While multiple teams were said to be in the market to acquire Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls earlier this year, it was the Cleveland Cavaliers who swooped in under the radar and brought in the talented small forward.
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Hoping Deng would assist the Cavaliers in a late season push to make the playoffs, it seemed as if the Cavs would do what they could to re-sign the veteran small forward, especially given the price tag they paid for talented defender.
But Deng’s fit seemed questionable and with significant cap space, it doesn’t appear as if the Cavaliers have much interest in re-signing Deng.
“Yahoo Sports reported Thursday that the Cavs could increase their chances of retaining free agent Luol Deng should they hire Griffin to be their coach,” says Jason Lloyd. “But the Cavs tried trading Deng at the trade deadline three months ago and haven’t expressed much interest in bringing him back.”
Dealing with a nagging Achilles injury, Deng missed six games with the Cavaliers and just didn’t look like the All-Star talent he’s shown before. Part of that was obviously due to injury and likely partly because of head coach Mike Brown, who seemingly struggled to find proper roles for multiple players on the Cleveland roster.
It’s possible the Cavaliers could attempt to sign-and-trade Deng if he finds a suitor in free agency who’s open to such a move (the Dallas Mavericks have reportedly expressed interest), but it sounds like a return to Cleveland is rather unlikely at this point.