Is Aaron Gordon worth trading the Brooklyn Nets’ pick?

The Cleveland Cavaliers would be wise to utilize their best trade asset at such a pivotal point in the season. With Orlando Magic power forward Aaron Gordon and point guard Elfrid Payton becoming available, there may never be a better player package to use it on.

There’s a time and a place for everything. At least, that’s what we’ve always been told. Now is the time for the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade the Brooklyn Nets’ pick for the best available player on the market, Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon.

Gordon, a 22-year-old high-flyer who has evolved his game considerably since his rookie season, is the type of young, versatile and athletic player that’s missing on this roster. He’s also a player who, averaging 18.3 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, can replicate Kevin Love’s season averages of 17.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

It will, however, be in a different manner; Love is a sharpshooter and low-post player while Gordon is a jack of all trades but master at attacking the rim. However, Gordon has enough skill for him to learn from a similarly built player in LeBron James and develop into the perennial All-Star that he has the talent to be.

Love, who will miss up to eight weeks with a fractured left hand, could miss around 20 games in that time span with just 31 games left on the Cavs schedule this season.

That’s around two-thirds of the remaining games and the Cleveland Cavaliers were already loosening their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference before his injury, falling to third in the Eastern Conference standings despite being the heavy favorites to be the top-seed.

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As time has progressed, it’s become evident that there’s another problem: Cleveland isn’t the place for Isaiah Thomas.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to be in Cleveland. It’s not because a lot Cavs fans and media members seemingly don’t want him playing for their team.

It’s because as the Cleveland Cavaliers march through the season, they’ve found themselves entangled in a web of egos. Thomas, one of the newest members of the team and rotation, has been one of the loudest voices. That, is not a problem.

What he’s saying, and to a greater extent how he says it, is.

To be fair, he’s said a lot of the right things. He’s preaching togetherness and communication to reporters, shooting down rumors that he had a rift with Love and publicly displaying confidence in his team.

However, his body language around his teammates during games and on the bench is that of a player in isolation.

It doesn’t help that he doesn’t take responsibility for the Cavs’ putrid defense, despite having the worst defensive rating of any player in the last 25 years. His mindset, one of a player trying to prove naysayers wrong and get a maximum contract in the summer, doesn’t fit on a team where he needs to play off of Love and James to be the secondary, if not tertiary, playmaker.

A team where “sacrifice” is part of the Cavaliers’ credo.

Thomas shouldn’t be blamed for being rusty after a season-ending injury led to him being out for seven months and didn’t leave him in full health when he returned. When considering that he’s learning a new offense without as much practice time as he’s used to, it becomes even harder to blame him for substandard play.

However, his mindset, is all on him.

He’s trying to be a team guy, give him his credit. However, when you read between the lines, he’s looking out for his best interests. That’s perfectly fine but his best interests just don’t mesh well with the team on the court of off of it, right now. When you listen to the defiance and frustration in his voice, it’s clear that he’s unhappy and rightly so. Unfortunately, the negative energy and self-serving attitude isn’t what the team needs.

Frankly, he should see him being traded to a team where he can take as many shots as he likes and be “the man”, like he wants. After all, at times he shown flashes of the player who led the Boston Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals last season.

He just hasn’t done it consistently enough to warrant confidence in his play down the stretch, especially with Love out for such a significant stretch of the season.

That’s where Orlando Magic point guard Elfrid Payton comes in.

The guy with the insane hairstyle, mindset of a pure passer, athletic advantages and the type of work ethic that’s led to him shooting 40.3 percent from three-point range this season after shooting 29.8 percent from three-point range in his first three seasons. Payton, who is averaging 13.1 points, 6.2 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game is everything that Thomas is not as a player, for better or for worse.

Starting with his frame, the 6-foot-4 Payton towers over Thomas (who is 5-foot-9) and has a wingspan of 6-foot-7 compared to Thomas’ wingspan of 6-foot-1. While Thomas is athletic but undersized, Payton is athletic with the physical frame to strike an imposing presence on the defensive end.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers go against the likes of Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry or Kyrie Irving, larger point guards who could meet in the postseason, they’d be better off with a similar-sized point guard sticking with them.

Payton is never going to be the volume scorer who averages 28.9 points per game, as Thomas did last season with the Boston Celtics.

He’s the player that prefers to break down defenses and get his teammates involved, having finished in the top ten in total assists twice in his NBA career in three seasons. While having that many assists would make it seem like Payton is a high-usage player, he’s never had a usage rate higher than 21.6 percent in any season. Payton is the type of player who ease the playmaking burden placed on James without dominating the ball.

Payton should also be able to get quite a few easy buckets for James too.

His ability to keep his teammates involved will allow James to focus on scoring and rebounding, two areas where he’ll need to step up his game. James, who is averaging 26.6 points per game, doesn’t need to score more. However, he does need to be more assertive as a scorer throughout the course of the game; he can’t do that when focused on facilitating.

Replacing the trigger-happy Thomas with Payton, a player who will play off of the offense, should do wonders for James and the offense overall.

In terms of where Payton does have an advantage over Thomas, who is far and away a more natural jump shooter, it’s inside the arc.

Payton is taking 42.4 percent of his shots 0-3 feet away from the rim and converting 69.6 percent of those attempts, he’s been more efficient than Thomas. Thomas is taking 19.4 percent of his shots 0-3 feet away from the rim and converting 45.5 percent of those attempts. Furthermore, Payton is scoring on 48.0 percent of his drives to the rim while Thomas is scoring on just 40.0 percent of his.

For those that would wonder about the space Payton could provide, so far the point guard is shooting 40.3 percent from three-point range and 45.0 percent from the corners. Having Payton camp out in the corners would ultimately be best for the Cleveland Cavaliers, whose best three-point shooters from that area have been Jose Calderon (66.7 percent), Kyle Korver (51.9 percent), J.R. Smith (46.3 percent), Jae Crowder (41.9 percent), Jeff Green (35.5 percent) and Love (39.5 percent).

Calderon is out of the rotation and Korver, Smith and Love are all capable of consistently hitting threes from anywhere around the arc.

In exchange for Thomas, Jae Crowder and the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick, the Cleveland Cavaliers should receive Gordon and Payton.

The Cavs hit reset.

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*Unless otherwise referenced, all stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com