Ranking the 5 Cavs most likely to be traded

The Cleveland Cavaliers may have no choice but to trade one of their veterans. Who’s most likely to be dealt to a new team?

With the Cleveland Cavaliers firmly entrenched in a youth movement, there are a  number of veterans on the roster whose presence impedes the development of their young talent.

While these veteran players may be valued for their on-court production, mentorship and general persona, building a championship-contender in this epoch requires a team to invest in their younger players and that’s simply what the Cavs have  to do.

You may wonder which players would need to be traded and this list not only covers that, it ranks the veterans most likely to be traded.

5. J.R. Smith

Between the Cleveland Cavaliers’ logjam at shooting guard, J.R. Smith’s steadily declining regular season play, his habitually poor shot-selection and an infamous gaffe in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals that may have been the moment that cemented LeBron James’ decision to leave the Cavs in free agency, there are quite a few reasons that the Cavaliers’ front office could choose to move on from the artist known as “Swish.”

A charismatic player whose career was tainted by immaturity, Smith has rebranded himself in Cleveland. He’s no longer the player that will tie your shoes in the middle of the game. He cares about defense and being a part of something greater than himself.

He may walk off the court to greet a player or forget the score at the end of a championship game though. However, in all fairness to Smith, he’s had far fewer newsworthy mistakes with the Cavs than at any point in his career.

Unfortunately for the 32-year-old Smith, who has generally been a solid three-and-D player for the Cavs when he’s locked-in mentally, giving him minutes takes away playing time from the young shooting guards — Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson — and other wings the Cavs want to develop, like Cedi Osman.

Consequentially, keeping Smith on the roster means not only keeping an aging player with bad offensive habits and declining athleticism but keeping a player with those negative traits that will take minutes away from young players meant to be fixtures for the future.

Quite frankly, he’s just not good enough to be taking minutes away from players like Hood and Osman, in particular.

While the Cavs have been trying to trade Smith for quite some time, what makes Smith unlikely to be traded are those many negative traits in addition to the $30.4 million he’s owed over the next two seasons (only $3.9 million of his salary is guaranteed for 2019-2020).