The Cleveland Cavaliers are a mess right now and their recent 4-11 stretch feels like much more than a typical January swoon from a LeBron James-led team. The defense is hot on the tail of the Kings for the league’s worst, and the dysfunction in the locker room has spilled out after reports of a contentious team meeting that saw Kevin Love become something of a scapegoat.
All indications out of Cleveland point to the team looking considerably different come Feb. 8 than it does now once the NBA’s trade deadline has come and gone. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has noted that the Cavs are likely to make multiple deals to try and fix a roster that’s ill-fitted to make a deep postseason run and has clear chemistry issues.
The problem is, it’s hard to diagnose exactly what the Cavs’ problem is and what the right roster moves are to fix it. Point guard help is certainly needed. They have a severe lack of rim protection. Three-point shooting could use an upgrade. Rebounding needs work. In summation, pretty much everything could get an upgrade aside from LeBron.
So we decided to try and figure out what the Cavs would look like if we blew everything up. Since the Cavs are going to be involved in tons of trade rumors and everyone seems to be potentially on the table outside of James, what if they decided this was like a game of five card draw, put four cards back in and kept their ace by dealing everyone on the roster? The catch: In this scenario, the team does not move James or, so LeBron is happy, Dwyane Wade.
Every draft pick Cleveland owns through 2021 (just so we’re not tacking on, like, 2025 picks or anything) is on the table, but does not have to be moved. Per the Stepien Rule, unless we acquire another 2019 (or 2020 pick) we cannot deal the 2020 first rounder and cannot deal both 2018 first rounders (but can deal one or the other).
All trades are ESPN Trade Machine Approved™ and we’ll try our best to make sure the money works out. It’s tough with the trade machine only letting us do one trade at a time, but we will tally it up at the end and see how we did.
Yes, this is all absurd. The vast majority of these trades won’t happen and probably wouldn’t even if they tried to make them. And no, none of these should be taken as a series of rumblings about moves Cleveland is pursuing unless otherwise noted. We know this is silly, but hey, so is this Cavs season, so let’s get super weird.
Here are the complete list of assets with which we’re going to work:
PLAYERS: Jose Calderon, Jae Crowder, Channing Frye, Jeff Green, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, Dwyane Wade, Tristan Thompson, Ante Zizic
DRAFT PICKS: 2018 first round pick (BROOKLYN), 2018 first round pick (CLEVELAND), 2020 first round pick (CLEVELAND) but only if we acquire another 2019/2020 first, 2020 second round pick (MIAMI), 2021 first round pick (CLEVELAND), 2021 second round pick (CLEVELAND)
Trade 1: CLE acquires George Hill and Malachi Richardson; SAC acquire Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye
We start with the one that is most likely happening in some form over the coming days. The Cavs would love to pull Skal Labissiere back in this, but I think the Kings would try to play a little hardball here and keep him, because he actually has some value. Instead, they ship Richardson to clear the roster space to make this work.
Trade 2: CLE acquires C.J. McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic; POR acquires DeAndre Jordan, Kyle Korver; LAC acquires Kevin Love, Ante Zizic
I think Portland does this trade, because it shakes up their stagnant lineup by giving them a legit interior defensive presence and roll man, as well as some much-needed perimeter shooting help.
I’m not sold on the Clippers doing this because I don’t know if Doc Rivers (or their front office) would be willing to go small with Blake Griffin and Kevin Love together, but I think it could work. Zizic may be something in the future for the Clippers as a bench big. They might insist on a second round pick being involved, which could come from the Blazers or the Cavs (2021) and not affect the rest of this process.
Let’s pretend this actually would happen and move on!
Trade 3: CLE acquires Kemba Walker, Alex Len, Davon Reed; CHA acquires Greg Monroe, Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder; PHO acquires Dwight Howard, Jeremy Lamb, Jeff Green, 2019 second round pick (CHARLOTTE), 2020 second round pick (MIAMI)
At this point, everything is kind of dumb. Stick with me on this one and maybe I can convince you the Suns would be into this, because that’s for sure the sticking point on this one.
First, the “easy” part. The Cavs get Kemba Walker and a useful bench big on an expiring deal in Alex Len. The Hornets get rid of Dwight Howard’s deal and get a capable replacement for this season to avoid looking like they’re tanking, while also seeing that money come off the books this summer. Isaiah Thomas is technically an All-Star caliber player (from last year) to satiate Michael Jordan’s desire to land a bigger name to replace Kemba, plus I think people around the league probably still believe in Jae Crowder and he’s on a very reasonable contract if he can turn things around.
