{"id":94923,"date":"2024-09-09T17:50:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T21:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=94923"},"modified":"2024-09-09T17:50:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T21:50:12","slug":"cavs-make-history-with-latest-contract-move-ricky-rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/09\/cavs-make-history-with-latest-contract-move-ricky-rubio\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs Make History with Latest Contract Move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/07\/former-cleveland-cavaliers-san-antonio-spurs-sharpshooter-cedi-osman-leaves-nba-after-7-seasons\/\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> have made history as they are the first team to utilize the &#8216;delayed stretch&#8217; plan to pay former player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rubiori01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ricky Rubio<\/a>. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has allowed teams to now stretch the salary they are paying to a waived player. The Cavs and Rubio mutually agreed on a contract termination at the beginning of 2024.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The NBA got the first &quot;delayed stretch&quot; of a waived player. Under the new CBA, a team can elect to stretch dead money on their books.<\/p>\n<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers took the ~$1.3M in dead money for Ricky Rubio and turned it into three years of dead money at ~$425K per season.<\/p>\n<p>Cavs\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KeithSmithNBA\/status\/1830999615568519274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Cavs Make History with Latest Contract Move<\/h2>\n<h3>Rubio&#8217;s Time As A Cavalier<\/h3>\n<p>Ricky Rubio was endeared to the Cavaliers&#8217; faithful during the 2021-22 season. Rubio played 34 games with the team before tearing his ACL in late 2021. However, despite his injury, during the time he played, Rubio averaged a career-high in points at 13.1. Additionally, the Spaniard notched 6.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game as he led a young Cavs team to playoff contention.<\/p>\n<p>During his injury, Rubio was dealt to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/06\/upstart-pacers-create-necessary-front-office-role\/\" target=\"_self\">Indiana Pacers<\/a> in a move that helped Cleveland land <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leverca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caris LeVert<\/a>. But, when Rubio&#8217;s contract expired in the summer of 2022, he returned to Cleveland on a three-year, $18.4 million dollar deal. Rubio returned from his injury in early 2023 but never reached the level he was at <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/news-200993-ricky-rubio-recounts-his-battle-with-depression-reflects-on-his-career.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pre-injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt was all so fast that I couldn&#8217;t even ask myself if I wanted to be a professional\u201d Rubio said. \u00a0\u201cBut with the National Team, I was not afraid, I did not know that there were things that could be twisted. I was only thinking about the good things. I was having so much fun that I could have played with only one leg.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In August 2023, Rubio was placed on mental health leave by the Cavs, before the two sides agreed on a contract buyout.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;My mind went to a very dark place\u201d Rubio added. \u201cThe last injury with the Cavs was very hard but it wasn&#8217;t the big factor that led me to that. It was small things that had been there for years and finally turned against me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Rubio has since returned to Spain, playing for his boyhood team Barcelona. Rubio played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/28\/kevin-garnett-makes-bold-claim-about-phoenix-suns-devin-booker\/\" target=\"_self\">Phoenix Suns<\/a>, and Utah Jazz in addition to his time in Cleveland as an NBA player.<\/p>\n<h3>The Cavs Make History<\/h3>\n<p>The Cavs&#8217; decision to defer Rubio&#8217;s contract will stretch the $1.3 million he is owed until 2027. Rubio&#8217;s $1.3 million in dead money will now become three years of dead money but at $425,000 increments. The move will help the Cleveland front office save each year. With all the Cavs contracts in effect, the team sits about $1.2 million above the luxury tax heading into the 2024-25 campaign. However, without the inclusion of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okorois01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaac Okoro<\/a>&#8216;s qualifying offer, the team is about $10.6 million under the luxury tax.<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is the first team to try out this style of payment. It seems designed to help teams in the short-term manage their salary. Koby Altman and his staff believe the &#8216;delayed stretch&#8217; will provide them some monetary relief.<\/p>\n<p>The Cavs will now enter the season with 13 rostered players. Recently, the team officially announced their two-way contract signings. As well, Cleveland announced the re-signing of former NBA Champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomptr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tristan Thompson<\/a>. The Cavs roster has just two open standard contract spots heading into the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers have made history as they are the first team to utilize the &#8216;delayed stretch&#8217; plan to pay former player Ricky Rubio. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has allowed teams to now stretch the salary they are paying to a waived player. The Cavs and Rubio mutually agreed on a contract termination at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5174,"featured_media":94957,"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":[1608,9,62],"tags":[1070,2842,314,1040],"class_list":["post-94923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-nba","tag-caris-levert","tag-isaac-okoro","tag-ricky-rubio","tag-tristan-thompson"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94923","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\/5174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}