The Cleveland Cavaliers made multiple moves on Saturday to shore up their depth at the guard position.
First, the Cavaliers moved on from forward Isaac Okoro and acquired floor general Lonzo Ball from the Chicago Bulls. While Ball was limited to 35 games played in the 2024-25 campaign, he has the skill set needed to be a highly effective point guard when he’s healthy.
Additionally, the Cavaliers are set to ink a guard who was key to their bench success a season ago to a new contract. Sharpshooter Sam Merrill intends to sign a four-year deal with the team worth $38 million.
However, with the Cavaliers building new depth in their backcourt, it’s expected that the team will lose guard Ty Jerome in free agency, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Free agent guard Sam Merrill intends to sign a four-year, $38 million contract to stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers, sources tell ESPN,” Charania wrote.
“The Cavaliers negotiated the new deal with Kieran Piller and Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, a success story for the 60th pick in 2020 NBA draft.
“The deal cements the Cavaliers’ point guard depth chart of Darius Garland, Lonzo Ball and Merrill — as the expectation is that the franchise will lose free agent Ty Jerome in free agency, sources said.”
Merrill, for what it’s worth, is really more of a shooting guard than a point guard. There’s another point guard on the roster who Charania didn’t mention, and that’s Craig Porter Jr., who the Cavaliers plan to “challenge” and want more “fire” out of in his third season in the pros.
Porter went undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft and averaged 3.7 points and 1.4 assists per game in 51 games played with Cleveland in his sophomore season in the NBA, the 2024-25 season. He has shown promising flashes at times.
Jerome would be a significant loss for the Cavaliers, as he was one of the elite bench players in all of the NBA last season and provided the team with steady scoring and playmaking hands off the pine. Across 70 games played, he averaged 12.5 points while shooting 43.9 percent from 3-point range to go along with 3.4 assists per game.
He stands out as an appealing free-agent target for contending teams looking to bolster their depth chart at the guard position, and he shouldn’t have any trouble garnering interest around the league.
The Cavs are clearly making some changes this offseason, and while they aren’t monumental, they will have the team’s rotation looking a little bit different next season. Time will tell if Jerome does indeed depart the team in the near future.
