The Cavs sign Luke Travers to a two-way deal

Oh ya, and some other stuff too.

Hello there! It’s been about a minute. 

I neglected to update most of you that I’d be working full time at a camp in New Hampshire for the summer. The kids are alright, but not enough so that I had the time to closely follow the Cavs for the last several months, much less help others stay updated. If you’re a monthly subscriber and want some money back for my dereliction of duty, shoot me a chat. I won’t be offended. 

Similarly, as many of you will soon be getting notifications about renewing yearly paid subscriptions, I owe everyone the disclosure that with plans to travel for the year, my Cavaliers coverage throughout the upcoming campaign will be sporadic at best. I’ll mostly be travel writing (more on that in the future). When that writing is suffused with sufficient Cavs talk to be relevant for this newsletter, you can be sure to hear from me, and probably at a weird hour of the night.

 Okay. Enough business. Onto business!  

There was much of it in Cleveland this summer. 

First and most importantly, the Cavs signed Luke Travers, the 6’7 Aussie of mullet and wispy mustache, to a 2-way contract. Okay, seriously, if you’re not enough of a junkie to have closely watched Summer League the last three years (I admit I missed this year’s), Travers’ move from Perth to Melbourne to Northeast Ohio is about the 7th most important thing the Cavs did over the last several months. 

As the dog days crept along, Cleveland’s front office had their hands full. They penned extension after extension, showing faith in the Core Four of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland, and Jarett Allen that they’d lost in former head coach J.B Bickerstaff. The Cavs also replaced J.B. with a new head coach. Oh ya, and they made a first round draft choice. Busy busy. 

Let’s break down everything the Cavs have (and haven’t) done since you heard from me last. 

This summer the Cavs…

1. Agreed to a three-year, $150.3 million dollar extension with Donovan Mitchell

The Cavs sent every talking head at ESPN scurrying to delete old tweets by signing budding folk hero Donovan Mitchell to a 3-year, $150.3 million max extension. Chatter that Mitchell hated Cleveland and was destined to be a New York Knick has drowned out most reasonable national coverage of the Cavs since the moment he was traded to the Wine and Gold. It’s been at times unbearably loud. 

But it was drowned out by the swish of Mitchell’s pen in July, and totally obliterated by the crash of the keg bowling pins Mitchell sent careening across the Browns tailgate lot on Sunday.

Mitchell is one of the league’s more dynamic scoring threats and playoff team-draggers–as evidenced by his gutsy performance last spring on a bum knee. Yes, it’s true, he could have signed a longer-term extension. But Mitchell’s three-year deal, which includes a $54 million player option for 2027-2028, is just good business on Spida’s part. It means that when he is next able to extend (in order to defend another Cavs’ title, of course) he’ll have reached his 10th year in the league, making him eligible for an even-more massive $380 million extension.  And just look at that man hanging with the soon-to-be Dawg Pound.

By all accounts Spida is invested in Cleveland. The Cavs are certainly invested in him. 

    

2. Hired Kenny Atkinson as head coach

The Cavs made French National Team Assistant Kenny Atkinson their next head coach. Okay, like a New York Times fact check might say, “that’s misleading.” While Atkinson was an assistant for Les Bleus this summer in Paris, he’s cut his teeth as an assistant in LA under X’s and O’s master Ty Lue, and as Steve Kerr’s #2 in Golden State for the last three years. Atkinson was also head coach of the Brooklyn Nets from 2016-2020. Remember that Brooklyn team that owed their draft pick to the Cavs so they played their tails off and shot through the ceiling of everyone’s expectations? Remember drafting Collin Sexton instead of Luca Doncic? 

You can blame Atkinson (Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert too). 

Cavs fans are mostly over it. If the 57-year old can finally unlock Darius Garland’s dormant firepower and untether Evan Mobley’s offensive talents, we’ll certainly forgive him and then some. 

Atkinson comes to the job–one he sought out eagerly–with a reputation for player development and a knack for building and utilizing modern NBA offenses, something which fans routinely groaned that Bickerstaff lacked. He also thinks the Cavs already have the talent to compete for a championship.

As he told reporters at his introductory press conference in June. 

“That’s what’s great about this situation — is the roster that’s in place,” he said. “There’s enough. There’s enough to take that next step, no doubt about it.”  

Calling it a step seems a bit diminutive. Let’s go with leap. It’ll be up to Atkinson and his new staff to help, or to will, the Cavs to make it.    

3. Drafted Jaylen Tyson

It’s unclear how much rookie Jaylen Tyson will factor into Cleveland’s success, or lack thereof, this year. The Cavs took the 6’6 Cal Golden Bear with the 20th overall pick in June knowing the do-it-all junior would need to carve out a more specific role to shine in the NBA. Playing for a bad college team, Tyson was a bright spot with the ball in his hands, averaging 19.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 34.3 minutes. But unless he plays so well as to take Caris LeVert’s green light with the second team, he’ll have to impact the game in ways more subtle than crafty midrange finishes and slowly developing pick-and-roll lobs. 

