Cleveland Cavaliers: Stock Up, Stock Down Part 3 – Week 2

Note: the “stock up, stock down” doesn’t necessarily refer to trade stock, but is of a way to review how the Cleveland Cavaliers’ players have been performing.

After about two weeks of regular season play, the Cleveland Cavaliers have fired more coaches than they have won games. There are very few positive standouts this week.

Stock Up: Rodney Hood

Rodney Hood‘s stock is up, but just barely. After a very tough start to the year, Hood put back-to-back solid performances together, with a 17-point, two steal effort in a loss to the Indiana Pacers and a 26-point burst in the win against Atlanta Hawks. Hood shot the three ball at 50.0 percent during those two games.

He then followed those games up with two points on one-of-nine shooting in a loss to the Denver Nuggets. Hood has lacked consistency throughout his brief tenure in Cleveland. He gets the nod for stock up this week because of the two performances, but his stock is just barely up.

Stock Steady: Jordan Clarkson

Steady and Jordan Clarkson are seldom used in the same sentence, as the erratic guard had an up and (mostly) down season in Cleveland last year since being traded over from the Los Angeles Lakers. Over the three games this past week, Clarkson came down to earth a little bit, putting up 14.7 points a night (which was a bit of a decrease) while shooting a very solid 48.7 percent from the field.

Stock Down: Kevin Love

The Cleveland Cavaliers signed Kevin Love to a large extension this summer, knowing he’s had injuries in the past. Just four games into the season, Love was diagnosed with a toe injury, which required surgery, and according to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, “his status will be updated in six weeks.”

With Love on the shelf for a while already, and still being under a massive contract, his stock has taken a tumble.

Stock Down: J.R. Smith

In this case, J.R. Smith‘s stock has fallen not because of something on-court, since he really hasn’t been on the court. He’s played in four games this year and had a DNP due to “Coach’s Decision” in the last two contests. Smith said he’d like to be traded from the team, per Sporting News’ Jordan Heck, and that wasn’t ideal from a team morale standpoint.

Smith was seen as a leader for the young players, and his new attitude given this situation isn’t a great look. We’ll see what happens.