The high-stakes game of chicken that’s going on between the Cavaliers and J.R. Smith is about to escalate.
The mercurial shooting guard will not attend the reigning NBA champions’ minicamp this week in California, according to ESPN, as an offseason contract standoff drags into regular-season preparation.
It’s become a habitual problem for big-spending Cleveland, which was at an impasse last season with Tristan Thompson, and had similar staredowns with Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic in recent years. Thompson, a revelation at power forward two seasons ago, did not get the max deal he sought, but still made the Cavs pay more than they intended when he signed a five-year, $82 million contract in late October.
Smith’s case isn’t a carbon copy of Thompson’s, even if they have the same agent in LeBron James affiliate Rich Paul. Thompson was a restricted free agent, whom the Cavs were in no danger of losing to another team. Smith can sign anywhere if he feels the Cavs are not valuing him.
Cleveland’s ostensible GM David Griffin (likely in consultation with James) has paid just about everyone else, locking up pieces such as Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Thompson and Iman Shumpert with lavish deals. The Cavs are already about $22 million over the salary cap with the 12 players they have signed. Though they can exceed the cap to retain Smith, they can’t replace him with a free agent who commands a similar deal. But they are so far unbending as Smith is believed to be looking for a deal worth $15 million annually, according to Cleveland.com.
The 31-year-old opted out of his contract in July that would have paid him $5.3 million this season.
“Soon, I hope,” Smith told Complex in an article published Friday, when asked when he would sign with Cleveland. But the disparate deals struck this summer, when seemingly everyone got mega-rich, make the parameters of a contract tricky — there isn’t one market-approved rate. Among comparable shooting guards, Kent Bazemore got four years and $70 million, Eric Gordon signed for four years and $53 million, Jamal Crawford earned three years and $42 million and Joe Johnson inked a two-year, $22 million deal.
And Smith waits, even while his pal James, who typically gets what he wants with his organization, campaigns for him.
“I can’t wait to get back to work on that court with u as my wing backcourt mate!!” James wrote in an Instagram post last week.
There isn’t another contender knocking just yet — of teams with substantial cap space (76ers, Nuggets, Nets, Suns and Jazz), none seems a fit — but Smith could seek a new challenge. Or just hunker down, unsigned, and wait for the Cavs to blink.
Asked if Cleveland is the best destination for him, the former Knick — who this summer got married to the mother of his two children — contemplated.
“Yes and no. It depends on how you look at it,” Smith told Complex. “Financially, you can always go somewhere else. Team morale-wise, there are a few teams that I could see working. There are guys I would like to play with, guys I have played with. Being able to live in that city or a particular place, school systems, kids, family life — [with] free agency, everything comes into play. Before, I could just sit there and be like, ‘I don’t care where I go.’ But now I have the kids, and it’s like, ‘OK, what’s the best fit?’”