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One of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ free agent targets is headed to the Golden State Warriors.
According to TNT’s David Aldridge, veteran power forward David West will sign a one-year deal with the Warriors. According to a report from Chris Haynes of cleveland.com earlier this week, the Cavs had contacted West, but he was undecided about playing next season.
David West to the Warriors on a one-year deal, per source, for vet minimum.
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 5, 2016
This is the second summer in a row that West turned down the Cavs. Last year, he picked the San Antonio Spurs over the Cavs. This year, he heads to a Warriors team looking to sign bigs after trading Andrew Bogut and renouncing restricted free agent Festus Ezeli to clear room to sign Kevin Durant.
For the Cavs, this isn’t a huge blow. West is a useful player and a strong veteran presence, but he’s most useful right now on offense in the post and he’s not great on defense. Cleveland may need another player up front, but if they sign one, it’ll probably be a rim protector to replace Timofey Mozgov, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in the opening hours of free agency.