Rodney Hood Wants to Earn Contract Extension with Cavaliers After 1-Year Deal

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Rodney Hood is betting on himself.

"I believe strongly in myself that after this year I'll be able to make Cleveland my home and we'll get a better deal next summer," Hood said Monday, per Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com.

Vardon explained the Duke product ultimately accepted Cleveland's one-year, $3.4 million qualifying offer earlier this month because he wasn't able to generate enough financial interest from his team or around the league to sign a long-term deal.

The plan is for him to play well enough in 2018-19 to receive a notable contract from the Cavaliers next offseason.

Hood's agent, Travis King, echoed those sentiments when he said, per Vardon: "Just because he signed the qualifying offer, he's not on the first train out of here. He plans to stay in Cleveland."

According to Vardon's report, the Cavaliers offered Hood a multiyear deal at approximately $7 million annually. However, he was looking for more in the $10 million to $12 million range. 

The version of Hood who played 39 games for the Utah Jazz last season before the Cavaliers acquired him via trade likely would have received that type of offer or better. He averaged 16.8 points a night for the Jazz, but that total dropped to 10.8 in 21 regular-season games for Cleveland before a disastrous playoffs.

Hood averaged just 5.4 points per game and shot an ugly 16.7 percent from three-point range in the postseason. He was largely a nonfactor, and Vardon noted he even refused to check into the contest during garbage time of a Game 4 victory over the Toronto Raptors in the second round.

Still, he showed flashes in Game 3 of Cleveland's NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors when he scored 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting after head coach Tyronn Lue changed things up by inserting him into the rotation.

More play like that will help him earn the long-term deal in Cleveland he covets. He is just 25 years old and has proved himself a capable scorer who can extend his game behind the arc. Hood will also be a more featured piece after LeBron James joined the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now he just has to take advantage of the one-year opportunity.