The Cleveland Cavaliers are currently at the top of the Eastern Conference with their 13-5 record but despite that they have still been a bit underwhelming so far this season. Part of the reason for that is the fact that Iman Shumpert and Kyrie Irving have been out but another part of the reason is poor play from some of the healthy guys including Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov is set to become a free agent at the end of this season and he might just be losing himself a lot of money, according to Nick Borges of ESPN.
Mozgov was acquired by the Cavaliers in the middle of last season and played easily the best basketball of his career with them in his 46 games as he averaged 10.6 points and 6.9 rebounds. This season though, Mozgov seems to have taken a step back as he is shooting just 45 percent from the floor, way down from his career percentage of 53, and his playing time has decreased to less than 20 minutes per game because of it.
Mozgov underwent offseason knee surgery that took him a little while to recover from and many people believe that is part of the reason for his struggles but he has downplayed it as a factor.
"It's not the way you start, it's the way you finish. It's a long season in front of us. We've got to go forward. That's it," said Mozgov, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal.
Mozgov is in the final year of the three year $14 million contract he signed with the Denver Nuggets back in 2013 and he is making a little less than $5 million this season. It seems like a foregone conclusion that Mozgov is going to get a raise in his next contract but based on his play this season it may not be for as much as he had hoped coming into the season. There were some people, coming into the season, that felt Mozgov could earn a max contract, or something close to it, this offseason if he showed enough progression but the 29 year old has not performed up to this point.
This offseason Mozgov's value was as high as it had ever been but he was still uninterested in negotiating a contract extension with the Cavaliers because he felt a full year with the Cavs would only increase his value more for the next offseason when the cap was set to rise a lot. That has not happened for Mozgov and unless he starts to play a lot better this season he will have lost out on a lot of money. In Mozgov's defense, the Cavaliers were likely uninterested in an extension for Mozgov this offseason as they are already way over the cap but waiting for a new contract may end up costing him millions of dollars.
