Cleveland Cavaliers: A Damian Lillard trade would’ve changed everything

After the Kyrie Irving trade request before last season made Irving coming back to the team unlikely, LeBron James was reportedly pushing the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade for Portland Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard, and that would’ve changed things drastically.

Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers made the NBA Finals last season, it was evident that the team was riding the coattails of LeBron James much of the way. The King did his thing for Cleveland as always, but the given the inconsistency of the supporting cast, the Cavaliers had a world of trouble in the Eastern Conference Playoffs and were overmatched against the star-studded Golden State Warriors. According to Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher, James wanted Cleveland to trade Kyrie Irving (after James was convinced Irving was holding firm in his trade request before last season) for Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers.

"“League sources say that when James became convinced Irving couldn’t be persuaded to stay in Cleveland, he suggested to the Cavs front office that it deal Irving to the Blazers for All-Star point guard Damian Lillard.”"

Cleveland would obviously go on to trade Irving to the Boston Celtics in a trade that essentially didn’t work out too well for the Cavs (outside of getting to pick a player with a bright future in Collin Sexton). Outside of a few pieces in a trade following that infamous trade at the NBA trade deadline last season, it’s still rough to look bad on, given how much Cleveland needed a second star primary ball-handler to have a legitimate chance against Golden State.

Game 1 and 3 of the 2018 Finals could’ve easily been wins with just James playing otherworldly ball, and with Lillard’s playmaking (which is about equal to Irving’s), Cleveland would have had a good shot at beating the Dubs.

Lillard is averaging a career-high 27.3 points on 58.2 percent true shooting, to go with 6.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game (also a career-high).

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When you factor in how the Houston Rockets took the Warriors to seven games in last year’s Western Conference Finals, and could have feasibly came out on top if Chris Paul didn’t miss the last two games due to a hamstring injury, that proves that if you have two elite playmakers, you have a realistic chance to beat Golden State.

The Cleveland Cavaliers did not last season, and even though Cleveland lost in five games with the Irving-James combo in the 2017 NBA Finals, that series was much closer than the final W-L tally indicated; think of the first Kevin Durant long three-point shot in the final minute in that Game 3 (which would happen in the 2018 Game 3 as well).

In addition to having a much, much better chance against the Dubs in the Finals with a playmaker of Lillard’s caliber aligned with James, I would imagine Lillard being signed through the 2020-21 season (per Spotrac) would have been instrumental in James coming back to Cleveland. As you now probably know, James signed a four-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers in July.

The Cavaliers are now in rebuilding mode, though, and the key to the next few years is developing players such as Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr., and Sexton. If that suggested Lillard-Irving deal happened, Cleveland would likely still be among the East’s elite teams.

That’s just more food for thought I guess, but general manager Koby Altman was brand new on the job at the time, and he’s been getting better.