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The Cleveland Cavaliers have bolstered their depth on the wing, as they’ve come to an agreement with free agent forward Georges Niang, a league source told thelandondemand.com.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Niang and the Cavaliers have agreed to a three-year deal worth $26MM.
Niang has spent the past two seasons on the Philadelphia 76ers. In that time he averaged 8.7 points per game on 40.2 percent shooting from 3-point range in 154 games.
Instant Analysis
Niang joins the Cavaliers to provide a punch offensively. He’s been a fixture in the Sixers rotation over the last couple of years as a capable shooter that has helped to provide spacing around Sixers MVP center Joel Embiid and has plenty of experience in the playoffs throughout his career. That experience of playing with one of the best big men in basketball certainly helps coming into a situation that currently features several lineup configurations that feature two non-shooting bigs.
The other positive to take away from Niang’s previous experiences is that he spent four years earlier in his career in Utah playing with Cavaliers All-NBA guard Donovan Mitchell.
With the Sixers, Niang had a nice diet of open shots thanks to Embiid and point guard James Harden. Last season, 71.9 percent of Niang’s field goal attempts were considered to be open or wide open 3-pointers, according to NBA.com’s data. That number might go down in Cleveland while not playing with an MVP and a former MVP, but given his track record, there’s no reason to think that he shouldn’t be able to knock down 3-pointers at the rate he has throughout his career.