Did the Cleveland Cavaliers strike a good deal with Isaac Okoro?
On today’s episode of Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham (@RealDCunningham) of 92.3 The Fan and Cleveland Magazine breaks down Isaac Okoro’s new contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers and how it impacts the team this season on the court and against the salary cap.
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. On today's show, the Cavs and Isaac Okoro have agreed on a new contract. Koro got a three-year deal worth $38 million, I think that's a really good value for the Cavs. I'm going to talk about it right here on today's Lockdown Cavs. What's up, everybody? I'm Danny Cunningham. You might know me from my time covering the Cleveland Cavaliers, places like 92-3. The Fan, Cleveland Magazine, and a number of other stops along the way have a great show lined up for you today, talking about Isaac Okoro, his contract extension, how the Cavs can use him moving forward. What this means for the Cavs' cap sheet this year and down the line, but I do want to say thank you for making Lockdown Cavs your first listen every day big announcement as we are going back to five days a week starting now. This is Monday's episode, there will be episodes all week long, you're not going to want to miss it. 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So Isaac Okoro's new contract with the Cavs, after waiting around in restricted free agency for months and months, it feels like this happens to the Cavs. More than any other franchise, I know that it did happen with Larry Markin in a couple of years back with the Chicago Bulls, but what happened with that, he ended up in Cleveland. So we have seen a number of these things play out with the Cavs, Isaac Okoro, Colin Sexton before him, Tristan Thompson back in the day. So this is something that the Cavs have been well-versed in, but it's a three-year deal for Okoro, $38 million. I think this is a good value for the Cavs. I think Isaac Okoro signed a deal that's probably worth a little bit less than he had hoped he was going to get it at the start of free agency. And I think that the Cavs are beneficiaries here of a market that dried up. And I do believe that if Isaac Okoro was a free agent in a different year, where there are more teams with cap space, where there are more teams that have an appetite to spend, I think he's a player that probably could have gotten three years, I don't know, 45, three years, 50 million dollars. So locking him in at three years and $38 million, I think is really good for the Cavs. I think it's really, really good for the Cavs. So one of the things that I see when I see these contracts come across, and I believe ESPN's Brian Winhurst is the one that says this, and it really clicked in my brain, ok, that makes a ton of sense. But when someone signs a deal, I instantly ask myself, if the player, if the team that just signed this player, so in this case, obviously it's the Cavs, could they trade that player today on that contract? I think Isaac Okoro is very tradable on the contract that he's on. I think that this is a deal that is going to look good, especially as the salary cap continues to rise, I think Isaac Okoro is on a great, this is really the common theme of the offseason for the Cavs. I know they haven't made a ton of moves, but I think everything they've done has been very team friendly, not of a Mitchell signing an extension, team friendly, even Mobley signing an extension, and having provisions that are not just making all NBA team that boost it all the way up to the next max, he has to be first or second team, I think that's a team friendly thing. I believe Jared Allen's contract extension, extremely team friendly. I think this is a very team friendly deal. I think the Cavs have won a lot of negotiations this summer, and I think Isaac Okoro is on that list of negotiations that the team has won. I think if this is a different financial climate, Isaac Okoro would probably be on another team and would probably be making upwards of $15 million a year. Instead, Isaac Okoro is back in Cleveland on a 3 year deal where he's making on average just slightly over $12.5 million a year, just under $13 million a year. That's a really good place to be for a player of Isaac Okoro's caliber. Now, Okoro obviously far from a flawless player, and we will talk about him as a basketball player coming up in segment number 2 today, but Isaac Okoro on this deal, I think is a big win for the Cavs, and one of the other things that I look at here is I think about this is look at what the mid level exception is right now, look at what it's going to be over the next couple of years, and these estimates are thanks to Spoke Track, but Isaac Okoro's deal projected to make $11.7 million this year, $12.6 million in 2025, 2026, and $13.6 million in 2026, 2027. Those three years are all below the non-tax payer mid level exception. Now the Cavs won't have access to that moving forward, they will be a tax team, we'll talk about that coming up in segment number 3 going to talk about the cap implications because there are cap implications of this deal, don't get me wrong, but with the mid level exception this year, just under $13 million it's $12.8 million, next year it's $13.5 year after that it's $14.1, so Isaac Okoro is going to be on a contract that is less than the mid level exception for the next three years. There will be players that are not as good as Isaac Okoro that sign contracts with team and won't be with the Cavs, but that sign contracts with teams for more than Isaac Okoro has agreed upon with the Cavs. That is something that is absolutely worth bringing up, it is something that is worth noting, and Okoro now is going to be the sixth highest paid player on Cleveland's roster. We've got Donovin Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jared Allen, Max Struss, Keraslivert, so he's sixth behind those five. Now next year he'll be sixth still as far as guys on the books right now because Keraslivert comes off the books as of right now and Evan Mobley will leapfrog him when his extension goes into place, but that extension that Mobley signed doesn't kick in until next