He had been scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 6. The free-agency negotiating period will be open at 6 p.m. June 30, meaning other teams would have been able to begin talking to Merrill then.

The Cavs will open free agency by bringing back one of their own. A league source told cleveland.com that unrestricted free agent shooting guard Sam Merrill intends to sign a four-year, $38 million contract to stay in Cleveland.