After meeting with the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, Andrew Bynum has agreed to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, according to multiple reports.
The contract details appear to be the same as were initially reported.
From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:Andrew Bynum’s deal w/ Cleveland will include $6 million of $12M guaranteed in year 1, league source says. Team option of $12.5M for 14-'15.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 10, 2013
Apparently the Mavs didn’t feel like the risk was worth taking with Bynum, who missed all of last season due to multiple knee injuries and may not even be ready for the start of training camp before next season.
Dallas had limited cap space anyway for the upcoming season, and would have had to make some moves to get to a place where the team would have been able to match or exceed what Cleveland was offering.
It’s a gamble worth taking for a Cavaliers team that has one of the game’s most dynamic young players in Kyrie Irving, and will see the number one overall pick in this year’s draft in Anthony Bennett added to the roster.
The bigger picture in Cleveland involves hopes that LeBron James may be willing to return in free agency the year after next, so adding talent around Irving to turn the team into a winner before then would only be helping those odds, however long they may actually be. Cleveland also signed Jarrett Jack and Earl Clark in free agency this summer.
Bynum averaged 18.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots per game in his best NBA season back in 2011-12 with the Lakers.