Matthew Dellavedova came of age as a player in last year’s playoffs. This season he outplayed Mo Williams for playing time. Here are seven teams that could use his skills next season.
Matthew Dellavedova had to replace Kyrie Irving for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals after Irving fractured his kneecap. Irving’s injury left the Cavaliers without their All-Star point guard after power forward Kevin Love had been lost to injury in the first round.
Dellavedova then did something that only very few people would have believed. He took on the Golden State Warriors with LeBron James and together they managed to take two games off the eventual champions.
Dellavedova dove on the floor, created shots for others and defended Stephen Curry better than most expected.
The legend of Delly was born. He captured the imagination of the Australian public, even those who did not follow basketball. Popular news programs ran stories on him, Andrew Bogut was a sideshow at the time. He had a documentary released about him during this time as well.
Cleveland signed Dellavedova to a $1.2 million contract extension. They also signed Mo Williams, thinking to strengthen the point guard position.
Dellavedova may have been unsure if he was going to get playing time but ended up outplaying Williams and cutting his minutes. Then when Williams had to sit out with an injured thumb, Dellavedova just kept playing, kept producing.
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The backup point guard did something this year that no one expected; he finished 30th in assists in the NBA, according to NBA.com.
His averages of 7.5 points and 4.4 assists per game were both career highs, thanks in part to Irving missing the first part of the year with injury.
If Cleveland do not win the title this year, Dellavedova might look to cash in on the season that he has just had and move to another team for a greater salary than Cleveland can afford.
Here are some of the teams that could benefit from having Dellavedova on their roster.
Next: Houston Rockets