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On Friday, June 19, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in partnership with the City of Cleveland and Downtown Cleveland Inc., hosted the grand opening of the 2016 NBA Championship commemorative outdoor basketball court at Meet Me Here Plaza. Located across from Rocket Arena on Huron Road between East 4th Street and Ontario Street, the reimagined plaza features a new outdoor basketball court, walkways and seating designed to bring people together before, during and beyond Cavaliers game nights.
Notably absent was Kyrie Irving, who hit the go-ahead 3-pointer for Cleveland in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. Smith seemingly addressed Irving's absence, commenting on a post about the reunion: "Missing none. He was invited and ghosted us all. So stop with that bs."
The most pressing piece of roster business in Cleveland, outside of the Cavaliers ironing out a future agreement with Harden, will come down to its decisions on Dean Wade and Keon Ellis as they seek to move out of the second apron. Sources say that team officials already concede behind the scenes that it will be extremely difficult to keep both players.
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The problem: The Cavs love Mobley, they believe in him and there are multiple members of the Cleveland brain trust that would be vehemently against a Giannis-Mobley swap, as the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year and Second-Team All-NBA selection is viewed as not only a future star but also a proverbial safety net when it comes to another rebuild. There’s also the matter of Antetokounmpo’s contract. Would he be willing to extend in Cleveland beyond the one guaranteed season left on his current deal? Would the Cavs surrender one of their best players — and most attractive trade asset — with so much uncertainty surrounding Antetokounmpo’s future? At 31 years old, with a few leg-related injuries, it’s far from a no-brainer.
NBA Courtside: Rich Paul says he always viewed LeBron as the ‘People’s champ’ like Muhammad Ali: “If you win 1 time in Cleveland, there’s nothing else to be done… The idea of going back home and winning one. I always looked at LeBron to be more of what I would say the Peoples champ like Muhammad Ali was. Even when he lost I feel like people really embraced him.”
Donovan Mitchell: I feel like this [contract extension talk] has been a consistent theme every single season I’ve been here. And I thought it would go away once I signed the first extension, but here we are. I said it [Monday night]: “I love it here.” I see growth. I see a runway. I believe. I’ve made Cleveland home outside of just basketball. I don’t want to go. I don’t really know how else to blatantly say it to people for them to believe me. If they don’t believe me, then hey, who cares? I don’t care. The organization knows and everybody in the building knows and feels the way I feel. I’ve been saying this since I first got to Cleveland. I was called [out], “Oh, he’s lying.” I was about to sign my extension three years ago, “Oh, he’s lying.” Signed it. They’re like, “Oh, [he’s] not signing the long term.” Whatever. There’s always going to be something, I guess. So, Cleveland, you know how I feel. This is just for everybody else.
Bobby Marks: "Harden's in a unique situation. He's got a $42 million player option and there's only $13 million of that guaranteed. So if Harden did opt in, Cleveland could certainly waive him and save a ton of money here. I would expect him to opt out of that contract and both sides to negotiate a a little bit of a longer contract, whether it be two years. And why opting out makes the most sense is that that would put Cleveland potentially under the second apron. If you drop 42 to let's say 30, that puts them under the second apron and gives them some flexibility moving forward with with Harden there."
Cleveland's Mike Gansey and Sixers assistant general manager Jameer Nelson are regarded as the current leading candidates for the head of basketball operations post, which became available when Philadelphia fired Daryl Morey on May 12. As The Stein Line reported Monday, there is a growing expectation in league circles that Nelson will be elevated to general manager in Philadelphia at a minimum in the event he does not get the top job.
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There were rumbles during the regular season that Cleveland would have interest in pursuing Quin Snyder — Donovan Mitchell's former coach in Utah — in the event of a coaching change there, but sources with knowledge of the Cavaliers' thinking have pushed back on such suggestions, insisting that Kenny Atkinson was always destined to retain his job for a third season.
“He had big shoes to fill, because Thibs did an amazing job and gave us the experience and the education and the opportunity to show the world what we could do as a team,” All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns said after Game 3 against Cleveland. “When Mike came in, making the Eastern Conference finals was going to be the bar — minimum.”
Zach Kram: How quickly it took the Knicks to build a 20-point lead in potential closeout games this spring: vs. Atlanta: 11 minutes vs. Philly: 11 minutes vs. Cleveland: 13.5 minutes