The Cleveland Cavaliers will extend a qualifying offer to shooting guard Rodney Hood, making him a restricted free agent on July 1 according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com.

The qualifying offer is worth $3.4 million dollars for one year. Hood can either sign that offer or sign an offer sheet from another team and the Cavaliers can match that within three days.

According to Vardon, the Cavaliers see Hood as part of their future and in my opinion, I think they will match any offer Hood would get on the open market unless it’s way over the price Cleveland would be willing to pay for his services.

The 25 year old guard was acquired from the Utah Jazz at the February trade deadline for Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose.  In 21 games (11 starts), Hood averaged 10.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game after averaging 16.8 points per game in 39 games (12 starts) with Utah before the trade.

In the playoffs, Hood fell out of the rotation and likely hurt his value in free agency after averaging 5.4 points and shooting 42% from the field (16.7% from 3-point distance) in 17 postseason games (1 start).

He didn’t help his cause when he refused to come off the bench during a blowout win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Toronto Raptors but he stated he wanted to let other guys get minutes.

His confidence seemed shot but head coach Ty Lue gave him another opportunity during the NBA Finals against the Warriors. Hood scored 15 points on 7 of 11 shooting in Game 3 and scored 10 points in Game 4 although the Cavs ultimately were swept by the Warriors in 4 games.

It’s unclear what his value will be worth on the open market but he could be pursued by teams looking for an athletic wing who can shoot the ball.

HoopsHype has Hood listed as the 7th best small forward available in free agency and the 31st best overall player in all of free agency.

I do think that Cleveland is intent on bringing him back and keeping part of the core going forward regardless of Lebron James’ future with the team. General manager Koby Altman stated that the team wanted to develop the young talent on the roster and I do think Hood is part of that group that includes Larry Nance Jr., Jordan Clarkson, Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic and 2018 first round pick Collin Sexton.