Cavaliers Dole out Four-Year Deal to Jarrett Jack
2013-07-06
The Cavaliers made a splash in FA today, agreeing to a four-year deal for veteran point guard Jarrett Jack. Â The deal is being reported for $25 million with a team option for the 4th year. Â This move solidifies the backup point guard spot that the Cavaliers were badly lacking. Â It also adds a veteran presence to a very young team. Â Jack has been around the league. Â The Cavaliers will be his 6th team in 8 years. Jack had a memorable post-season performance but he played well all season as a capable backup to Stephen Curry.
Jack can shoot. Â Much like Mo Williams, he can score from just about anywhere and is one of the few players that shoots well enough from mid-range to justify firing a lot of mid-range shots.
Jack is currently in his prime, and at 29 years old, he should keep up his current production for at least 2 more years. Â That the 4th year is a team option is good for the Cavaliers. Â Jack is pretty durable, and his presence should mitigate any disastrous losing streaks should the Cavaliers star players find themselves on the injured list.
The Cavaliers say farewell to Shaun Livingston, who was signed today by the Brooklyn Nets. Â Livingston played very well during his time with the Cavaliers and was a big part of the Cavaliers “fun February”.
I think we did overpay him a little, but not 50%, more like 20%. He was going to get 5 million per somewhere with that playoff performance and him being lethal from outside in a league where spacing is more and more important. Last year he was easily in the top 5 in the league from the midrange when accounting for volume and accuracy, and hit 40% from 3, which made up half his shots. Add in the 5.6 assists/2TO’s in 30 minutes, and he would be paid a lot more than 6 million if his defense was good. I… Read more »
I don’t think we overpaid for him by anywhere close to 50%. The guy could very easily have been 6th man of the year and creates an awesome 3 guard rotation. He will play 25 minutes easily and add a great veteran presence as well. As far as the defense thing, I don’t see this as a big worry. He played on a team that didn’t have a defensive philosophy, but is now excited to work with mike brown. He has a 6-8 wingspan. That is a monstrous guard length. Even if brown can’t get him to play good team… Read more »
d: I thought you had an interesting point about Devin Harris. The problem is that the Cavs probably do have to pay extra to lure free agents. I like Jack. I advocated for him in a free agency related article last December. My worry on him is that like Clark, Cleveland had to pay at least 50% more than he’s worth. His “meh” defense also scares me a lot, especially because the Cavs still don’t have a rim protector (perhaps TT will block more shots this year). But Cleveland desperately needed a third guard. Now they need a fourth guard… Read more »
Right now as far as I’m concerned we should be trying really hard to sign peckovic with Oden as a back up plan. That makes us a solid playoff contender with plenty of trade chips if somehow an all star player (preferably 2) become available. In the meantime, we get most of the time first time playoff experience this year and 1 year for Mike Brown to drive home the point and get that defensive foundation built. Jack gives them 1 more player in addition to Andy that has playoff experience. One year from now we should look much more… Read more »
The thing that crossed my mind, for whatever it’s worth, is that each of these deals with a team-option for the last year….allows for two years to trade a player as an expiring deal.
Signing Jack is a big deal because it says we aren’t going to tank any more. No mysterious Kyrie being out is possible since Jack is a competent back up. We should make the playoffs. That being said, I think we are too concerned with whether or not Bennet is a three or four. Mike Brown is going to get a system set up to make our defense legitimate. Remember when Sasha Pavolovic looked like an okay defender? I’d like to see us start a bigger team and play Thompson, Bennet, Varejao, Waiters, and Irving. Let Gee come off the… Read more »
Remember, we had about 5 players on our roster that probably won’t be in the NBA anymore this year or the next that played substantial minutes during the season. Now we have counting like at least 10 real life NBA players on our roster now that alone is going to make a difference.
You go like this Kyrie and Dion start, Jack comes in for Kyrie, plays with Dion, Dion Comes out, Jack plays with Karasev/Miles for like 3-4 minutes, Kyrie comes back in and Jack slides over to the 2 and plays with Kyrie. Then rinse recycle all season. That is a great 3 guard tandem. Then you do the same with Earl Clarke, Bennett and Thompson and we have a pretty good PF/SF rotation. Then you just hope against hope we don’t have Zeller playing 30 minutes a game for longer than 2 weeks during the season and you have yourself… Read more »
I like the pick.
