It has been reported that J.R. Smith will re-sign with the defending champion, Cleveland Cavaliers, after a long standout with the team. However, Philadelphia 76ers made a solid push just before the Cavs could have him back.
The Cavs took an exciting tactic to free agency this season for J.R. Smith but, somehow, the 76ers has succeeded to push the process along.
As the defending champion, the Cleveland Cavaliers can have the free agency approach as a privilege. It can be recalled that they did not worry when Lebron James turned into a free agent, and then took their time negotiating with him.
And this time with J.R Smith, they did not worry as well supposing that in case they took their time they could get him for the lowest price.
However, the Cavs did not account for one thing and that is how J.R. Smith's negotiation with the Cavs was possibly influenced by a team which just won 10 games last season. It has been reported in thesixersense.com that Bryan Colangelo, Philadelphia 76ers GM, pressed Smith to join the Sixers, and which in turn made the Cavs to negotiate with Smith earlier than they might have expected.
With this, it was reported too that the Cleveland Cavaliers eventually end up signing J.R. Smith for another four years, on a $57 million contract deal.
But, these moves were getting late already as per libertyballers.com, as the preseason has already started and the next NBA season. Smith could have joined the team on an early time and could have performed well; nonetheless, it is still interesting to know how that negotiation has gone so long. It is then interesting how the Sixers became the deciding factor.
As it would have been great to have J.R. Smith on the Sixers, and even more interesting that the Sixers was able to get one of the Cleveland Cavalier's key players, still, Smith would not have been a great players around the outstanding Philadelphia 76ers roster.