The Suns take on an extra year of big money with Howard, but unless they really believe they’re going to add a big piece in free agency this summer, this still fits in with their timeline of clearing major money for the summer of 2020. Jeremy Lamb is having a career year in Charlotte and would give Phoenix some bench pop behind Devin Booker.
Trade 4: CLE acquires Derrick Favors; DEN acquires Tristan Thompson and 2018 first round pick (CLEVELAND)
The question here is whether Utah does this. Thompson’s not any better of a fit next to Gobert than Favors is, but they acquire a first round pick and maybe think Thompson could be a good bench big. The money works, but it does add a significant amount of future money to Utah’s cap load. If they wanted, they could offload Jonas Jerebko or Thabo Sefolosha, who have non-guaranteed contracts for next year, or Dante Exum if they don’t plan on keeping him in restricted free agency.
This deal might be a little pie in the sky, but maybe the Cavs could make it work (there’s no way they’re dealing for Favors with the Brooklyn pick, so don’t even bother).
Trade 5: CLE acquires Kent Bazemore, Nerlens Noel; ATL acquires J.R. Smith, Cedi Osman and top-10 protections are lifted off of the 2019 Cleveland pick already obtained by ATL; DAL acquires Jose Calderon and Mike Muscala
Let’s. Get. Super. Weird. The Cavs have been reportedly interested in Kent Bazemore and this seems like the best possible outcome for trading J.R. Smith who is, along with Tristan, the hardest contract on the team to move. Cleveland also sends out Cedi Osman, who Atlanta can put into their “Hawks University” and turn him into a $15 million man by the end of his current deal. They also get the restrictions pulled off of their 2019 first round pick from the Cavs in the Korver deal, which is intriguing for Atlanta because that could become a high-lottery pick if James leaves in free agency.
Dallas unloads Nerlens Noel, who they don’t care about, and takes on Jose Calderon for the year as well. The Mavs also add Mike Muscala, who has a $5 million player option for next year and has been buried on the Hawks bench all season, but still has upside.
Trade 6: CLE acquires Mo Speights; ORL acquires Derrick Rose
It’s a veteran minimum swap. The Cavs need some frontcourt depth at this point and maybe you send some cash considerations (whatever possible) to Orlando to facilitate Rose’s buyout. Whatever. You could also just throw Rose into the Kings deal, but I think adding Speights makes sense when you look at the new Cavs roster in about two tenths of a second.
New Cavs Roster
PG: Kemba Walker ($12 million), George Hill ($20 million)
SG: C.J. McCollum ($24 million), Kent Bazemore ($17 million), Dwyane Wade ($1.4 million)
SF: LeBron James ($33.2), Davon Reed ($815k)
PF: Derrick Favors ($12 million), Mo Speights ($1.4 million)
C: Jusuf Nurkic ($3 million), Alex Len ($4.2 million), Nerlens Noel ($4.2 million)
Old 2017-18 salary total: $134 million
New 2017-18 salary total: $133.2 million
We did it! Well, at least with the money. I think. I’m not sure what trades fit into what trade exceptions and whether all together they would work out, but it seems pretty close and I will take it.
I have no idea if this team is actually a contender. It’s extremely backcourt heavy, but you could go small and ask Baze to play some three with James at the four and Favors at the five sometimes. You get significantly better at defense at point guard simply by adding Kemba, but the frontcourt defense remains an issue, especially with plodding bigs like Favors and Nurkic. Still, this roster is better than what they have now, of that I’m confident, even if it’s still probably not good enough to beat Golden State.
This is just about the best case scenario for flipping around the entire Cavs roster and also maintaining a little bit of future flexibility by holding onto the Brooklyn pick as LeBron insurance, of which the team seems particularly keen. I don’t care as much about that, I just don’t see it as the kind of asset that’s good enough to get another legitimate superstar to the Cavs. Could they go get Marc Gasol with it and Kevin Love? Maybe. Is that better than getting McCollum and Nurkic while holding onto the pick? Possibly, but I’m just not sure that’s a deal they’d want to do.
I really tried to make trades that I think would at least be realistically considered by all parties involved, and I still probably failed miserably and will be yelled at. To answer the question that everyone will probably have: No, I don’t think the Pelicans are trading DeMarcus Cousins. Not even for Kevin Love and the Brooklyn pick. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but I think the AD-Boogie pairing is playing too well and that New Orleans will take their chances on keeping Cousins this summer.
Finally, trying to come up with trades involving Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith hurt my brain and I would like to send my deepest condolences to Koby Altman who has to try and figure out how to actually retool this roster. Godspeed, Koby.
