Samuels signs multi-year deal with Cavs

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

JAMAICA'S Samardo Samuels yesterday signed a three-year deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers that his agent feels will serve him well, as he embarks on his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) league.

Samuels, the six-foot, eight-inch former University of Louisville power forward/centre, who went undrafted after declaring for the draft at the start of the summer, will earn slightly above the league minimum (US$472,000) per season, says his agent David Bauman, who also represents several NBA players, including Los Angeles Lakers' Ron Artest.

"It is an exciting end to a long and stressful summer," Bauman told The Gleaner yesterday.

The deal, Bauman said, "will earn Samardo enough money to get himself to the next contract and obviously he is very excited. Cleveland was very fair with him both financially and with the number of years and he feels the Cavaliers is going to be a great place for him for many years to come."

Final collegiate season

After being overlooked in the draft, Samuels, who in his final collegiate season led Louisville in both scoring and rebounding, faced an uncertain future and the possibility of playing in Europe if he was not picked up by an NBA team during the summer.

According to Bauman, the Trelawny-born player was "shocked and disappointed" but within an hour of the draft being completed, accepted that he was an NBA player.

"He listened to several of my voicemail messages that I was receiving from several NBA general managers, who were calling and inviting him to the NBA Summer League and he realised that he still had a chance to be in the NBA, he just would have to take a different approach than the players who were drafted," Bauman said.

In five games during the summer league, Samuels played for the Chicago Bulls and averaged 14 points and eight rebounds. He got better with each game and by the third game, Samuels was outstanding against Cleveland, a team that is currently rebuilding after losing several of their star players, including Lebron James, to either free agency or trades.

Under NBA rules, any undrafted player automatically becomes a free agent and can choose which team he wants to play for, as opposed to a drafted player who has no choice but to remain with the team that picked him.