The trade deadline has finally passed. There were a decent amount of moves, not a ton like in past years, but it was something. Now that the rosters are mostly set for the rest of the year, it is a lot easier to look into the future and see what moves are possible and what makes sense.
To recap, the Bulls traded for Nikola Vucevic, Miami got Victor Oladipo for free, they also got Bjelica, Denver traded for Aaron Gordon, and Boston got Evan Fournier for free. There were some other moves sprinkled in there, but those were the big ones. The Cavs also traded Javale McGee for Isaiah Hartenstein and 2 2nds.
I'm excited to see Vucevic in Chicago and Fournier makes Boston interesting, but the only trade I'm really going to go in depth about is the Javale trade, because it's the only one that involves the Cavs. Denver needed a defensive backup center behind Jokic, and they got it.
Looking at the Javale trade, the Cavs took him on from the Lakers and got a 2026 2nd for doing so, and only gave up fringe NBA players with essentially no value. Taking the return from Denver into account, Cleveland netted 3 2nd round picks and a young backup center with some promise in Isaiah Hartenstein. From an asset prospective, Javale's tenure in Cleveland was a huge success.
However there were also notable moves that the Cavaliers didn't make. The big elephant in the room is Andre Drummond and his lack of a trade. I wasn't mad, because a buyout is what I expected to happen, and it seems like he's going to go to the Lakers or the Nets. Cedi Osman and Taurean Prince were also names thrown around, but with how badly Cedi has been, trading him now would definitely be selling low. I would have liked to move him but there is a better offer to be had in the offseason I won't complain. As for Taurean Prince, he's an expiring contract next year so moving him or buying him out shouldn't be difficult. The biggest reason I wanted those two traded was that I didn't want to have to give them minutes, specifically over guys like Dylan Windler and Dean Wade. Love is the other player I would've liked to see moved, but it there just wasn't a trade there that made sense. I didn't expect him to be moved, but I'd still shut him down for the rest of the year.
The Raptors made moves to open up roster spots in anticipation of a Kyle Lowry trade that would never come, specifically selling Matt Thomas and Terence Davis for a 2nd round pick each. Thomas went to Utah and Davis went to Sacramento. I would have really liked to see Koby Altman jump in and take one of them given our surplus of 2nd rounders, but it's not the end of the world.
Since the rosters are set aside from buyout candidates, TradeNBA.com's trade machine allows you to make trades as if it was the 2021 offseason. So, I figured I'd poke around and see what I could do. The big one I wanted to do was check out possible Kevin Love trades. Love's contract will have 2 years left at that point, making it tradable, or at least more tradable. This offseason could be the first real window where Love trades actually get serious. He's been thrown around in trade talks for forever, but there's a legitimate chance he could get traded this summer.
The one I came up with is sending Love to Washington to pair up with Beal and Westbrook. Washington never seems to actually tank and probably won't as long as they have Beal. I could see them starting to blow it all up next deadline, but if they follow patters, they'll probably try to make a push one more time, and Kevin could be that guy for them. Here it is:
-Cavaliers get Goran Dragic and Thomas Bryant for Love
-Wizards get Love for Davis Bertans and Thomas Bryant
-Heat get Davis Bertans for Goran Dragic
Goran Dragic will be 35 next year. I'm not sure how much left he'll have in the tank. Given the roster that the Heat have now, it seems possible that Miami will be comfortable moving on from him. However, he is on a team option, so it'll require Miami to pick that option up for the trade to go through. From the Cavaliers' prospective, Dragic's expiring contract would make him not too difficult to trade, and he can be bought out if there isn't a trade to be had. Kind of similar to the Drummond situation, just with a smaller salary to make trades easier. Thomas Bryant can and probably will also be flipped to another team for assets that can go back to either Washington or Miami if either of them is hesitant. Some places Bryant would make sense are Toronto, Charlotte, OKC if they move Horford, and possibly Detroit. He's a good young center averaging 14 and 6 on 70% TS% and has a 3pt shot, someone will definitely want him. Anthony Gill is just salary filler that will. be cut as soon as the trade is done. He's a 28 year old rookie with 72 total minutes played. He's not worth anything.
Washington would be taking a little bit of a gamble with Love, but if they later want to blow it all up, Love's contract ends 2 years before Bertans'. As for Miami, they'd be getting off an aging point guard for a 6'10 sharpshooter who's locked up long term and would fit great on this team.
Overall I think this trade makes a lot of sense for all sides. Cavs get expiring contracts for Love with room to add more assets, Washington gets Love to make one last push with Beal and Westbrook, and Miami pairs up Adebayo in the frontcourt with Bertans for an aging guard they might be looking to move on from.
Other trades I would like to see next season involve the aforementioned Cedi Osman and Taurean Prince, but obvious destinations for either player will have to take time to emerge. Now that it is all said and done, I'm happy with how our deadline turned out. I would like to have done more, but the trade we did make was a good one for us.
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