season, he's still making right around $11 million this year on the final year of his initial rookie deal. So Isaac Okoro being somebody that making this amount of money as the sixth highest paid player is a little bit of a below average slot. If you look across the NBA, the sixth highest paid player on most teams is making a little bit more than Isaac Okoro is. That's not necessarily a good thing, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do think it is a little bit of an interesting quirk as you look across the league and say okay, because we all like to compare, oh well this player is making this much and this player is making this much money, Isaac Okoro is making this much money. It's sort of a fun game to play with some other teams, but Isaac Okoro just by comparison takes to a lot of other sixth salary slots, he's not blowing anybody out of the water. Like I said, I do believe this to be a good contract for the Cavs, I don't think it's some great contract, it's not some super team friendly thing, but I think it's a good contract for Cleveland. I think that if the Cavs do need to at some point make a trade that includes Isaac Okoro, he's a good enough player that on this deal I don't think that will ever be an issue. I think he's always going to be a tradable player on this contract. I think that's something that I feel pretty confident in saying he's not going to underperform this money. I think there's a much better chance that Isaac Okoro overperforms his contract and ultimately, we look back at this when he hits free agency again three years from now and say wow the Cavs really got great value there. The other thing that is worth noting here, as we talk about the ins and outs of this deal, Okoro is eligible to be traded January 15th. There are a lot of free agents that become eligible to be traded December 15th, Okoro is January 15th, so just keep that in mind, this isn't a type of deal where he's not eligible to be traded this season, and I only bring this up not because the Cavs have desires of trading him, not because it's something that could happen this year, I mean you can never say never obviously, but we talked about this so much with Jared Allen and how the timing of his contract extension determined when he could or could not be traded, Isaac Okoro can be traded January 15th, it's not as complicated in terms of timing as some of the contract extensions that we do see. So again, to recap, three years, $38 million for Isaac Okoro, I think it's a very good contract for him, I think it's a very good contract for the Cavs, I think if one day they do need to move on from him, I don't think this is a deal that's going to prohibit them from doing so, I don't think it's going, this is a deal that's going to make it difficult for the Cavs to trade Isaac Okoro if they do need to trade him at some point. I think both sides win, and now the other thing too, the Cavs are at 14 NBA standard contracts, we talked a lot this summer about they are going to need to make moves because they were at 12 and then Tristan Thompson came aboard, then they were at 13, they still need to one more now, Isaac Okoro is there, so the Cavs now do have a full roster, there obviously will be guys that are invited to training camp, they can add a 15th NBA standard contract, but 14 is the minimum number of contracts that you need on a roster, the Cavs are there now, I would be surprised just because of tax purposes and we will talk about this later in the show because I do believe it to be very important, but I would be surprised if the Cavs go into the season with 15 guys on NBA standards contracts, that doesn't count two ways, so this conversation does not involve Amani Bates, does not involve loop travers, does not involve J.T. Thor, just the standard contracts, but that is something worth noting that gets the Cavs to that marker that they needed to get to, I want to talk about Isaac Okoro the basketball player because he does have room to grow, he's a great defender, what's his offensive role going to look like, how is Kenny Atkinson going to handle him, those are all questions I have coming up next on today's lockdown Cavs. Today's show brought to you by Fandall, you've heard me talk a lot about Fandall and it's with good reason because Fandall is, after all, America's number one sports book and when I've been talking about Fandall, I've been telling you about some of the great parlays that they've got built for you, how it's the place to go, if you want to bet on Monday night football tonight, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Atlanta favored by five and a half at home, maybe you love that maybe because Cleveland beat Jacksonville yesterday, you're a winner, you've got some coin in that Fandall County years, you want to put it on Monday night football and maybe you are not all that confident in Philly to cover the five and a half even though they are at home even though Atlanta did not look great week one against Pittsburgh, maybe that's the direction you want to go, that's what I've been telling you about Fandall because that's part of the awesome stuff that Fandall's got going on, but now I've got something different for you because now through September 22nd, all Fandall customers, all of them, do not have to be a new customer here, can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV, then with a YouTube TV base plan, you can watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game, all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime. 