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Once again, it appears as though Fear The Sword is full of incredibly intelligent writers. In July, our own David Zavac wrote this piece about how the Cavaliers should extend a big offer to restricted free agent Nic Batum. According to Joe Freeman of the Oregonian, the Chris Grant clearly took David's advice.
By the time the day [July 1] ended, Batum says, 16 teams had called his agent, Bouna Ndiaye, to express interest. Minnesota, New Orleans, Toronto and Cleveland were most aggressive. And despite what you might think, Minnesota did not offer the most money. A source with knowledge of Batum's free agency says Cleveland offered a whopping $52 million.
The Cavs reportedly offered Nicolas Batum $52 million over 4 years to try to pry him away from Portland. As you know, Batum didn't sign the Cavs' offer sheet and instead signed Minnesota's offer sheet. It seemed for a long time that he really wanted to be on the Timberwolves, but the Trailblazers ended up matching the offer anyway. I'm not sure why he didn't take the biggest offer, which was the Cavs. Maybe he knew that the Blazers wouldn't match and he actually wanted to stay in Portland all along. Maybe he just really liked Minnesota. Maybe he hates Cleveland. Whatever the reason, it's just pretty neat to see that the Cavs' front office thinks along the same lines as the good folks here at Fear The Sword.