Kyrie ?
Dion Jack
Karasav Clark
TT Bennett
Andy Zeller
Need a back up pg
Adam: here is an explanation of Omer Asik’s contract with Houston (and Cleveland if we trade for him): http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/31239/how-the-rockets-used-the-new-cba-to-steal-omer-asik
I like this move. As far as not needing to limit Kyrie’s minutes, I kind of disagree. His durability has been somewhat suspect, and I see him doing a lot better with a serviceable backup to share some minutes. Maybe “limit” is too strong a word, but I definitely like the idea of having a real rotation with the guards.
i love jack was golgen states second best player in playoffs way more consistent than barnes thompson
Be patient. More to come . . .
I don’t think it’s correct to view Jack as just a backup PG. He’s a combo guard and he’ll play alongside Kyrie at times. I agree that this would be too much to pay if he were playing 15 mins a game, but I see him getting 25-30/night. So far, I’m happy with the offseason. Jack seems to be a solid pickup, and if nothing else he’ll push Kyrie and Dion for crunch-time minutes, which is always a good thing. His defense will be nothing to write home about, but $6M/year doesn’t buy you a complete player in all areas.… Read more »
hot sauce…that is exactly how i see it…assets, assets, assets…….I mean TT was getting better all the time, and Bennet has a good chance to be monster with some touch..if the russian sharp shooter fills role of marksman and smart player, this team is in great position to get a 3rd star from in house or free agency next year… i don’t know how the defense will be at times, but i have hope someone will emerge that currently isn’t as good on defense…maybe that is the free agent next year……who ever is the best lock down defender next year… Read more »
This team should be good next year and with a little tweeking i think we contend in 2014-2015…..even without the return of lebron, i think we get a marquee player at what ever position is most glaring after one moe year of messing together. At that point i honestly think they contend for the title…i know most will say i am crazy but i am not really…..
@jack – I agree we need a third All-Star. The challenge is what do we do if we can’t get one. If rumors are to believed, Grant has tried to pry away Aldridge and Love. Until he finds the right trade, the best he can do is make marginal improvements to the roster, while maintaining cap flexibility. For example, that is what Morey did before he struck gold with Harden. Before that trade, everyone was lambasting his roster as a random collection of assets with no plan. Then he got Harden. Then he got Howard. By signing Jack and Clark… Read more »
Pete, good to know, where can I see this thats really exciting
Pretty happy that I won’t have to watch Donald Sloan/Jeremy Pargo team tryouts next year.
@Adam: Asik only has a cap value of $8mil even though his contract is for $15mil that season (the cap hit averages over the life of the contract), so other than Dan Gilbert’s wallet being lighter that year it doesn’t affect it.
Vesus, seems to me the plan at SF is for Earl to win that spot with backing him up and/or Bennett getting some minutes there when matchups allow. Seems like they’re putting everything in the Lebron 2014 basket to me. Stupid if you ask me. How long are we gonna keep acquiring assets before we finally do something big with them. You’d think with all those future #1 picks we’ve acquired we could get one more all star here at least with at least 2 years left on a contract.
When I see Grant signing all these decent but non star players the only thing I can think is that maybe he’s just acquiring players for a trade. I mean yeah it’s great to have a good bench but I totally believe you need 3 all stars to contend for a championship. If Andy could stay healthy for an entire season then he’s our second all star. So we need a trade for an all star at one of the other 3 spots to be serious at all. Otherwise, the obvious goal is to try to make the playoffs and… Read more »
Jack solidifies the guard rotation, he can play alongside dion and Kyrie or spell either of them. The only real question marks left are adding a competent C to the big man rotation and figuring out SF.