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Thank you again for making lockdown calves your first listen every day as a reminder lock on calves back to five days a week, we took a little bit of a, not a summer break, but we toned it back a little bit during the slower months of the summer, but now training camp is, media day is two weeks from today, as you're watching or listening to this on Monday, media day is two weeks from today, training camp begins two weeks from tomorrow at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, I will be there at training camp, cannot wait to be around basketball, cannot wait to be talking Cavaliers with you every day. So thank you for making locked on calves, your first listen every day, but you do have to get ready for more than just the calves, you have to get ready for all of the NBA. So for your second listen today, go on and enjoy the locked on NBA podcast because there's no off season in the NBA and we're ramping up to the real season. So locked on NBA provides daily basketball analysis from national and local experts in 30 minutes or less. No one keeps you as informed and as entertained as locked on NBA available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, of course, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. So with the calves signing Isaac Kekoro to this three or $38 million deal, the question then becomes, well, what is Isaac Kekoro going to look like when the basketball start bouncing and when he's on the floor for the calves in games again? The Isaac Kekoro experience in his career has not, he has not lived up to being the number five overall draft pick. That doesn't mean he's not been a good basketball player because he has been a good basketball player. I believe Isaac Kekoro is a very good defender. I believe Isaac Kekoro has room to grow offensively, but I'm very encouraged by what his three point shot looks like this past season. Now I need to see it on higher volume than we've seen it at. I need to see him taking more of those shots. I also would like to see him consistently get more minutes. And that is one of the things that I'm looking for with Isaac Kekoro under Connie Atkinson. So Atkinson traditionally does not like to play his, his core guys super heavy minutes. He likes to spread around minutes a little bit more than former calves head coach JB Bickerstaff did, where often you would see Donovan Mitchell playing a ton of minutes, Darius Garland, Evan Moby, Jared Allen, really the starters would play more than the bulk of the minutes for the calves the last couple of years. I think that's going to be a little bit different this year. I think we are going to see those minutes spread out to where Donovan Mitchell might not average 34 minutes a game. It might be 30 minutes a game. It might be 31 minutes a game. Isaac Kekoro averaged 27 minutes a game, which I actually think is a really good number for him. But I don't think you're going to see very many games like we saw last year, where Isaac Kekoro is playing less than 22 minutes a game. I think it's going to balance out a little bit more. Of course, all of this is subject to change with injuries and performance. But I think that is something that's worth bringing up. Because one of the things that stuck out to me last year was calves head coach JB Bickerstaff made a comment and I don't remember which game he made the comment after. But he essentially said that he thought Isaac Kekoro was the best perimeter defender in the NBA. It was after a game in which he shut somebody down. I cannot remember for the life of me which game it was. But he made that comment. Now, I don't agree with that comment. I think there are better perimeter defenders in basketball. But Isaac Kekoro is very good. But to say, you know, we believe this guy is the best, the best at what he does. And then that player didn't actually play enough to qualify to win like defensive player of the year or making all defense team. I'm not saying Isaac Kekoro would have won that he would not have or even made an all defense team. I think he may have gotten some votes. But he wasn't eligible because he didn't play enough minutes. That is something that I don't think is going to be the case. Like if the calves truly do believe that under Kenny Atkinson, I think he's going to play more. And one of the things that needs to come along with Isaac Kekoro playing more is I think he needs to have a little bit of a longer leash offensively. I think at times you've been able to look at Kekoro when he's on the floor and maybe when he makes a mistake or maybe when he misses a couple of shots in a row, you can see that confidence start to evaporate sometimes. And when that confidence starts to go, it's because he's looking over his shoulder. He's checking the scores table because, you know, JB Bickerstaff could be sending someone to go get him cut his stint short because his offense just might not be there all the way. It might not be the best offensive night that he has. I think eliminating those types of things and building Isaac Kekoro into a more confident offensive player is something that's going to help the calves out tremendously. I think that should be Kenny Atkinson's really main focus with Isaac Kekoro because you know what he brings defensively. I don't think that needs to change. I do think he is one of the better perimeter defenders in the NBA. I will definitely stop short of saying that he is the best perimeter defender in the NBA, but I think he's really good. Offensively, he's got room to grow. Like I said, I think that room to grow is being a more confident basketball player, getting out in transition a little bit more because I do think that he has had some some pretty good moments in transition for the calves over the last couple of years. I think it's boosting that three-point attempts number. I think it's taking more threes last year. You know, Akoro shot 39%, 39.1% on three-point attempts. That was on 3.1 a game. I'd like to see that be around five. I'm not saying he's got to take eight or nine threes a game and the calves do have to. Their shot distribution is going to be a really interesting thing to follow when the season begins. But if Isaac Kekoro is shooting at that clip, he should be shooting more. He should be more involved in the offense. He should be able to do more than just stand in the corner than just make cuts from the corner. I'm not saying he needs to be super heavily involved. But I do think there is room for him to have a greater role than the one he's had on that end of the floor over the last couple of seasons. I think that's true. And maybe the roster does look a little bit different at certain points this year. You know, the 14 guys the calves have right now are the 14 guys the calves have. Those might not be the 14 guys the calves have in February. Those