Final Steps for Cavs After Mike Miller Trade, Matthew Dellavadova Re-Signing

After shipping out Brendan Haywood and his non-guaranteed contract Sunday night, per Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cleveland Cavaliers didn't waste time addressing their other remaining roster issues. On Monday, the Cavs re-signed Matthew Dellavedova to a one-year, $1.2 million deal, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin.

It's now time to move along the rest of their offseason plans.

Haywood and Mike Miller are now technically the property of the Portland Trail Blazers, traded with a pair of second-round draft picks for two trade exceptions, according to Wojnarowski. The Haywood exception is worth $10.5 million, while Miller's is valued at $2.85 million.

Trade exceptions don't impact luxury-tax payments. With the Cavs already well into tax territory, this was a purely financial move.

Former NBA executive Bobby Marks laid out the savings provided:

Still, the trade exceptions could prove valuable if the Cavs decide they need more help over the next year. And the best part is that they can break up the Haywood trade exception however they want, according to NBA.com's Conrad Kaczmarek:

Before considering what, if anything, the Cavaliers might do with their newfound flexibility, there are a couple of other items they should address first.

Inking the Irritant

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Matthew Dellavedova, who started five games in the NBA Finals after Kyrie Irving fractured his left kneecap, just agreed on a one-year deal to return to Cleveland. With Mo Williams now occupying the backup point guard spot, Dellavedova's leverage was diminished.

So after discussing an annual salary ranging from $3 million to $5 million in early July, per RealGM's Shams Charania, the Cavaliers had little incentive to go that high. Since Dellavedova was a restricted free agent, the Cavs held all the cards here.

The Aussie point guard certainly has value. He's an irritant on defense, and he can pester opposing guards in ways Williams can't. But he's effectively an afterthought now. As a chemistry (and jersey sales) play, Cleveland was wise to bring Dellavedova back on a cheap, short-term deal.

Bringing the Big Man Back

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Tristan Thompson has been floating around in free-agency limbo far longer than anyone expected. Though he hasn't signed Cleveland's reported five-year, $80 million offer (via ESPN.com's Marc Stein), Thompson's return to the fold has always felt inevitable.

Part of the reason is his status as a restricted free agent.

Cleveland has already extended a qualifying offer, which allows it to match any offer sheets Thompson signs with another team. No such offer sheets materialized, and at this late stage in free agency, no team outside of the Blazers or Philadelphia 76ers has the money to pay Thompson handsomely.

It's difficult to know how much higher the Cavs are willing to go on a deal with Thompson now, especially because much of the big man's leverage disappeared when LeBron James (with whom Thompson shares representation) signed his own contract July 10.

Initially, James' agent made it clear that there would be no contract talks with the four-time MVP until Thompson was squared away, according to ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst. It was a nice piece of leverage, even if nobody believed for a second that James would go elsewhere if the Thompson negotiations fell through.  

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Thompson, meanwhile, remains a piece of unfinished business.

Cleveland needs Thompson's rebounding and interior presence. He excelled all season (and particularly in relief of an injured Kevin Love during the playoffs) as a hustle player on the boards. Nobody on the Cavaliers' current roster can replace what Thompson provides...unless Anderson Varejao's recovery from a torn Achilles somehow produces the 2007 version of the Brazilian center.

The Cavs will eventually get Thompson's signature on a new deal. When they do, their biggest remaining offseason task will be complete.

Resident Gunner

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Speaking of surveying the offseason landscape, J.R. Smith erred in a big way by opting out of the final year of his contract with the Cavs. Whatever cash he thought was out there for him disappeared.

Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group transcribed Smith's response when the free-agent guard was asked whether he regretted his decision to opt out: "Uh, I mean, yes and no. No because I've gotten offers that I wanted, I mean numbers that I wanted, it's just different situations. Right now it's just a matter of seeing what the Cavs come back to me with. Right now they give me the best opportunity to win."

Chances are, Cleveland will find a way to stomach the tax blow Smith's return will deliver. Inconsistency will always be an issue, but Smith performed well for the Cavs last season, hitting 39 percent of his long-range shots and providing exactly the kind of instant offense the team needed.

One way to view the Haywood-Miller trade is as a salary offload that opens space in Cleveland's budget—if we assume a team with a payroll well over $100 million has such a thing. Smith could fill that space.

And now that it's clear nobody else is willing to pay what Smith thought he was worth, the Cavs might even get a discount.

Now, About Those Exceptions...

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Don't assume the Cavaliers are primed to trade for a huge name right away. Financial implications of adding more salary (that will count against the tax) aside, Vardon explains the logistics: "The trade exception is merely the slot to fit the salary. The Cavs will still have to come up with something another team actually wants, and that’s where things get tricky. They simply don’t have many trade assets left."

Cleveland can't trade a first-round pick until 2018, and it doesn't have any of its own selections in the 2016 draft. Building a win-now outfit means trading away future assets, and Cleveland's cupboard is bare.

Remember, when the Cavs used a trade exception to land Timofey Mozgov last season, they also included two first-round picks in the deal with the Denver Nuggets. Exceptions need sweeteners.

Yes, the Cavaliers could theoretically pair exception money with a pick from the distant future to bring on more salary in a trade, and it's possible they could spend their space on a waived player. But it looks like the more realistic course of action is taking the modest tax relief provided by the exceptions and then spending to retain their own free agents.

If the Cavs do wind up using their exceptions, they're likely to do it later in the season when teams are more eager to make moves at the deadline. Maybe that's when the Cavs seek out help on the wing if Smith doesn't re-sign or Richard Jefferson fails to fill the void. Maybe that's when another team might be willing to offload a $10 million malcontent for next to nothing.

Right now, those options aren't out there.

They may be eventually, though. And if they are, the Cavs have the means to take advantage.