The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team that needs to start figuring things out, and that may mean trading away one of their budding stars to find pieces that fix their problems.
When the season started, many believed that the Cleveland Cavaliers would get off to a hot start and just never stop rolling. Instead, what actually happened was the Cavaliers stumbled out of the gate and didn’t win eight straight games until December — a month into the season.
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The losing at the beginning of the season led to trade rumors to get kicked up that involved Kyrie Irving but those are as stupid now as they were last season. Cleveland is not trading their superstar point guard just because he’s struggling to adjust in his role on this new-look roster. They could, instead, trade away their budding shooting guard who is right now playing off the bench and doing a hit-and-miss job at it.
Dion Waiters was trade bait last season and as it stands right now he’s Cleveland’s most trade-worthy asset. That’s not to say teams wouldn’t listen to offers on Tristan Thompson or Matthew Dellavedova, but they’d do so only after inquiring about Waiters.
Waiters is an interesting trade chip who could come in handy when it comes t getting Cleveland the defensive help they need. Just as was pointed out here at the beginning of the preseason, the Cavaliers need rim protection — badly — and have no means other than free agency to get it.
Right now, Emeka Okafor seems to be the best option on the market for the Cavaliers and he’s not even medically cleared to return. Cleveland may need to end up coupling their Keith Bogans trade exception with Waiters to acquire someone like Timofey Mozgov or Kosta Koufos. Waiters is someone that is playing well off the bench for the Cavaliers — another area where they need to be mindful of what happens moving forward — but he’s expendable.
His option was picked up through the 2015-16 season, meaning anyone acquiring him has his rights through then which is very attractive. He’s not all that expensive either, which also helps his value.
But Cleveland needs him coming off the bench as just like they need rim protection, they can’t openly sacrifice bench production to get it. Losing Waiters creates a hole on the bench that would need to be filled by Joe Harris or Matthew Dellavedova — and do you trust them to fill in? They’re not bad options, but Waiters has way more upside than either of those players and coupling them in a deal would be a better option than giving up on Waiters who could pop into being an All-Star Sixth Man this season.
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