Cavs eyed Chandler in FA before LBJ return?

Chandler Parsons could have been a Cavalier. (USATSI)

The Cleveland Cavaliers zeroed in on Chandler Parsons in free agency and would have given him an offer sheet if not for LeBron James deciding to go home, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.

The most serious early interest in Parsons in 2014 free agency actually came from Cleveland. It was widely assumed in Mavericks circles that Dallas would turn its attentions to Parsons once formally eliminated as an option by Melo and LeBron, but sources told ESPN.com that Parsons -- before things really heated up with his eventual new employers -- found himself being recruited by another All-Star peer he regards as a friend: Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving.

Sources say the Cavs, furthermore, would soon inform Parsons he was "Cleveland's guy" if their ambitious bid to bring LeBron home unraveled.

It's funny how these things work out. The Houston Rockets reportedly offered Parsons the two-year max, worth more than $30 million, on the same day that he signed Dallas' three-year, $46.1 million offer sheet. As Rockets general manager Daryl Morey stated, he absolutely would have matched that if Chris Bosh had come to Houston as expected. Instead, Parsons surprisingly changed teams.

As for the Cavs, well, they obviously won the lottery with James. It's interesting to think about what the roster would have looked like with Parsons in his place, though. Would Kevin Love still have agreed to go to Cleveland? Did the Cavs want him to play small forward, or to be the stretch 4 David Blatt wanted? Is there an alternate universe where they could have gone into the season with a starting lineup of Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Andrew Wiggins, Parsons and Anderson Varejao? Come to think of it, that's a pretty fun group.

It was a crazy summer for Parsons, who could have wound up back with the Rockets making $964,750 and becoming an unrestricted free agent next year. He had a wild free agency saga, chronicled in detail by Stein, and then he was with Team USA for a while before being one of the final cuts. After being recruited by Irving, I wonder what their first conversation was like with the national team.

Topics: Anderson Varejao, Chandler Parsons, Chris Bosh, Dion Waiters, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, 2014 NBA Free Agency, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, NBA

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Report: Kenneth Faried agrees to four-year, $50 million contract extension with Nuggets

As expected, Kenneth Faried and the Nuggets have found common ground on a contract extension.

Again.

This time, it’s allowable.

Faried and the Nuggets agreed to a five-year, $60 million extension, but that deal would have violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

So, they renegotiated.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

Denver Nuggets, Kenneth Faried have reworked extension agreement. Faried will sign a 4-year, $50 million deal, league sources tell Yahoo.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) October 7, 2014

Faried gives up $2 million of guaranteed money (the initial agreement called for $52 million guaranteed) in exchange for $500,000 extra per season of the four-year deal. That seems like a pretty fair tradeoff.

The final version of this extension, like the first iteration, looks like a win for the Nuggets. As the salary cap skyrockets under the new TV contract, many long-term player contracts signed now will look small.

Most importantly, Denver locks up a really good player for a long time.