Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- One historic franchise faces a tough rebuild after missing out on a marquee free agent this offseason.
- The team’s first move in response has drawn widespread criticism and raised questions about their long-term strategy.
- Now a former top draft pick returns to the NBA after a six-year absence, tasked with reshaping his career on a contender.
LeBron James is now a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, and as has been the case with all of his decisions to date, the teams that lost out on the sweepstakes are left sifting through the wreckage to try and salvage their offseason.
This go-round, one of those teams is his beloved Cleveland Cavaliers. Losing out on James despite all the narrative elements going in their favor may go down as an all-time blunder, one that will force the team to reconsider its championship prospects. And in their desperation, they've started to flail in free agency.
The moment the Cavaliers looked to be losing steam in the race for James, we began speculating about what they may do if The King didn't decide to finish his career off where it all started. We thought that they may get into the Jonathan Kuminga business, and while that is still a possibility, their first move after failing to land James is far more disappointing.
Cavaliers sign former draft bust Mario Hezonja after whiffing on LeBron James
Instead of taking a chance on a soon-to-be 24-year-old former lottery pick who has struggled to fully figure it all out, the Cavaliers thought it would be a better idea to take a flyer on a 31-year-old former lottery pick with even less NBA success to his name.
Who are we talking about? On Sunday, NBA insider Shams Charania announced that the Cavaliers had agreed to bring back the former fifth overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft, Mario Hezonja, on a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum.
Hezonja was one of the first guys taken in the 2015 draft, selected over the likes of Devin Booker, Myles Turner, Norman Powell and Kelly Oubre Jr. (among others). Unfortunately, he was never really able to find his footing in the NBA; in fact, one could argue that Hezonja's greatest NBA achievement was being the genesis of one of the funniest pieces of sportswriting ever. (If you're not familiar, click this link to behold Jordan White's 2015 article, entitled "Mario Hezonja Is Here to Spice Up Your Sex Life.")
To this point, Hezonja has played in 330 NBA games, never averaging more than 9.6 points per game with career marks of 6.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists on 41.7 percent shooting from the floor and 31.9 percent from 3. Hezonja has previously spent time with the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers but hasn't appeared in an NBA game since the bubble in 2020.
In a follow-up tweet, Charania (who was likely carrying some water for his agency contact) noted that the Cavaliers view Hezonja as a key wing on their roster. Yep: The guy who hasn't played in the NBA in nearly six years is now supposed to be an important role player on a team that just made the Eastern Conference Finals and likely has aspirations of going further than that in 2026-27.
Now, to be fair to Hezonja and the Cavaliers, the former lottery pick was tearing it up overseas. Most recently, he was playing with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, winning the Euroleague in 2023 and most recently earning Spanish Liga MVP honors this past June.
Hezonja has likely evolved as a player since the last time we saw him in an NBA uniform, and as we've seen in the past, so much of player development is contingent on the team they end up with. Maybe Hezonja just had a bad beat, and is capable of helping the Cavaliers in a real way this season. But the fact that he's the player they are bringing in instead of James is painfully hilarious, and something Cleveland fans won't forget about anytime soon.
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