Report: Cavaliers to waive new signing Pat McCaw

A little over a week ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers signed former Warriors guard Patrick McCaw to a two-year deal. The deal would have been guaranteed had McCaw been on the roster past Jan. 7. It was enough to keep the Warriors from matching the restricted free agent’s offer sheet.

Now, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, he’s being waived. It seems relatively clear that the Cavs never intended upon keeping McCaw, and that the point of the deal was to do McCaw and his agent a favor. McCaw will now be an unrestricted free agent, free to sign in the NBA or Europe at his leisure. Before, he was holding out on signing a deal with the Warriors, where there had been a falling out between himself and the organization.

The only real analysis is whether or not McCaw would have been a good gamble for the Cavs to try and hold onto and develop. That being said, even if he was, it’s not clear if he would have signed in Cleveland - this was pretty clearly a signing just to free him up to play for a team that wasn’t the Warriors. Still, he hasn’t really done enough in the league to justify getting worked up about. Hopefully he makes it. In the meantime, you hope agents and players around the league take note of the way the Cavs handled this.

More information from Charania indicates that the Cavs will have an interest in bringing in McCaw if he clears waivers. On the one hand, Cleveland just did him a favor and can guarantee playing time. On the other, I’m not sure he wants to stay with a floundering Cavs team. We’ll see!