The Cleveland Cavaliers will finish this season above the second apron. They made moves — like sending away Lonzo Ball and two second-round picks — that helped them closer to ducking below that threshold. They were just under $3.9 million away from getting out of it going into deadline day, but they weren’t able to make any moves to fully get below the second apron.

The Cavs should be able to get under the second apron during the summer. Doing so would open up avenues for them to aggregate contracts in possible trades. However, some issues come with not getting out of the second apron now.

For one, the Cavs aren’t able to trade a first-round pick seven years out now because they will finish the season in the second apron. And, they will need to be out of the second apron for three of the next four seasons to unfreeze what would be the 2032 first-round pick and trade it. Additionally, that pick moves to the back of the first round until it’s unfrozen.

It’s worth noting that the Stepien rule essentially froze the ‘32 pick anyway, but that’s a longer discussion that may not be germane to this conversation.

In the end, dealing Ball and saving money on the De’Andre Hunter trade merely saved the ownership group from additional luxury tax payments right now.

According to Koby Altman, Cavs president of basketball operations, that’s okay. The team didn’t want to make a move to get out of the second apron that hurt this current team.

“At the end of the day, for us to get under the second apron, we would’ve had to lose a rotational piece right now,” Altman said. “That was hard for us to do. Let’s make this run. … What gives us the best chance to win? And it’s certainly not trading a rotational player at the deadline. So we’ll address that in the summer. Sure, we got close, but I still think it was a really, really successful trade deadline for us.”

All of the Cavs’ moves this deadline were to improve the current team. Undercutting those decisions by getting rid of a rotation player just to get under the second apron wouldn’t have made sense. At the same time, there’s reprucutions for not being able to shed a little more salary. And they’ll be feeling those effects down the road.