Derrick Rose and the Cavaliers are in serious talks on a one-year, $2.1M deal that would land the veteran point guard in Cleveland, Brian Windhorst of ESPN first broke via Twitter earlier this morning.
This would appear to be a very low-ball offer, as Rose indicated back in January that he planned to seek a near max deal come this free agency. The former MVP has made it clear he plans to leave New York, and had previously met with the Bucks, Clippers, and Spurs earlier in free agency. Rose’s aspirations of a big pay day are likely gone, as all four of these teams don’t have the cap space to take on a max/near max deal.
The Milwaukee Bucks and Rose reportedly have “mutual interest” but the two parties have not discussed contracts in detail. This is likely due to Milwaukee having several bad contracts that have prevented them from doing anything outside of re-signing Tony Snell in free agency. The Bucks do have at least $24M in cap space after next season, so should Rose sign a one-year deal with the Cavs or another team, he could still very well end up in a Bucks uniform once they have room to sign him.
Rose averaged 18 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 4.4 assists over 32.5 minutes per game in 64 starts with the Knicks this past season. In his eight year career of 470 games, Rose has only come off the bench once, so signing with Cleveland would be a change of scenery for Rose; backing up Kyrie Irving off the bench.
