The NBA Cavaliers, with two of our UVA Basketball alum Cavaliers, De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome, playing key roles, were an NBA title favorite when the 2025 playoffs tipped off three weeks ago.
They play the actual games for a reason.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, and their 64-18 regular-season record, are past tense now, eliminated by the Indiana Pacers, coached by another UVA Basketball alum, Rick Carlisle, in the second round, with the Pacers rallying from 19 down to win Game 5 by a 114-105 final score.
We thought we might be seeing Dre and Ty cutting down nets like they did in the football stadium in Downtown Minneapolis back in 2019.
Now we’re left wondering if the Cavs will keep our UVA guys for another run at it next season.
First, to Hunter, who was picked up at the trade deadline from Atlanta, the team that drafted him fourth in the first round in 2019, and is under contract for $23.3 million in the 2025-2026 season and $24.9 million in the 2026-2027 season.
The Cavs are, at the moment, $27.3 million over the luxury-tax line, and that’s with only 10 players under contract (not including Jerome; more on that later).
Hunter was valuable off the bench for Cleveland, averaging 14.3 points in 25.0 minutes in 27 games in the regular season, but $23.3 million for a second-unit guy is maybe a reach.
Jerome, for his part, was a pleasant surprise for Cleveland this past season. He was on the back end of a two-year deal that paid him $2.5 million this year, and he dramatically overperformed relative to his salary, averaging 12.5 points and 3.4 assists in 19.9 minutes, and finishing as the runner-up in the Sixth Man of the Year voting.
Jerome, entering his age-28 year, is going to command eight figures on his next contract.
It’s looking like the most Cleveland will be able to offer Jerome is $10 million a year, which is probably significantly below what he’ll be able to get on the open market.
I want to see both of our guys in Cavs uniforms next year, because I think Cleveland is still the best chance for both to be part of a championship roster at the next level, but it feels to me that Cleveland will need to cut bait with one or maybe both of our guys to be able to retool around their core of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
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Chris Graham
