For the first half of the 2024-25 NBA season, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was running away with the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award. However, his season ended prematurely in mid-February due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder, which blew the DPOY race wide-open with only two months left.
Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley capitalized on Wembanyama’s absence, as the NBA announced Thursday that he beat Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green for the award. That has major financial implications both for him and the Cavavliers, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks relayed.
Pocketing an extra $45 million over the next half-decade is icing on the cake for Mobley, but that has major financial ramifications for the Cavaliers when it comes to team-building. The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement features harsh restrictions for teams that go far above the luxury-tax line, and the Cavaliers are now poised to be one of the league’s most expensive teams for the next few years.
That could increase their urgency to win this year’s championship, as there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to keep this core together as currently constructed for much longer.
The Cavs’ Ballooning Payroll
Mobley isn’t the only Cavalier who’s starting a hefty new extension next season. Donovan Mitchell is also beginning his three-year extension, which likewise begins at 30% of the salary cap ($46.4 million). He and Mobley alone will make nearly $93 million next year.
Meanwhile, Darius Garland is heading into the third year of his max extension and will earn $39.4 million. De’Andre Hunter ($23.3 million), Jarrett Allen ($20.0 million), Max Strus ($15.9 million) and Isaac Okoro ($11 million) have eight-figure cap hits as well.
Those seven players combined will be making nearly $202.5 million in 2025-26. The salary cap is projected to be $154.6 million. More concerningly from the Cavaliers’ perspective, the first apron is expected to be $195.9 million, while the second apron will be $207.8 million. Once the Cavs fill out the rest of their roster, they’ll go soaring over the second apron unless they trade away one of their larger salaries.
After the Cavs cross the second apron, they’ll face a handful of punishing limitations both on the trade market and in free agency. They won’t have access to any mid-level exception, which means they’ll only be able to offer minimum-salary contracts to external free agents. They also can’t take back more salary than they send out in a trade, acquire a player via sign-and-trade or aggregate two smaller contracts for a bigger salary.
Fresh off a 64-win campaign, the Cavaliers could be an attractive destination for ring-chasers this offseason. Since few teams project to have significant cap space this offseason, one agent told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst that he’s expecting a “free-agent recession” that could force many players to take below-market deals. Gary Trent Jr., Tyus Jones and Taurean Prince all wound up settling for one-year, minimum-salary contracts last summer, so the Cavs could be poised to capitalize on similar discounts this year.
Even if they don’t, they already have most of their playoff rotation under contract for next season. There are two key exceptions in that regard, though.
Ty Jerome’s Future
In July 2023, the Cavs signed Ty Jerome to a two-year, minimum-salary contract. He played only 15 minutes last season before suffering an ankle injury that ended his season. This year, he came back with a vengeance, averaging a career-high 12.5 points on 51.6% shooting in only 19.9 minutes per game off the bench. The Virginia product also shot a career-high 43.9% from deep on 3.6 attempts per game.
Jerome carried that right over to the playoffs. In Game 1 of the Cavs’ opening-round series against the Miami Heat, he finished with 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting (including 5-of-8 from deep), five rebounds and three assists in only 26 minutes. He was quieter in Game 2 with only six points on 2-of-8 shooting, three rebounds and zero assists, but he’s been an integral part of Cleveland’s rotation all season.
He’s also set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Making matters worse, the Cavaliers only have Early Bird rights on him, which limits how much they’re allowed to offer him in free agency. The starting salary on his next deal in Cleveland can be no higher than 105% of the average player salary this season, which should be in the neighborhood of $12 million. The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is projected to be roughly $14.1 million, so another team could feasibly top the most that the Cavs can offer him.
Sam Merrill, who averaged 7.2 points on 40.6% shooting in 19.7 minutes per game off the bench for Cleveland this season, is the other major free-agent flight risk. The Cavs do have full Bird rights on him, though, so they’re allowed to offer him anything up to a max contract. (He won’t come close to that amount, whether from Cleveland or another team.)
Even if no team is willing to break the bank for Jerome, re-signing him would push the Cavaliers even further over the second apron and deeper into the luxury tax. They haven’t paid the tax since LeBron James’ final season in Cleveland back in 2017-18, when they racked up a $51.0 million tax bill. Even before re-signing Jerome or Merrill, they could already be facing a tax bill north of $55 million next year.
Something will eventually have to give. Teams that finish a season over the second apron are no longer allowed to trade their first-round pick that’s seven years in the future. Teams that finish over the second apron in two or more years over a four-year span have that seven-years-in-the-future pick automatically moved to the bottom of the first round. To undo that, they have to finish below the second apron at least three times in four years.
Regardless of whether the Cavaliers plan to re-sign Jerome and/or Merrill, they’ll have to start trimming costs soon. Okoro, who finished 12th on the team in minutes per game during the regular season, seems like the obvious odd man out for now. But having to pay Mobley an extra $45 million over the next half-decade only increases the amount of money that the Cavs eventually have to trim elsewhere.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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