Don’t let me be sour. Tyson looked great in Summer League. He averaged 15.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists a game on 58 and 40 percent shooting splits. He made tough finishes around the rim (a concern for scouts in the pre-draft process), shot well from deep despite the occasional hesitation, and wowed fans with his playmaking. Tyson also had by far his best game of summer when true point guard Craig Porter Jr. was out with an injury, allowing Tyson to run the show in a way he won’t be able to in the NBA.

If there’s anything that portends decent minutes and success for Tyson as a rookie, it’s the gumption he consistently showed attacking the glass and cutting to the hoop. He’s a ball dominant player who’ll need to learn to play without it, but he showed the requisite skills and desire in Las Vegas to make more than a few believers. And who doesn’t love a player who’s rookie goal is to make the All-Defensive team?    

4. Extended Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen

Speaking of defense, the Cavs locked up the two pillars of their top-ten unit for the foreseeable future. First, in late July, they announced they’d signed playoff blocks- and contested shots-leader Evan Mobley to a rookie contract extension worth $224 million over five years. Then, some ten days later, they signed lynchpin and unsung hero Jarrett Allen to a three year extension worth $91 million. Anyone who watched the Cavs consistently last year knows that the Cavs fell off a cliff when Allen missed games due to injury, including in the playoffs. His return to Cleveland will ensure a defensive identity even as Kenny Atkinson reconfigures Evan Mobley’s burden with increased offensive responsibilities, a load the 23 year-old will need to carry to earn his big payday. That reconfiguration will also need to accommodate Allen’s interior presence and deft touch. Under former coach Bickerstaff, the Mobley/Allen pairing was awkward at best. Questions remain about their overall fit together, but it’s worth noting that Allen’s contract in no way inhibits a trade if Atkinson too fails to answer them. 

5. Didn’t extend Isaac Okoro

The Cavs offered Isaac Okoro an $11.8 million qualifying offer as soon as they were able this summer. Okoro, shopping around for more money that has seemingly dried up despite the record nationwide humidity, has yet to agree to a deal with the Cavs or anyone else. Cleveland recently stretched the money they owe the departed Ricky Rubio over the next three seasons. They also re-signed center Tristan Thompson to a one-year veteran minimum deal. 

These moves round out the roster and give the Cavs a tad more wiggle room under the luxury tax, something they hope to avoid before they almost certainly enter it–and hopefully a title window–next offseason. Rubio’s salary stretch and Thompson’s signing also finally give the Cavs and Okoro more clarity about what a potential long-term deal could look like with the rugged former top ten pick. This may help them end the contract stalemate that’s lasted all summer. Or Okoro could accept the qualifying offer, getting a healthy payday while betting that he’ll further solidify his value league wide in another season of improved play (knock on wood). 

6. Filled their two-way slots

Players on two-way contracts get big minutes in the developmental G League while also having a limited number of games they can dress for their NBA team. It’s a low risk way to give game reps to young players while keeping them close to NBA veterans and opportunities to shine on the big stage. Craig Porter Jr., whose two-way contact was converted to a regular NBA deal last spring after he filled in amiably for an injured Darius Garland, certainly took advantage. 

The Cavs and their fans hope that Emoni Bates, Luke Travers (okay sixth most important move), and JT Thor will too.     

Bates, a second-round pick and two-way player last year who resigned for the upcoming season, has gained 30 pounds since entering the NBA at 170 lbs. He’s unfortunately still a beanpole. But Emoni’s weight gain is indicative of something arguably more important than the improved strength of his new frame: that he really wants it. 

I could gain 30 pounds no problem. Just get me a DVD collection of Lost, a monthly pass to Chilis, and a bi-weekly (that’s twice a week, thank you) standing date with my therapist. But I’m not also shooting and dribbling basketballs and running around doing weight losey things all day. Bates’ weight gain thus underwrites a commitment to improvement that could render his scoring skills truly terrifying in the years to come. He still has a long weigh (get it?) to go, though.

If there’s a 3% chance Emoni Bates is a superstar and a 70% chance he never makes it (the rest being somewhere in between), Luke Travers looks the opposite. Now, I’m not saying he sticks in the NBA. The lumbering and upright Aussie needs to shoot the ball more consistently and prove he can keep up with NBA speed. But Travers, who’s 6’7 and definitely NOT a beanpole, plays with a poise, instinct, and craft far beyond his 23 years. If you haven’t watched him play, you’re going to love it. It’s so unexciting and enthralling all at once. 

Bates and Travers are getting their first shots. Not JT Thor. Thor, one of six Alaskans to ever play in the NBA, has already played three years for the Charlotte Hornets. But the 6’10 Auburn product needed a fresh start, and a 20-point outburst against the Cavs in last year’s regular season finale (Worst. Game. Ever.) and strong Olympic showing for upstart South Sudan helped earn the lefty the eyeballs of Cleveland’s decision makers and ultimately the third of the Cavs’ 2-way spots.   

7. Got Ty Jerome out of his walking boot.

Apparently Ty Jerome is playing basketball again! I’ll believe it when I see it. 

Here’s hoping that’s on the first day of training camp. It’s only 20 days away. 

Cheers, and go Cavs.