The Cleveland Cavaliers have traded center Brendan Haywood and shooter Mike Miller to the Portland Trail Blazers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Cleveland is also sending two second-round picks back in the deal, according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
Cavaliers trade Brendan Haywood, Mike Miller to Trail Blazers, per report
The Cavs have created two trade exceptions the deal.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
By trading two players into the Trail Blazers’ cap space, Cleveland creates two separate trade exceptions that cannot be combined -- one for $10.5 million, another for $2.85 million. They will have one year to use each exception. While the Cavs are already facing a giant luxury tax bill, the trade exceptions give Cleveland a way to add another high-priced player some team might be looking to ditch.
Portland will likely waive Haywood, who has a $10.5 million non-guaranteed contract for next season. Portland is also expected to waive Miller, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.
The 35-year-old Haywood played only 22 games for the Cavs last season. Miller, also 35, appeared in 52 games and made 15 starts. He averaged 2.1 points per game on 32.1 percent shooting.
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