Did Ty Jerome take a shot at the Cleveland Cavaliers during his farewell post on Instagram?

Did Ty Jerome take a shot at the Cleveland Cavaliers during his farewell post on Instagram?

Okay, Jason, this happened late last night. If anyone hasn’t seen it, let me set up what happened, then I’ll tell you what Ty Jerome said, but the Cavaliers signed Sam Merrill to a 4-year $38 million contract over the weekend. Ty Jerome then signed a three-year $28 million deal with the Memphis Grizzlies. I believe that last year in the Memphis deal is a player option. I believe it’s an option year. I haven’t seen the exact details, but that was what I was told. And then Ty Jerome last night on his own Instagram page, meaning from the source himself posted this. Cleveland this past year will always hold a special place in my heart. Although I was never presented with the option of returning, nor did last season end how I wanted to, I will never forget all that this year brought. Jason, that is not an unnamed source. That is from the man himself, the third place finisher in the six man of the year voting, saying he was never presented with the option of returning. Your thoughts on Cleveland, if we’re taking Tai at his word, just deciding to go in a different direction than offering the third place finisher in the sixth man of the year voting some sort of contract to stay with his most recent team.
Uh, I’m a little surprised because I I just think they changed their mind. I think the Cavs change their mind because there was one and and teams do that frankly quite often. Uh there was a point last year where that was going to be their number one sort of priority or offseason goal was trying to find a way to hang on to him. And we know how the season ended. We know he had a horrible series against the Pacers. Uh, I’m a little surprised that that would pivot them from he’s the number one priority to not an offer at all if if Tai’s telling the truth on that. I’m not entirely sure that he’s telling the total truth on that. Um, but I’m I’m also a little surprised now that like the dust has settled, we’ve had time to digest it all. I’m a little surprised at the length of Sam’s contract that they went to four years. Mhm.
We kept talking about their window is really two more years and we kept talking about an offer a two-year offer for what a two-year offer for what for Tai what that would look like. So, I’m a little surprised. I think they were trying to get ahead of the market uh with with Sam. Clearly, he was the priority in the end. uh I think for some of the spacing issues that you alluded to earlier and the way that he can create space and the way that he can obviously shoot the three. Um and I’m I’m just a little surprised at at how this ended with with Tai. Uh you know I I think the defense and the athleticism thing is real, but uh they are good enough in other spots to sort of cover that up. I thought uh to limit his deficiencies. When you put Tai in a role that he is capable of, he’s proven to you what he can do, what he can deliver. Um it’s when you ask him to be more than what he is, I think is where he got exposed a little bit. Uh but I just think uh clearly I think the Cavs thought that it was not sustainable and what he did last year is not repeatable or else he’d be back here. Yeah, for the sake of this discussion, Jason, I agree with you that Ty gave us a little insight, but I always have a feeling that it may not be the full story. It’s probably somewhere in between. You know, you hear players say things all the time, you hear teams say things all the time and when the dust settles and you get the real story a few years later and you find out what truly happened, it usually lies somewhere in the middle. You know, maybe Tai didn’t feel like whatever offer Cleveland made was fair value, so he didn’t even see it as a true contract offer because it was something he never would accept. I don’t know. Haven’t talked to anyone. I don’t know the exact details. At the end of the day, I said this on UCSS yesterday. I’ll repeat it here today. I am flabbergasted that Sam got more years, more overall money, and a higher average annual value than Charles. Shocked. I understand the series against Indiana was a debacle for Tai. Could not have gone worse. Not just offensively. We that’s what we focus on, but they picked on him defensively, too. He was a complete liability on that end as well. But we also had a 74 game sample size in the regular season where I would die on the hill that he was the most impactful bench player on a permanent basis off the bench. And how many times did we come in the day after a game, Jason, saying Cavs don’t win that without Tai Jerome?
Mhm.
