{"id":87554,"date":"2024-07-26T22:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T02:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=87554"},"modified":"2024-07-26T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T02:24:02","slug":"cavs-lowballing-undervalued-free-agent-isaac-okoro-could-cost-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/26\/cavs-lowballing-undervalued-free-agent-isaac-okoro-could-cost-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs Lowballing Undervalued Free Agent Could Cost Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okorois01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaac Okoro<\/a>&#8216;s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/cavs\/2024\/07\/will-cavs-keep-restricted-free-agent-isaac-okoro.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reps remain in contact<\/a>,\u201d per cleveland.com\u2019s Chris Fedor. \u201cCleveland likes Okoro. It values him- to a point. Wants him back \u2014 at<br \/>\nthe right price.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSources say the Cavs have already made multiple variations of what they deem fair, multi-year offers that align with Okoro&#8217;s perceived market value and his place within the hierarchy of the organization. Those potential deals also give him financial security.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fedor also took to the <em>Wine &amp; Gold Talk Podcast<\/em> to say that he\u2019s \u201cnot sure what the offer is specifically\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Cavs Lowballing Free Agent Isaac Okoro Could Cost Them<\/h2>\n<p>\u201c\u2026The sense that I get in talking to people around the NBA is that it&#8217;s a multi-year offer in the annual range of $8 to $10 million,\u201d Fedor reports.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Updates on Isaac Okoro&#039;s contract situation and the likelihood he returns to the Cavs\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qw7g52zLiyc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Fedor states that the Cavs have let Okoro\u2019s market decide itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTeams have had an opportunity to use their cap space on Isaac, and they have chosen not to,\u201d Fedor adds. \u201cThere have been teams out there that have the mid-level exception available. They&#8217;ve had an opportunity to use that on Isaac, which is a little bit north of what his qualifying offer is\u2026 and they haven&#8217;t done that.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Contract Comparisons<\/h3>\n<p>A player\u2019s free market value being determined by his and other team\u2019s interest in him isn\u2019t a novel concept.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, teams have often paid above or below a player\u2019s free market value, so it\u2019s not quite a law. In a case where a free agent may earn more than expected, it comes down to factors such as potential and respect. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mobleev01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Mobley<\/a> isn\u2019t producing at an ideal level offensively. However, the Cavs still offered him <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/21\/2021-nba-draft-class-now-has-four-to-receive-max-extension-evan-mobley\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a max contract extension<\/a>. The same can be said of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garlada01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darius Garland<\/a>, who regressed at both ends last season.<\/p>\n<p>Okoro isn\u2019t on either player\u2019s level. Yet, he\u2019s only 23 years old, an elite perimeter defender, and now an efficient deep threat. An offer of $8 to $10 million annually <em>would <\/em>pay him a similar amount as the highly touted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/carusal01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Caruso<\/a> ($9.9 million). Yet, it\u2019s worth noting that Caruso will turn 31-years-old next season. Again, Okoro is just 23.<\/p>\n<p>The only player who has a similar age, skillset, and production as Okoro is Indiana Pacers wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nesmiaa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Nesmith<\/a>. Yet, the 24-year-old Nesmith makes $11 million per season, a tad more than the Cavs are offering. With that being said, Okoro may want even more than that.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the 2020 No. 5 pick, &#8220;if it gets to a point where Isaac and his people are looking for multiple years around $12 to $15 million\u2026 that&#8217;s not a number that the Cavs would be comfortable with moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If paid between $12 to $15 million per year, Okoro\u2019s contract would be similar to New Orleans Pelicans swingman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joneshe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Herb Jones<\/a>. After signing a four-year, $53.8 million contract with the Pelicans in 2023, Jones will make $13 million next season.<\/p>\n<p>To be frank, Okoro has a reason to believe he\u2019s on Jones\u2019s level. Though he doesn\u2019t have the star power of the Pelicans fan favorite, he\u2019s a multipositional lockdown defender playing a 3-and-D role. Perhaps the Cavs don\u2019t see it that way. Yet, if they look at the rest of their roster, they\u2019ll be hard-pressed to find an on-ball defender like Okoro.<\/p>\n<h3>Plan B<\/h3>\n<p>Ultimately, Cleveland is arguably lowballing Okoro. As a result, the Georgia native is probably best off signing his qualifying offer and entering restricted free agency in 2025. Then, he\u2019ll enter the offseason with multiple executives eyeing his performance to see if they\u2019ll bring him on.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, the difference between this summer and next could just come down to timing.<\/p>\n<p>Teams have been finicky about signing multiple players due to the financial restraints dictated by the CBA. Furthermore, because he\u2019s a restricted free agent, opposing teams know that the Cavs can match any offer they give him. Thus, they may have deemed a pursuit of him futile.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, if re-signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leverca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caris LeVert<\/a> \u2014who averaged 14.0 points per game on .421-.325-.766 splits last season \u2014is so important to Cleveland that they\u2019ll let him walk next season, then Okoro already knows his place with the organization. Unless he doesn\u2019t believe he\u2019ll play well enough in 2023-24 to get better offers than he\u2019s receiving, perhaps he should just leave anyways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers and Isaac Okoro&#8216;s \u201creps remain in contact,\u201d per cleveland.com\u2019s Chris Fedor. \u201cCleveland likes Okoro. It values him- to a point. Wants him back \u2014 at the right price.\u201d \u201cSources say the Cavs have already made multiple variations of what they deem fair, multi-year offers that align with Okoro&#8217;s perceived market value and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":87563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1608,62],"tags":[2842,297],"class_list":["post-87554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-isaac-okoro","tag-nba-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}