Cleveland Cavaliers: Three initial takeaways from Kyle Korver trade
By Dan Gilinsky
#2: Don’t buy into Burks having an impact for the Cavs
The Cleveland Cavaliers, even without Korver (who has mostly played the 2 in his career), have too many natural 2’s for a number of players getting huge minutes in their natural position. Burks has shown he can score in his NBA career with the Jazz; he has career averages of 9.6 points on 42.5 percent shooting (including the aforementioned 35.5 percent from deep) in 20.8 minutes per game, per Basketball Reference.
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Cleveland is going to be featuring Sexton, Hood, Osman and Jordan Clarkson often in their offense via drive-and-kicks and cuts to the rim, and David Nwaba has warranted significant playing time in their rotation as an energy player who is probably the team’s best overall defender.
With that being the case and Cleveland head coach Larry Drew beginning to have his rotation sorted out, it’s very unclear as to where Burks will fit in. His three-point rate has increased in recent seasons, but he’s a player that can handle combo guard duties at times, and objectively speaking, he’s proven to be more effective as a player with the ball in his hands creating for himself and others.
Relegating him to an off-ball role, likely playing with Clarkson or Andrew Harrison probably won’t get maximum production out of Burks, who was previously playing with high-level playmakers in Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell.
In addition, as we’ve noted, Burks’ contract is expiring after this season, making him a viable candidate to be traded again, this time by Cleveland, as Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies demonstrated.
Reason I bring this up is because $11M deal in its last year is one heck of an asset. #Cavs backcourt is awfully crowded at this time, too. Solid talent in Burks coming to Cleveland, but also a very tradeable contract. https://t.co/bAItCH0RnP
— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) November 29, 2018
Look for Burks, who can provide bench scoring to a number of potential postseason teams, to be moved again prior to the February trade deadline.
The last takeaway is that Cleveland will need to get its potential franchise superstar the old-fashioned way.