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The Philadelphia 76ers have acquired center Sasha Kaun and cash considerations from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the rights to Chukwudiebere Maduabum.
Kaun (6-11, 260) appeared in 25 games for Cleveland in the 2015-16 season and averaged one point and one rebound in four minutes per contest. The native of Russia was originally selected by Seattle with the 56th overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft after a four-year collegiate career at the University of Kansas.
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The 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired guard/forward Mike Dunleavy and the draft rights to forward Vladimir Veremeenko from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the rights to forward Albert Miralles. Dunleavy will be accepted into the trade exception that was created in the Cavs trade earlier today with Milwaukee, that also included the draft rights to Miralles, General Manager David Griffin announced from Cleveland Clinic Courts.
“We are very pleased to be able to welcome Mike to our Cavaliers family,” said Griffin. “His size, shooting, basketball IQ, and versatility make him a great fit for our group on the floor. While his experience, professionalism, grit, and team first character will be key for us in the locker room.”
Dunleavy (6-9, 220) has spent the last three years with Chicago. He played in 31 games (30 starts) for the Bulls in the 2015-16 regular season after missing the first 49 games due to a back injury. The 6-9 forward finished the campaign with averages of 7.2 points, a .394 mark from beyond the arc, and 2.7 rebounds in 22.7 minutes.
An NCAA champion out of Duke (2001), Dunleavy was originally selected by Golden State with the third overall pick of the 2002 NBA Draft. Over his 14-year NBA career, he has averaged 11.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 28.4 minutes over 933 games (583 starts) with the Warriors, Indiana, Milwaukee and Chicago. He also holds career shooting percentages of .441 from the field, .376 from the three-point line and .803 from the foul line. In his 26 postseason appearances (17 starts), he has averaged 10.4 points on .482 shooting from the field, .453 from beyond the arc, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 27.5 minutes.
Veremeenko (6-10, 236) was selected with the 48th overall pick in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards. He has recently played for the Italian professional basketball club Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia.
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The 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired the rights to forward Albert Miralles from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for guard Matthew Dellavedova and cash considerations. The trade also creates a $4.8 million trade exception for the Cavaliers. Cavs General Manager David Griffin announced the trade today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.
“We wish Delly the best as he continues his career in Milwaukee,” said Griffin. “Delly is a special person on and off the court and was a very dedicated, hard worker that grew as part of our team and made significant contributions to our success. Our coaches and his teammates will always appreciate his ‘all in’ approach to the game, as he was ready to contribute whenever his number was called. We know he will continue to grow and succeed as he takes the next steps of his NBA journey with the Bucks.”
Miralles (6-9, 240) has spent his entire professional career playing overseas, mostly in Spain. Most recently, he has competed for FIATC Joventut, a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Spain, since 2013. Miralles was originally drafted by Toronto with as the 39th overall pick of the 2004 NBA Draft.
Dellavedova, 25, spent the last three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, appearing in the NBA Finals each of the past two seasons and winning a championship with the Cavaliers last season. During the 2015-16 season, Dellavedova averaged career highs in points (7.5), assists (4.4), rebounds (2.1), 3-point shooting percentage (.410) and free-throw percentage (.864). The 6-4 guard appeared in 76 games (14 starts) with Cleveland last season, averaging 24.6 minutes per contest.
In 2015-16, Dellavedova’s three-point shooting percentage (41.0) ranked 11th in the NBA, while his 2.9 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked 10th. In 62 games off the bench, Dellavedova averaged 4.1 assists per game which was the fourth-most in the NBA among reserve players. He had one or less turnovers in 40 games last season.
Dellavedova appeared in all 40 of the Cavaliers playoff games over the last two seasons. In 2015, Dellavedova made seven starts during the playoffs and averaged 7.2 points, 2.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds over the course of 20 games. He once again appeared in all 20 playoff games for the Cavs in 2016, averaging 3.9 points in 12.1 minutes per game en route to an NBA Championship.
Originally from Australia, Dellavedova played for Saint Mary’s (CA) College before going undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft. The Cavaliers signed Dellavedova in August of 2013 where he appeared in 72 games (four starts) as a rookie, averaging 4.7 points, 2.6 assists and 1.7 rebounds per game. In 2014-15, Dellavedova made 67 appearances (13 starts) and increased his averages to 4.8 points, 3.0 assists and 1.9 rebounds per contest, while shooting 40.7 percent from 3-point range. He competed for the World Team in the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge at the 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend. Dellavedova is a career 39.5 percent shooter from beyond the arc, having shot over 40 percent from three in two of his three seasons in the NBA.
LeBron James returned to the Cavs, reached the Finals, and then this year won Finals MVP and a championship for Cleveland. Here’s ESPN.com with the latest on the future between him and the squad:
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LeBron James stands to make less money on a one-year contract re-signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers than he could earn by going to the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks or Miami Heat.
It’s an example of the “unintended consequences” that commissioner Adam Silver has discussed of the salary-cap jump coming to the NBA ahead of the 2016-17 season.
James removed doubt about his intentions on Wednesday when he told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, “I love it here in Cleveland. I have no intentions of leaving. There are some technicalities to take care of I’ll leave up to my agent. That’s right from the horse’s mouth.”
