The Cleveland Cavaliers and head coach Tyronn Lue have reached an agreement regarding the latter's contract extension with the team. According to reports, Lue will get a five-year contract extension that's worth about $35 million.
According to ESPN, the four years in Lue's contract is already guaranteed while the fifth is a team option. With this deal, it seems the Cavs are strongly planning on going for a back-to-back championship with the seasoned coach next year.
The Cavs giving Lue a massive deal did not come as a surprise since he led the team to an NBA championship last season. Although it took a while before negotiations for his contract extension progressed, it has been expected that Cleveland will keep Lue for a long time.
The agreement between the Cavs and Lue came about a week after LeBron James expressed his interest to re-sign with the team. James, however, has not yet signed a contract and it is not yet clear what type of deal he will get. But according to previous reports, James is just waiting for the team to iron out its offers to its other free agents before finalizing an agreement.
But now that Lue and James' status with the Cavs are already pretty much secured, the only member of the team to sign is J.R. Smith. Currently, Smith is a free agent.
However, since the Cavs have not yet officially reached out to the athlete regarding a new contract, there is still the possibility of Smith walking away from the team.
According to previous reports, Smith wants to get $15 million a year. With such a big figure, it seems the Cavs are still contemplating whether to keep him or not. However, now that that team has settled Lue's salary, the Cavs can probably already gauge how much cap space they still have left. Hopefully though, they'll still have enough money to sign Smith after finalizing James' contract.
However, since Smith is only one of the remaining top free agents on the market, the Cavs should act fast before they lose him to another franchise.
