L'Idiot

The defense has never been the problem in the playoffs.

This is nonsense. We've seen for three years how good the team, including the defense, is with Garland. We've also seen how lost the offense is without him.

That's a problem for the summer of 2028. No need to get ahead of ourselves.

I understand the Bulls side of things, and I get that the two sides can be structured independently.

Just from the Cavs side, how are they able to use Okoro's salary to do two things at once?

Thanks for taking the time to clarify these things-- sorry if I'm being dense here!

Okay, so I guess that's my question: what's the mechanism for Cleveland taking on Ball's salary without using the TPE?

But doesn't that use up $10M of the $11M TPE that Okoro's outgoing salary creates?

Do the Cavs still have the full $11M TPE exception available?

Can you give more context on how the Cavs were able to absorb Ball's salary without using any of Okoro's TPE for salary matching?

That's all that Cleveland is able to offer, so yes

Exactly. Now obviously, being in the second apron is expensive and difficult to navigate. There may be some restructuring to stay competitive, but those guys aren't getting let go for nothing.

We'll find out really soon how comfortable Dan Gilbert is spending money on this iteration of the Cavs.

We'll see what happens if/when the Cavs face the Celtics. Dean Wade is tremendously valuable for them as a big wing defender.

The early-Bird will be worth something in the neighborhood of $14.3 mil (per Bobby Marks). Add in 8% annual raises vs. the 5% raises on the MLE and the Cavs offer should surpass the full NTMLE.

Only a cap space team can outbid the Cavs.

Wade and Okoro are still on great value contracts and they don't have a first round pick this year. Yes, they're deep-- but they aren't going to just dump rotation players.

The Cavs are expecting to operate as a second apron team for the foreseeable future.

Makes sense. As a Cavs fan, I'm always looking for ways to quantify the impact of Evan Mobley's ability to keep blocks in bounds.

More to the point, is offense starting with a block at the rim really 5 points per 100 better than offense starting with a rim miss, or is it just a noisy/biased sample?

What does the team-by-team breakdown look like for scoring after blocks?