During this offseason, Rodney Hood has spent nearly two months as a restricted free agent without either re-signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers or signing an offer sheet with another team. In the opinion of one Eastern Conference scout, the reason for the latter situation stems from the simple fact that no team is interested in signing the 26-year-old.
Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report spoke with the scout, who remained anonymous in order to offer an unvarnished opinion on the Hood situation and other Cavs-related topics. His opinion is that the Cavaliers won’t have to break the bank to re-sign Hood:
“Cleveland can get him for a song and dance at this point. I don’t think anyone else wants him, which is surprising because I really liked him in Utah. Utah just let him fly. I was impressed with how he came back in the Finals as an ‘I’ll show you’ game.
“I always liked him. He’ll be good in Cleveland because Cleveland’s going to be bad, and they’ll need his scoring. Who else are they going to go to? He’ll get quality minutes on that roster. How could he not? I’m not sure how tough he is, though. He can put up big scoring numbers on a bad team.”
While it remains to be seen if the Cavaliers will be bad during the upcoming season, they will take a step back without the presence of LeBron James in the lineup. Hood could potentially help avoid that worst-case scenario by bouncing back from an inconsistent season that was split between the Cavs and Utah Jazz, who dealt him away on Feb. 8.
Upon arriving in Cleveland, the combination of injuries and inconsistent play limited Hood to 21 games in the regular season. In those games, he averaged 10.8 points and 2.6 rebounds, with the scoring average a full six points below his output last year with the Jazz. Then, during the postseason, Hood was involved in an embarrassing bench incident that put him in the team’s doghouse until the last two games of the NBA Finals.
The Cavaliers made a qualifying offer of $3.4 million in order to keep Hood a restricted free agent. When that offer was put forth, the expectation was that the Cavs would have to offer much more or risk losing him. However, if the scout’s opinion is accurate, they could be in line to save plenty of money.
