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NBA Free Agency: Cavaliers offer Andrew Bynum only $6 million guaranteed

The Cavaliers were reported to have made a lucrative offer to Andrew Bynum. Apparently that offer isn't as lucrative as it initially sounded.

By Conrad Kaczmarek
Joe Camporeale-US PRESSWIRE

The Cleveland Cavaliers are still waiting for a decision from Andrew Bynum. After reportedly meeting with Bynum on Monday, the Cavaliers then made pretty generous offer to the seven footer and awaited his answer. The reported offer was 2 years, $24 million with a team option on the second year. The thinking behind this is that it was more than either the Atlanta Hawks or Dallas Mavericks could offer, but didn't carry too much risk for the Cavs.

It is now Wednesday and our Bynum Watch rolls on.

Bynumwatch_medium

According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Cavaliers' offer wasn't quite as generous as some people made it sound. While the second year would be fully non-guaranteed (team option), we assumed most of the money in the first year would be guaranteed. However, this does not seem to be the case.

So instead of guaranteeing the injury-prone big man $12 million, they've only guaranteed him $6 million. That's a pretty big difference. It's interesting to note that Stein maintains that this is still the best offer that Bynum has received. We'll see if it stays that way, but apparently Atlanta and Dallas are being as cautious as the Cavs.

Of course, the deal could still be worth up to $24 million. Bynum would just have to stay healthy and be productive. If Bynum's camp is confident that he'll stay healthy, then the Cavaliers are still making a pretty nice offer that no team appears to be willing to top.

Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal also reported that Bynum is not expected to make a decision today. So it looks like we'll have to keep our BYNUM WATCH going for another day.

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