The Cleveland Cavaliers had a great run in the 2014-15 season even making it to the NBA Finals despite a bad start and one of the key pieces in last season's campaign was guard J.R. Smith who will opt out of his deal with the team and be a free agent this July.
Smith was acquired via trade form the New York Knicks last season and was a perfect fit with the team especially in the playoffs although he struggled in the Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
The 29-year-old played in 46 regular season games for the Cavs last season and had 45 starts as he averaged 12.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals.
In the playoffs he averaged 12.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists, although his best postseason performance was in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Atlanta Hawks.
The series sweep against the Hawks saw Smith average 18.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game shooting at 50 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from three-point territory.
Cavaliers general manager David Griffin was asked if they plan to keep Smith and he answered, "If it's the right situation for us, yeah. We certainly intend to pursue those conversations."
Smith will join forward Kevin Love who also opted out of the final year of his deal with the team.
Other Cavaliers players in search of new deals from last season's runner-ups are guards Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova with center Tristan Thompson.
Meanwhile, reports say franchise star LeBron James is having a wait and see approach before making his decision although Griffin said that he has been very active.
"We've heard from him every day, pretty much, relative to our roster. He's very engaged with us," Griffin said according to ESPN.
"It's been great. He's been very much engaged with us on a lot of different levels, so it's positive," he added.