I think it’s a lot to pay for a backup point guard. Kyrie is 21, we don’t have to worry about limiting his minutes like he’s Duncan. Jack made some big shots in that Spurs series but I remember him absolutely killing them with some defense lapses at the end of games and he’s prone to taking a long jumper at the worst possible time. If they really needed someone to spell Kyrie that can play the two they could’ve just drafted Oladipo and either brought him or Waiters off the bench. This signing just feels like treading water. Hey,… Read more »
I was hoping we could go after pecovic but don’t think we have enough now. Thinking it’d take 10-11 mil per year but maybe there’s a trade for a center.
Bilbo, if we were to sign say Oden. Lets say 2 year 8mill with team option year 2. He would be used to chew minutes up for Andy. If we could keep the miles low on both of them, perhaps they can make it through the season healthy and into the playoffs. Zeller would be the third part in this depending on the size of the opponents 5. My 2 cents. This scenario is not a need, but more of a want. I’d like to see an insurance policy for Andy.
Jack’s deal is more comparable to the Calderon deal except Cavs get 4th year option. Devin Harris hasn’t been worth much the last few years. Would much rather have Jack vs. Harris. Better offensive skills, better ball handling, better PER and younger. D, if your takeaway from this is that CG is awful, you should get your head examined.
Three years ago in the spring we had no players with names I can remember except a hurt wild thing. Now Mike Brown has a replacement at every position if someone refuses to play d. This should make everyone play hard to get minutes.
Just a question to those saying that we need a rim protector, is the intention then to move Varejao to the 4 and Thompson to the bench? Or Varejao, who looked like an all star before going down last year to the bench? It seems pretty obvious you’d send Thompson to the bench, but how long does he stay there? Do you look to keep Varejao at the end of the year and box Thompson out of the starting lineup indefinitely? Ps. Love the Jack signing. Needed somebody to competently eat some of Kyrie’s minutes to keep him fresh and… Read more »
Is Jack worth double what Devin Harris is reportedly getting to go to Dallas? For an undersized backup point guard that can’t play D? I remember him driving me crazy in crunch time of those Spurs games.
I think I figured out Chris Grant’s deal is: he’s awful.
If anything this signing solidifies the fact that Dion is not viewed as a 6th man on this team. This was a great pick-up and we now have the best PG rotation in the league. Our team is going to be super fun to watch next year. I am expecting the Cavs to improve very much like Golden State did last year. If any can stay healthy we can definitley grab a playoff spot. One of the Cavs huge downfall was that we would be real stagnant once Kyrie and Dion weren’t on the floor. Now there isn’t a huge… Read more »
Looking at Asik i dont think it will happen without a renegotiation because he is owed 14.9 Mill during the summer of LeBron so that’s not happening
And to second Josh, Jack isnt starting over Dion
Josh, I’m no expert, but I love the discussion. You are probably right there. and Jack was third in voting for 6th-man award if I recall correctly.
Jack isn’t starting over Dion, John.
Chris Grant is killin it! If Varejao can stay healthy, this will be a legit team… if. Very solid now at PG, SG, and PF.
Great signing. Cavs have a very strong 3-guard rotation. Love it.
Its interesting to watch them assemble the team. All 3 of their guards can play 1 and 2. Karasev and Miles can play 2 and 3. EC and Bennett can play 3 and 4. TT and AV can play both 4 and 5. Lots of athleticism and lineup flexibility. Seems we may have a philosophy emerging. Let’s hope it works.
We may need an addendum to yesterday’s post: “2013 Free Agency Paralysis: It’s All About Next Summer.”
Unrelated: Josh Smith the next Charlie Villanueva?
Oh good, I can post this here now: I like the Jack deal. If Dion is indeed a 6th, Kyrie and Jack make a nice 1/2. Kyrie/Dion, Kyrie/Jack or even Dion/Jack is formidable, especially if Brown chooses to go to a small fast lineup and 3 guards. So, that means PG: Kyrie/Jack SG: Jack/Dion SF: Clark/Gee PF: Thompson/Bennett C: Varajao/Zeller Ideally we just need a center in cover us if/when Andy gets hurt, and Omer Asik (via trade), or Bynum, or even Oden would fit the bill, although I think Asik is by far the healthier of the three, and… Read more »