The San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly conspiring on a trade involving Brendan Haywood's non-guaranteed deal, reports Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News.
Haywood is owed $10.5 million next season, but his contract remains non-guaranteed until the end of July. That means a play for Haywood is essentially a play for cap space, as the 35-year-old is more of an accounting fixture than an NBA-caliber player.
Haywood's peculiar contract is explained in further detail here.
The details aren't yet clear, but the Spurs are likely trying to shed some salary to make way for two maximum-contract players. Kawhi Leonard is a restricted free agent, while the Spurs are also in the chase for LaMarcus Aldridge.
The two most obvious candidates to be moved are Tiago Splitter and Boris Diaw, who respectively make $8.5 million and $7 million per year. Shedding their deals could let the Spurs open up enough cap room to sign Leonard and Aldridge to their respective maximum salaries, with enough left over for Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and potentially Danny Green.
However, the Spurs have been reluctant to part with Splitter, who remains an effective defender and solid post finisher. Diaw, meanwhile, is the Spurs' most versatile frontcourt player and their first big off the bench.
But much must be risked in the pursuit of greatness, even if it means saying goodbye to a valued contributor. The Spurs have to build with both the present and the future in mind, and Aldridge could bridge the talent gap once Duncan and Ginobili retire.
For the Cavaliers, taking on Diaw or Splitter makes little sense given their depth in the frontcourt. With Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love, and LeBron James likely to re-sign, plus Anderson Varejao entrenched with a long-term deal, there's little need for Diaw and Splitter. Therefore, a third party is likely in play.
Either way, it looks like Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich's words are starting to come true: his team will look different next season.
The team will probably look considerably different than it looks this year because we have so many free agents and we want to retool a little bit. We want to try to start - not exactly over again - but these last four seasons have been a grind.
And we put the team together with that in mind, that this year we'd have all the free agents so we can decide what we want to do moving forward as far as the makeup of the team.