Cavs don’t And I love Sam. Sam’s my guy. But did we ever come in the next day and say Sam Merrill swung that game for Cleveland? Like no, we didn’t. So at the end of the day, you know, I would have preferred Cleveland going the Tai Jerome route even for the exact same contract they gave Sam as opposed to giving that money to Sam. But for whatever reason, Cleveland felt that either it wasn’t repeatable, he had been exposed in a certain kind of way and maybe would never recover. But to that point of did Indiana expose something against Tai, I would also just counter Indiana kind of expose Jaylen Brunson in a way and they made SGA work harder in the finals than SGA worked at any point in the regular season to where he had games where he did not look anything like a league MVP. Jason, I think a lot of that has to do with Indiana being an incredible defensive team and their point of attack defense being top-notch more than something more than it says Tai can never play in that kind of style or can play at that kind of pace. I’m surprised. I love the fact that Tai came out and said this because I like when players speak their minds and are transparent. I’m not saying he’s 100% being honest because like I said, I do believe there’s probably a little more to it than oh, they simply never called. That’s usually how it works. They have these discussions and if they can’t come to a ballpark range, then an offer is probably never made. But hey, if Tai wants to call out the Cavs for not resigning him after trading for his best friend with a GM that clearly coveted him from the get-go, because that was a guy Kobe considered trading up for in the draft a couple years ago, then I’m all for Tai calling him out, Jason. I’m I’m all for him.
Yeah,
he doesn’t want to talk about too in the middle of July. So, I also appreciate them for that. Yeah, it’ll be interesting when they play. Um, you know, it’s funny. I was thinking about this totally kind of off topic, but kind of related to Tai. I I’ve been thinking about how much the Cavs just been getting crushed and destroyed in the national narrative all summer long. And I thought back to that Virginia team that lost in the first round to a 16 seed. I remember who beat him now. Uh, the Baltimore school, right?
Yeah.
Beat him in the first round. Uh so number one seed in the tournament becomes the first team to lose to a 16 seed and everybody just destroyed Virginia and they come back the next year and win the national championship. And obviously Tai was from V was at Virginia during that time.
So is uh DeAndre. You’re right. Yeah, DeAndre was too. Um so maybe we can talk to DeAndre about that as the as the season goes on. Uh I don’t know. Just one of those weird things I was thinking about. But, uh, it’ll be interesting to see when they play each other, uh, what Tai has to say about it.
Uh, one last thing on this, Jason, you mentioned moving DeAndre Hunter to the starting lineup. I had been against it last season. I just think it’s really hard to insert a guy mid-season into a starting lineup while he’s learning a new offense coming from a completely different culture from Atlanta to Cleveland. Now, I think you have to start him. Partly because when you look at the Cavs bench, and we’re gonna talk about Tyrese Proctor in a second, Max Streus might be their best playmaker on the bench now without Ty Jerome. I mean, maybe it’s Jaylen Tyson if he takes a gigantic leap from his rookie year to his sophomore year, which I fully expect him to do,
but I’m not sure if you want a guy who’s never been in that situation being your primary creator off the bench. Maybe it’s Proctctor. Maybe it’s Craig Porter Jr. in year three making a similar leap. Maybe Merryill has that in his bag that we didn’t know. But DeAndre Hunter is an isolation scorer. His assist numbers throughout his career for as good as he’s been in other facets have been comically low. Like seriously, one of the lowest assist rates in the entire NBA when we did the whole DeAndre Hunter vers Cam Johnson talk last trade deadline. Part of the reason I preferred Johnson was Hunter really doesn’t pass the ball. We saw it even when he was in Cleveland last year. So I think that fits better in the starting lineup now than with Strus. and Strus seriously might be their best playmaker in that second unit. And I think that second unit is going to need a little bit of a playmaking push. So I was against it last year for a couple different reasons. Now with some material changes, I think Hunter has to start and Stru is coming off the bench.
I’ve I’ve liked that lineup the best all along. I’ve thought since the day he got here Hunter should be in the starting lineup and Max should be coming off the bench. when you talk about how small they are in the front court or in the back court, DeAndre at least provides a little bit of length on the floor to help with that. Uh so I just I like Max is a better fit as a as a playmaker coming off the bench and I like DeAndre’s fit better in the starting lineup especially I mean you know let’s see what the East looks like because I you know I I think we’re still trying to put all the pieces together but I’m going back to last year with how big Boston was. Obviously Boston’s going to look a lot different now. Maybe Orlando is that team now, that really big team that the Cavs have to contend with that uh you know where they they need a little bit more size uh on the starting lineup.

Ty Jerome almost won 6th Man of the Year for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2024/2025.

He signed with the Memphis Grizzlies in free agency.

At his end of season press conference, Koby Altman said resigning Ty was the team’s #1 priority.

Ty went on Instagram and said the Cavs never made an offer.

So what gives?

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