan: Three years and circa. $44 million remaining, only the first two of which are guaranteed. A valuable player for a contender if he returns to pre-2016 form, but also one of the few tradeable pieces, as long as the receiving team overlooks this year’s performance.

[...] With one exception: the date becomes Jan. 15 if the player is a Larry Bird or Early Bird free agent who re-signed with his over-the-cap team and received a raise greater than 20% in the first season of his new deal in the process. This applies only to Brandan Wright, Timofey Mozgov, Tony Allen, Nikola Pekovic, Chase Budinger, J.R. Smith and Tiago Splitter.

[...] The choice of Jackson over the other candidates was deliberate, and only slightly motivated by cost. Andre Iguodala is better at small forward, ball dominant, not nearly as good of a shooter as he thinks he is, and not nearly the calibre of half-court creator he so desperately wants to be.²⁶ A backcourt of Derrick Rose and Monta Ellis cannot stop anybody, and while it would thrive in the open court, it effectively mitigates itself in the half court. J.R. Smith can't be trusted, and was once traded by the Bulls for Adrian Griffin and Aaron Gray, which is no endorsement at all. Anthony Parker is no longer starting calibre. Michael Heisley has seemingly made the cost of acquiring O.J. Mayo unnecessarily prohibitive, particularly for one so average. Jason Richardson no longer wants to dribble, defend, or do anything much to get open without the ball. Vince Carter is emphatically done. Denver should (or ought) match a full MLE deal to Arron Afflalo. Courtney Lee won't come for anything less than Omer Asik, which is not a deal worth making. The Daniel Gibson, Jamal Crawford and Leandro Barbosa-types would be most useful, but only as hard-to-acquire backups. And Richard Hamilton is.......well, no.

Jay Bilas says that Turner, who used to go by the nickname Evan Turnover for this reason, needs to improve his turnovers. Does this mean that he needs to make less of them, or that he needs to be making them in more spectacular ways? Speaking of, here's a spectacular turnover.