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2022 Free Agents - Ed Davis

Summary
After providing some years as a solid rotational big in Portland and Brooklyn, Davis has fallen off in the past few seasons due to a combination of injuries and age-related regression. Davis's best skill has always been his rebounding, particularly his offensive rebounding. In his limited minutes in recent years, his rebounding numbers have been above-average, but not at the elite levels they were at in the '17-'18 and 18-'19 seasons.

Davis hasn't developed enough of an offensive game to be a scoring threat, and at age 32 his threat as a lob finisher has only declined. His thin frame also makes it more difficult to play him at center, which is the only position he can really play due to his offensive limitations noted earlier.

Davis's time in the NBA may be over soon, but he could get some minimum offers in 2022 from teams looking for a veteran big for cheap, similar to what he found with Cleveland late in free agency in 2021.

 
Cap Considerations
Davis will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.8 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Cavs could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.4 million. This should be enough to retain Davis, since he settled for the minimum of $2.6 million to come to Cleveland. Alternatively, the Cavs could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign Davis if he demands more than $3.4 million.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Davis as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that Davis only gets minimum offers, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.

Potential Teams: Cavaliers, Hornets, Trailblazers, Magic, Kings

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.9 million (non-guaranteed) with the Cavaliers

Last updated: 4/18/2022

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