Anthony Davis should be the Cavs’ top trade target, even if its unrealistic

Anthony Davis should be the Cleveland Cavaliers top trade target, no matter how unrealistic acquiring him (currently) is.

The “N” in NBA doesn’t stand for “never”, so never say never. However, if we’re being honest, the words that are going to follow this sentence might never happen. The Cleveland Cavaliers need to trade for New Orleans Pelicans’ big man Anthony Davis.

Of course, when it comes to blockbuster trades, the names currently tied to the Cleveland Cavaliers are Marc Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies and Davis’ teammate in the Big Easy, DeMarcus Cousins. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that nearly everyone believes they need an All-Star level big man to man the middle for them because it really just means one thing for the Cavs: they may truly be better without Kevin Love.

That tweet was created before the Cleveland Cavaliers’ victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime. However, the point still stands as Love’s on/off numbers are still the same.

The Cavs’ opponents have an offensive rating of 117.2 when Love is on the floor and 108.1 when he’s off. Say whatever you’d like about that but a player who is one of the three players who are the highest-paid with the highest usage and is known as part of the Cavs’ Big Three shouldn’t be hurting the Cavs on both ends to such an extreme extent. To put it bluntly, despite season averages of 18.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, he’s a weak link.

Without Kyrie Irving or any (healthy) player capable of replicating Irving’s potency on the offensive end in the rotation, Love is actually less field goal attempts (12.8 per game) and points per game while shooting a higher clip from the field (44.9 percent) than he did last season. While this speaks to a lack of assertiveness, it also is concerning because within Love’s time in Cleveland he’s never quite “fit in” on the court. Even now, although he’s much more involved as an inside scorer than he has been in the past.

On offense, while Love has been playing well, it’s concerning that he doesn’t have the energy to defend centers and be aggressive because placing Love at center has been a key to James’ success in attacking the rim. With big men watching Love on the perimeter, there’s often just enough space for James to waltz to the rim. Put Tristan Thompson back on the court and while that spacing won’t necessarily disappear (keeping a body on an active offensive rebounder such as Thompson is extremely important), the floor will shrink and converting shots around the rim will be that much harder for the Cavs’ most efficient and dominant force. The player who (along with an excellent bench unit) is primarily responsible for the Cavs’ nine current victories.

On the defensive end, watching Love try to protect the rim against the pick-and-roll is like watching a man try to use a butter knife to cut a rock. It’s exhausting to see as obviously that butter knife isn’t fit for the job. Love lacks the defensive awareness, quickness and athleticism needed to thrive as a pick-and-roll defender or rim-protector and quite frankly, he severely handicaps the Cavs’ defensive efforts.

With all that noted, there may be only three players in the league with the skillset that the Cavs’ need from their starting center: Joel Embiid, Gasol and Davis. Cousins is averaging 1.5 blocks per game this season and is physically capable of being a monster defender but Embiid, Gasol and Davis have already shown off their offensive versatility and defensive prowess in equal measures throughout their career. Embiid, a cornerstone player for the budding Philadelphia 76ers, is probably more untouchable than Davis is for New Orleans. Gasol doesn’t have the youth to warrant trading a draft pick that could be used on a player who could be the face of the Cavs’ franchise for the next 10 years.

That leaves Davis, an uber-athlete with guard skills in a center’s body and tremendous production on both ends of the floor.

At 6-foot-11 with an 8-foot wingspan, Davis a pterodactyl on the court. He uses his length and an outstanding faceup game to dominate on offense and in 5+ seasons, Davis has averaged 22.5 points per game while shooting 51.5 percent from the field, 78.6 percent from the free-throw line, holding an offensive rating if 115 and a PER of 26.7. Out of his 10.2 rebounds per game, 2.5 have come on the offensive end. For those interested in his three-point range, Davis is shooting a career-high 38.9 percent from three (2.4 attempts per game) this season.

In the halfcourt, Davis will be a weapon as a shooter, post player and in the pick-and-roll. He’ll even be a threat in transition as he streaks down the court.

Defensively, Davis is versatile enough to lock down any position while being long, athletic, active and alert enough to be an outstanding interior defender. While holding a career defensive rating of 103, Davis has averaged 1.3 steals and 2.4 blocks per game.

He’s holding players to a field goal percentage of 38.1 this season, 8.7 percent less than their average. For comparison, opponents are shooting 55.2 percent from the field against Love.

In an ideal world, the Cavs could trade Love and the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected first-round pick (2018) for Davis. However, unless Davis expresses a desire to be traded he’s likely going to finish the four years remaining on his contract in New Orleans. If there’s even the slightest chance the Cavs can acquire him though, a Big 3 of Davis, Isaiah Thomas and LeBron James would be lethal and the team would replace Love with a player that’s better on both ends. A player who isn’t a weak link in even the loosest sense of the word.

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*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com and stats.nba.com