Cavs Trade Rumor: Why trading for Payton Watson is easier said than done

The long summer of the Cleveland Cavaliers being rumored to be interested in a free-agent small forward, just for nothing to actually happen, continues. First, it was the endless speculation about LeBron James returning. Then, there were rumors about a Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade. Now, we’ve moved on to speculating whether 23-year-old, 6’8″ wing Peyton Watson could be coming to Cleveland.

The Cavs remain one of the handful of teams continually linked to Watson. Marc Stein’s latest report reaffirms this. Stein notes that the Cavs are a “team to watch” with Watson and that the Cavs have been looking to send out Dennis Schroder and Max Strus to make a deal like that work.

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Watson is a restricted free agent. The Cavs don’t have cap space to make a significant offer in free agency. However, since they are currently below the first apron, they can execute a sign-and-trade.

A sign-and-trade essentially allows them to sign Watson to a deal, and then trade away players and their salary to the team Watson is a restricted free agent with (the Denver Nuggets) or to an additional team(s) to make the financials work. There’s a lot of cap minutia you can dive into if you want, but the basic thing to know is that the Cavs would have to trade other players away to make a deal for Watson or Kuminga work.

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Schroder and Strus are the two candidates to move in any sign-and-trade.

Strus has been an incredibly useful player for the Cavs over the last three seasons, but he and Sam Merrill essentially occupy the same on-court role and position. Considering Merrill is making $7.5 million less next season in a salary cap sport, it makes sense to move Strus. This upcoming season is the last year Strus is under contract.

Schroder is making $14.8 million this upcoming season and $15.5 the following. However, his contract is only guaranteed for $4.35 million for the 2027-28 season, so he could easily be waived after this season…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/cavs-trade-rumor-why-trading-133000540.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-12 13:30:00

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