Cleveland Cavaliers: Getting Below the Second Apron | 2025 Mock Offseason | Third Apron Salarycast

Cleveland Cavaliers: Getting Below the Second Apron | 2025 Mock Offseason | Third Apron Salarycast

Hey, welcome to the show. I’m Yosi Goslin, NBA salary cap analyst, and this is another mockoff season. This one’s on the Cavaliers, but this one’s going to be a little different because instead of looking for ways I can supplement the team because they’re so expensive that because they’re over the aprons, they might actually be looking to reduce payroll, uh, try to get under the second apron. And so, I’m going to do a much quicker version. This is a mini mockoff season where I’m going to have him do some moves to accomplish those goals. So, first let’s take a look at the Cavs payroll over the next two seasons. This is for the upcoming season. As you can see, they’ve got Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. They’re about to begin their big max extensions at 30% of the cap. Starts him at 30 at 46 million. They also have Daryus Garland making a lower tier max salary and they’ve got several other expensive players on the roster. And they’re not even at a full 14man group yet, but once they do, I’ve got them with some minimum salaries. uh the second round pick that they have, they are looking at a $223 million payroll and a $132.5 million luxury tax penalty. They’re also going to be $17 million over the second apron. So, they really can’t do anything to improve the roster other than resigning their own players, which I’ll get into. They have a couple important free agents, Ty Jerome and Sam Merrill. But as you can see, they’re already looking at a really high payroll and tax penalty without resigning those guys. So, I get I kind of get the feeling that not only will they not bring those guys back, but they might try to significantly reduce their payroll. And that might involve moving some of their uh you know, midsary type guys kind of like Jared Allen and Isaac Aoro. And really quickly, here is their payroll for the following season 2627. if they just run it back completely. This is without resigning any of their guys. Also, Dean Wade’s not here. He’s going to be their most important upcoming free agent the following free agency. And they’re looking at even more expensive roster. Uh 131 million tax penalty. Uh total expenses exceed 370 million. So, I don’t think the Cavs are going to be interested in paying these levels of expenses. Uh especially after the result that they just had. I think they’re going to want to at least make the finals before they are willing to get to this level and delve into the second apron. Keep in mind that if they finished the sec in the second apron in uh both of these upcoming seasons, they would have their 2033 and 2034 first round picks frozen. So, they wouldn’t be able to trade those. And that might be a little bit of an issue because they already have such a draft pick deficit. They traded so many of them a couple years ago to get Donovan Mitchell. And I just want to show Ty Jerome’s situation to show why I have a hard time seeing him coming back to the Caps. So most teams are going to have access to the full non-tax pyramid level exception because there’s only one cap space team out there, the Nets. So this is what they can offer him about $14.1 million uh starting salary. Tops out at 60.6 million. For other teams to outbid that, they would have to want to get him in a sign and trade. Uh coincidentally, the Cavs could match those offers. They have his early bird rights. So, the maximum they can give him is four years. Tops out at $61.4 million. So, if the Cavs want to bring him back, they can. I They shouldn’t have much of an issue trying to bring him back. But, as you’re about to see, bringing him and Merrill back will get really expensive. So, now here’s a projection I put together where they bring back Tyome on that early bird starting salary. And I’ve got them bringing back Sam Merryill at roughly the tax pyramid level exception. And that would get them up to 14 players. And when you look at the total expenses, they’re going to increase their payroll and tax combination by $110 million. So, this is why I have a hard time seeing them bring back either of these guys. Uh, I think that they’re going to probably try to focus on finding their replacements, uh, the same way that they originally found these guys through undrafted free agency slash, uh, you know, GLeague scouting, all that stuff. So, they also have a couple other young guys that they have to look forward to and Jaylen Tyson, Craig Porter, maybe they could find someone with their second round pick. So, I don’t anticipate them bringing uh, both of them back. Maybe they bring back one of them like Sam Merrell. could see them potentially