Those technicalities include perhaps leaving $3 million on the table if he wants what is his now-customary one-year contract plus a player option with the Cavs, as he’s signed the past two summers.
LeBron James returned to the Cavs two seasons ago, helped take the team to the 2015 NBA Finals, and returned there in 2016 to win the championship. He can choose to enter free agency this July, and will likely do so, but only to re-sign with the Cavs for more money. That’s been the expectation, and today Cleveland.com provides additional reason to believe that’s what will take place, as reported below:
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“I love it here. I love being here. I love my teammates,” James told cleveland.com, moments before he boarded a float at The Q for the Cavs’ championship parade through downtown Cleveland. “Obviously my agent will take care of all the logistical things but, I’m happy. I’ve got no plans to go nowhere at this point.”
James, 31, can become a free agent if he decides not to exercise the one-year, $24 million player’s option in his contract. He will all but certainly decline the option on June 29 so he can get a raise from the Cavs — he can make upwards of $30 million next season under a new contract.
By Jeff Lenchiner
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The Cavaliers beat the Warriors in seven games to win the 2016 NBA championship. Here’s what Cavs star LeBron James averaged in the Finals series:
29.7 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 8.9 apg, 2.6 spg, 2.3 bpg, on 49% shooting.
That’s… insane.
Those are video game numbers.
Those are the type of stats your buddy in the park makes up, as a joke, about some rec league he allegedly dominated that you happen to have never heard of.
Except, they’re real, and they accurately represent what LeBron accomplished in the NBA Finals, against a team that had just won more regular season games than any team in the history of the NBA.
Cavs guard Kyrie Irving was excellent in the Finals too of course, averaging 27.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.9 apg and 2.1 spg, shooting 47% and hitting 40.5% from three-point range. He will never average a ton of assists in the current makeup of the Cavs team. But he produced, and often stepped up when the team seemed to be in an offensive lull. He did his job.
Third in scoring for the new champs was shooting guard J.R. Smith at 10.6 ppg (40% FG, 36% threes), then Tristan Thompson at 10.3 ppg and 10.1 rpg.
Kevin Love was quiet in the Finals, averaging 8.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg in 26.3 minutes per outing.
Back to those LeBron 2016 NBA Finals stats: have fun trying to come up with proper adjectives to describe just how awesome they are. And after you do that, just stare at them for a while, because they don’t happen often.
The Cavaliers beat the Warriors in Game 7 last night to win the 2016 NBA championship. Veteran small forward Richard Jefferson emerged as a big-time contributor to the Cavs. And now, will RJ hang up his sneakers? Probably. But not definitely. ESPN.com reports:
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“I am retiring. I am retiring,” he told Fox Sports Ohio as he celebrated.
Later, in an interview on NBA TV, Jefferson said: “My teammates keep trying to talk me out of it, and I’m like guys, this has been the most stressful month of my life. I was like, ‘I don’t know.'”
Jefferson then told ESPN of retirement: “Maybe. If you ask me now, yes. But we’ll see.”
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue has been fined $25,000 for public criticism of officiating, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.
Lue made his comments during the postgame press conference following the Golden State Warriors’ 108-97 victory over the Cavaliers in Game 4 of The Finals on June 10 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been assessed a Flagrant Foul 1 upon league office review, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.
In accordance with NBA rules, Green will serve a one-game suspension without pay for accruing his fourth Flagrant Foul point of the 2016 postseason. He will serve his suspension Monday, June 13 during Game 5 of The Finals at Oracle Arena.
The incident occurred when Green made unnecessary contact with a retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin of Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James with 2:48 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ 108-97 win in Game 4 of The Finals at Quicken Loans Arena.
Under league rules, any player who accumulates four flagrant foul points over the course of the playoffs will be automatically suspended for one game, and every additional flagrant foul will result in either a one-game suspension (for a Flagrant Foul 1) or a two-game suspension (for a Flagrant Foul 2).
“The cumulative points system is designed to deter flagrant fouls in our game” said VanDeWeghe. “While Draymond Green’s actions in Game 4 do not merit a suspension as a standalone act, the number of flagrant points he has earned triggers a suspension for Game 5.”
James has been assessed a technical foul upon league office review for his role in the altercation, which included a physical taunt.
The Cavs are in big trouble in the 2016 NBA Finals. You know that, because they are down 3-1 to the Warriors, who were the best team in the league this season. But having some historical perspective is often helpful. Here’s the News Herald reporting:
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The Cavaliers are trying to do something historical in the NBA Finals, as in first-man-to-row -a-bathtub-across-the-Atlantic-Ocean-from-the-United-States-to-England historical.
Ten teams in the 70-year history of the NBA have triumphed after being down 3-1 in a playoff series. But it has never happened in the Finals. The most recent team to do it, the Cavs don’t need to be reminded, was the very Warriors they are trying to beat. Oklahoma City had a 3-1 lead and then lost in Oakland, lost at home and lost Game 7 in Oakland last month in the Western Conference finals.
As if that isn’t bad enough for the Cavaliers, who trail the Warriors, 3-1, heading into Game 5 on June 13 in Oakland, only twice in the 10 comebacks did the road team prevail in Game 7, which is what the Cavaliers would have to do to topple the defending champions.