Report: Cavs’ offer to Chauncey Billups was embarrassingly low

Chauncey Billups withdrew from consideration for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ vacant general manager position earlier in the week, and all indications are that he bowed out for financial reasons.

Chris Haynes and Marc Spears of ESPN are reporting that the Cavs initially offered Billups a $1.5 million salary, which is considered incredibly low. Sources told Haynes and Spears that $4 million a year is a more typical starting point in negotiations for the role Billups would have been filling.

For what it’s worth, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com was told the initial offer was in the $2 million to $3 million range. While that would be less insulting than $1.5 million, it’s obviously still too low.

According to ESPN’s report, new Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka is making around $5 million annually, and he had no prior experience. Former Cavs GM David Griffin was making less than $2 million per year and wanted a raise and more power within the organization. Griffin ultimately decided to leave.

We were already given some great prospective as to just how low Cleveland’s offer to Billups was. The Cavs have one of the highest payrolls in the NBA, so owner Dan Gilbert is trying to cheap out by paying his front office executives very little. He had better just hope that doesn’t help push LeBron James — who seemed to take Griffin’s side with a recent tweet — out the door once again.