bringing back, but first they would probably have to save money through some other moves first. So, here’s a type of trade I could see the Cavaliers going for and it involves Jared Allen. Uh, keep in mind that now with the Cavs set to have a very high payroll, uh, Evan Mobley is probably going to be starting in the near future, if not right now. They were closing with him pretty often over Jared Allen in the playoffs. And I think at $20 million this year, he’s kind of a luxury the Cavs don’t necessarily need. and he’s got an extension coming up that’s going to push his salary next year to start at 30 million uh over the next uh three seasons after this upcoming one. So, might be a better time now to cash in on him, try to get something in return before that salary gets higher. Much easier for teams to get him now. So, here’s the type of framework I’ve got. It would probably be a bigger deal. I don’t know if the Magic would necessarily want Jared Allen. maybe could be a bigger trade where they get end up getting a scoring guard like uh you know they’re reportedly seeking. But the main thing is here’s what I have the Cavs getting back. I have I could see them targeting a guy like Gogetaz, a much cheaper backup center. He makes 8.3 million this year and he’s going to make even less the following season. getting a backup big who’s costc controlled for multiple years makes a good amount of sense for the Cavs and also have them getting that 25th overall pick via the Magic doesn’t seem like the greatest return for Jared Allen, but just because the Cavs are mainly looking to save a lot of money and get a cost-effective replacement. This might be the type of return I could see them getting. Now, here is the Cavs payroll after all the moves I did. As you can see, I’ve got Go in for Jared Allen. I also removed Isaac. had them salary dump him probably to a team like the Nets who have cap space or another team that has a mid-level exception to absorb him with. Uh the Cavs have up to four second round picks they could trade. So I would imagine they attach a couple of those to get a team to take him on. So your move is $11 million and then I have him resigning Sam Merrill. Let’s say they give him like a $5 million starting salary. I could see his market being somewhere around there. They got that first round pick that they got. uh had them decline Chum Chumo KK’s team option, resign him at a one-year veteran minimum to save a little bit on their cap sheet. And once they get to 14 players, they are looking at just a $44 million luxury tax penalty and a total roster expense of 250 million. So they reduce their expenses by $10 million to something a little more manageable. And they get just below the second apron. So, they have a little bit more flexibility to do stuff a little later into the season, but most importantly, they avoid those draft pick penalties. And now, here’s that Cavs roster I put together, but looking at it for the following season, you’ve got Mitchell and Moy, uh, their salaries right up to 50 million. Goa in for Allen, Maryland on a secondyear salary. They have their own first round pick next year. Uh, so I have them getting the 14 players and they’re well below the they’re they’re still not too high into the tax and they’re have plenty of space below the second apron. So their biggest free agent uh the following season is going to be Dean Wade. He’s going to be extension eligible throughout the this upcoming season. So if they do these types of moves that I’m suggesting, they’ll have plenty of flexibility to fit Dean Wade on a new deal. He’s making around he’s making like just under 7 million this year. maybe they can get him on a small raise and if the objective is to stay below the second apron they should be able to do that. So that’s my Cavs mockoff season pretty quick but for teams like them that might be looking to save payroll and not necessarily make a big move to supplement the roster uh these are going to be a lot quicker versions where I show how these teams could look to save money and there’s a lot of them out there. So that’s that. Uh, make sure you follow me on Twitter, Blue Sky, subscribe on YouTube, and there’s apron on my Substack. And check the link in the description about sports business classroom. There are still a couple spots available for that

In this mini mock offseason, I analyze the Cavaliers’ salary cap situation for their upcoming offseason, explain why Ty Jerome and Sam Merrill may not return, and make a couple of trades that reduce their luxury tax bill and get them below the second apron.

Cavaliers offseason preview: https://www.thirdapron.com/p/cleveland-cavaliers-2025-offseason-0d1
Cavaliers offseason discussion: https://youtube.com/live/foH3M-9gi2A

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