The Cleveland Cavaliers are adamant that they want JR Smith back in their lineup next season and said to have given the mercurial shooting guard an "incredibly competitive and aggressive" offer to stay with the club.
The news came from no less than Cavs general manager David Griffin, who disclosed during the team's media day on Monday that the club had "made an incredibly competitive and aggressive offer to re-sign him (Smith)" this summer, but the two sides are still in a "standoff in contract negotiations".
Both parties have openly declared that they do not want to part ways and want to "resolve the issue" internally, but Smith has yet to attend any of head coach Tyronn Lue's informal workouts in California last week and is still officially a free agent at this time.
"JR Smith is not here today," said Griffin, via CBS Sports. "As we've stated and coach has previously stated, we think very highly of JR. We love him as a member of our team. As a member of our locker room, he was essential to our success."
"And for that reason we've made an incredibly competitive and aggressive offer to re-sign him. We hope that gets done in very short order," he said.
"At the same time, we've been a team that has really become accustomed to a 'next man up' mentality and we expect this will be no different, not at all something that's going to be used as an excuse here in any way, shape or form. But we truly believe J.R. feels the same way about us and, as I said, we hope this is done in very short order," he added.
Griffin then proceeded to tell reporters that he will not take any more questions regarding the 31-year-old former NBA Sixth Man of the Year awardee.
Meanwhile, Slam Online indicated that Cavs teammate Tristan Thompson also commented during the same event that the team will not be able to win an NBA championship without Smith.
While it is not the official stand of the whole franchise per se, getting Smith back to Cleveland next season is indeed a priority for the Cavs' officials. This means that a compromise is bound to again take place before the new season starts next month.