might not be the 14 guys the calves have when the season begins in late October. Changes can happen. But what Isaac Kekoro's role looks like offensively, I think ultimately is going to tell us whether or not the calves got the proper value for this contract. Because if he develops in, you know, we talk about the development with Evan Mobley all the time and we talk about how young Mobley is and that he still has so much room to grow. Isaac Kekoro is only 23 years old still like he's not a finished product offensively. Defensively he might be and that's fine. If he's a finished product defensively, I think the calves aren't really good spot and would take that. But I don't think he's a finished product on offense. I think there's still more for him to get after. I think there's still more that he can achieve. And if Kenny Atkinson and his staff can get that out of him, we're going to look at this contract three years from now when it's expired and say, wow, the calves really got really got great value on that Isaac Kekoro deal. I think that is one of the things that we very easily could be saying. Now one of the things that we have to talk about is how this deal impacts the calves financially. Because now this roster might need to be shaken up if the calves want to achieve the goal of staying out of the tax. We're going to talk about that next right here on Lockdown Cab. Hi, I'm Jake from Lockdown. There's a lot to say when buying a new home or car, but really the first words you want to say are like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. 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Your first listen every day, hit that thumbs up button. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you drop us a five-star rating on podcast platforms as well. One of the things that Isaac Okoro's contract brings into play is the NBA salary cap tax. The calves now are operating as a tax team. With Isaac Okoro's deal, these numbers are estimations from Spoterack, which is I think a very trustworthy outlet as far as it comes to contractual stuff. The calves are a little over three million dollars into the salary, into the tax. I think it is a bad idea for the calves to be a tax team this year. I don't think they should be a tax team this year because they are going to be a tax team for years to come. They are going to become a very expensive team and if you're in the salary cap multiple years consecutively, I believe it's three years straight, you then become subject to a repeater tax. So it's not that the calves shouldn't be spending money this year. It's that the amount of money the calves spend this year can directly affect how expensive they are years down the line. Because if the calves are in the tax, even if it's a dollar over, they can be subject to that repeater tax years down the line and that is something that is concerning. So they shouldn't be a tax team this year because of that and I don't think that they're a championship team. I think that teams are smart to wait to enter the tax until they are a team that is truly competing for championships. I don't think the calves are there right now. I think they can get there, but right now I need to see it on the floor under Kenny Atkinson before I believe that they are there. That's achievable though. Then I bring up the repeater tax. That matters and you look ahead to the the cap picture next year. The calves are going to be in the tax next year. I have zero doubt about that, but I don't think it's worth it this year because they will be in it next year. So right now the calves have the league minimum of 14 players on the roster, three million dollars over the tax. How can they get out of this? Well, they can make trades. They can trade somebody and I brought this up a couple of weeks ago. They could trade carousel vert for Larry Nance Jr. that sheds some salary. That move, would I believe get them just under the tax line. Now it takes two to ten. I don't know that Elena wants to do that trade, but that's the type of move we're talking about. They will. If they want to stay out of the tax, at some point they will have to make a trade that saves them money. I think carousel vert is a candidate for that to happen. Now we will see if it does. I don't know if it will, but that is something that is worth watching. Now let's look ahead to next year because this deal for Isaac Okoro obviously is not a one-year thing. It's a three-year thing. So we know right now the calves are three million dollars over the tax in 2024-2025. For 2025-2026, next season, the calves currently have 10 players that are under contract. They are also currently six million dollars over the projected tax for next year with this move. So like I said, they will be a tax team next year. I don't see how there's a way out of it. I do not see how they will not be a tax team next year. I'd be very surprised. So putting off being able to start that tax clock until next year I think is a very important thing. I think it's going to need some maneuvering to make it happen, but I don't think it's an impossible thing to make happen. I think that those are the important things with Isaac Okoro and his contract. So to recap, Okoro, calves, three years, $38 million contract agreed upon. I think that there's room for him to grow offensively and I think it is very important for the calves to stay out of the tax this year. Thank you again for making lockdown calves your first listen every day. I will be back again tomorrow with another episode of lockdown calves. Working on a couple of things this week might have a thing or two that calves fans are really going to like what I'm not going to say what it is because I don't want it to fall through. But there's a chance. There's a chance we have a pretty cool guest or two that's on this week. So keep it locked here at lockdown calves again. Make sure you're subscribed. Apple Spotify anywhere you get your podcast. Also check us out on YouTube. Hit that thumbs up button. Hit the subscribe button and the notification bell so you get the freshest lockdown calves content every day. A Prime Member. You can listen to this lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
