Cleveland Cavaliers: ” JR Smith Will no Longer be With the Team”

The love between the Cleveland Cavaliers and JR Smith is about to end. According to various sources, the franchise from Ohio and the veteran guard are negotiating terms for his trade. Previously he requested a trade after the game against Detroit this Monday.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are experiencing a tremendous amount of difficulties since LeBron James left the town. The champions of the Easter Conference are hammered to the last place of the same with just two wins, and what is worse, without a solution how to fix that. Or maybe, that is the exact thing they wanted to.

JR Smith, one of the veterans in this roster, openly accused the management of his current team of tanking the season. The prolific shooter spoke on this matter this Monday.

“I don’t think the goal is to win. The goal isn’t to go out there and try to get as many wins as you can,” Smith told The Athletic. “I think the goal is to develop and lose to get lottery picks. I think that was always the plan.”

Now, these words have made the officials among the Cavaliers pretty unhappy, and the reaction came almost instantly. Smith was removed from the team, and talks about his future started already today. It appears that he doesn’t have one at Cleveland anymore. That is what comes up first when looking at the statement issued by the organization this Tuesday,

“JR Smith will no longer be with team as the organization works with JR and his representation regarding his future. The organization wishes JR and his family well and appreciates and thanks him for his contributions in the community, to the team and his role in the 2016 NBA Championship,”

This looks like a one-way ticket out of Cleveland. Even before the season started, some rumors about JR’s exit emerged to the surface, and in fact, GM Koby Altman and the player talked about that, but the guard decided to stick with the Cavs.

It appears that his decision was wrong. Cleveland would like to trade Smith, because of his contract, which could be very useful in some combinations. The player will get $14.7 million, and in the next season, $15.6, but only $3.8 are guaranteed. Despite this clause, his full salary in that season is to be calculated in any trade deal. But, the rules are allowing something which might be good for Cavs and a possible trade. Only the guaranteed part of the contract is counted for matching purpose. Because of that, the franchise doesn’t want to make a buyout.

Smith also doesn’t want to be bought out. He stated that a scenario like that one would hurt his “legacy” in this franchise.

“I don’t want my legacy to be remembered like that in Cleveland,” Smith said. “I don’t think that’s fair to the people I see every single day walking around the arena. I don’t think that’s fair to the trainers or equipment guys. … I just look at it differently than being traded. I don’t like the statement of getting bought out.”

The 18th pick in the 2004 Draft, landed among the Cavs in 2015, after a three-team trade in which he and Iman Shumpert came from the New York Knicks. He immediately became a starter and his contribution to the championship title won back in 2016 was huge, starting in all 77 games he played during the regular part of the season, averaging 12.4 points with 40% shooting from downtown. That percentage increased during the postseason, to 43%, and some of his shoots made it possible for the Cavs to win in Game 7 of the big finals.

However, since then his numbers constantly deteriorated, and his performances on the court were beneath the level of play from 2016. That was obvious in Game 1 of the last year’s finals, when he single-handedly lost the contest.

Since the start of this season, Smith averages only 6.7 points and 30.8% for three.