The list of available big men got shorter again Sunday. Veteran center DeAndre Jordan is heading back to the New Orleans Pelicans on a two-year, $7.9 million contract, and both seasons are fully guaranteed, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line.
For most of the league, it was a minor Sunday transaction in a slow stretch of the offseason. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it was another reminder of the price they are paying to wait on LeBron James.
The Cavaliers have carried an open hole behind starting center Jarrett Allen, and the pool of veterans who could plausibly fill it keeps draining while Cleveland’s front office keeps its spending power in reserve for one specific free agent.
DeAndre Jordan Deal Takes Another Center Off the Market
Jordan was never going to be the headline solution in Cleveland, but his agreement matters because of the pattern it extends. Since free agency opened, nearly every center a contender could sign for reasonable money has found a home.
Mitchell Robinson left the champion New York Knicks for the Boston Celtics on a three-year, $47.4 million deal, Mark Williams stayed in Phoenix for three years and $38 million and Al Horford re-upped with the Golden State Warriors on a two-year, $14 million contract. Kevon Looney, a name long connected to teams needing frontcourt stability, took a one-year minimum deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. Larry Nance Jr., the most natural fit Cleveland had, chose Indiana on a one-year contract.
Add Jordan to that ledger and the shelf is nearly bare. The market has moved fast at the position precisely because so many contenders entered July needing the same thing, and the Cavaliers — for understandable reasons — have not been among the teams moving.
Jonas Valanciunas Could Be the Cavaliers’ Last Real Option
The one name still standing is a familiar one. The Denver Nuggets waived Jonas Valanciunas on July 8, eating $2 million of his $10 million salary rather than letting the full figure guarantee.
There is still real production in his game. Playing behind Nikola Jokic last season, Valanciunas gave Denver 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game on 58.2 percent shooting from the field — exactly the kind of efficient, physical interior scoring a second unit can lean on for 15 minutes a night. For a Cleveland bench that is bare, the fit is obvious enough that it barely needs explaining.
The problem is that Cleveland is not alone in seeing it, and the competition is not limited to NBA teams. The Lakers have registered interest in Valanciunas as part of their own backup center search, and Lithuanian club Zalgiris Kaunas has interest as well.
Valanciunas explored a move to Panathinaikos as far back as last season before Denver shut the door. A 14-year veteran weighing one last NBA contract against a homecoming offer in Europe is not a player who will wait indefinitely for the Cavaliers to sort out their books.
LeBron James Decision Keeps Cleveland’s Money Frozen
And the books cannot be sorted until James acts. The mechanics here are worth spelling out, because they explain why a team with an obvious roster hole has spent 12 days doing nothing about it.
James Harden turned down his $42.3 million player option for next season, and until his new number is settled, Cleveland does not know whether it will be shopping with the $3.9 million veteran minimum exception or the $6.1 million taxpayer midlevel.
Before Harden’s next contract is counted, the Cavaliers sit $25.3 million shy of the first apron and $38 million beneath the second. Using more than $6.1 million in exception money would hard-cap the team at the first apron, and creating room beyond that figure would require trading Max Strus or Dennis Schroder.
In plain terms, every dollar Cleveland commits to a backup center right now is a dollar of flexibility it cannot get back if James says yes. Front offices do not spend their last exception while the biggest free agent in franchise history is deliberating, so the Cavaliers wait — and the waiting has no announced end date. His agent, Rich Paul, told Forbes’ Mark Medina that a resolution was not imminent.
“I don’t think it’ll be the next few days,” Paul said.
The reporting since has pointed the same direction. Marc Stein said on the “A Must Win Game” podcast that most of the people he speaks with did not expect a resolution during the opening days of Summer League, with the process likely stretching deeper into July.
The one detail that has cut through the noise favors Cleveland: league executives told The Athletic’s Joe Vardon that the only team official believed to have had direct contact with James this free agency is Brandon Weems, his childhood friend who works in the Cavaliers’ front office. That is an encouraging signal, but a signal is all it is, and signals do not sign backup centers.
What the Cavaliers Can Do at Backup Center
The realistic paths are narrow. Cleveland can try to keep Valanciunas warm without committing — a conversation, not a contract — and hope Europe and the Lakers both stay patient.
It can wait for the buyout and trade churn that follows James’ decision, when teams that lose the sweepstakes start repurposing their rosters and a serviceable big may shake loose. Or it can accept that the backup five will be a minimum-salary answer signed in late July, with the roster spot itself held open as part of the pitch to James.
None of those options is comfortable, and that is the honest cost of the position Cleveland has chosen. Chasing James is the right bet — a healthy Allen, Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell’s four-year max extension give this roster a championship spine, and James is the one player available who raises that ceiling.
But the bet is not free. It is being paid daily, in names coming off a board the Cavaliers cannot yet play on, and Sunday it was paid again in the form of DeAndre Jordan.
The frustrating part for Cleveland is that patience and urgency are both correct at once. The front office should keep waiting on James, and the market should make that waiting increasingly expensive.
Until the decision comes, the Cavaliers’ offseason will keep looking like this: quiet on the surface, with the real cost accruing underneath.
