Cavs are off to a good deadline start with reported trade of Rodney Hood

The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly traded Rodney Hood to the Portland Trail Blazers today, and that was a good start to the time surrounding the upcoming NBA trade deadline.

It makes sense for the Cleveland Cavaliers to be having a “selling” approach when it comes to the time near the upcoming February 7 NBA trade deadline. They started off the time near the deadline with a quality move, in reportedly trading Rodney Hood to the Portland Trail Blazers, in exchange for guards Nik Stauskas, Wade Baldwin, and a pair of future second-round picks, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

This is exactly what I want to see from Cavs general manager Koby Altman, when it comes to using an expiring contract (in Hood, who is playing this season on a one-year qualifying offer), and bringing back, most importantly, future draft assets.

Two second-round draft picks for Hood is a solid return, and ESPN’s Bobby Marks emphasized how Altman is really building a nice stockpile of future draft assets in the coming years through good trades this season, when it comes to dealing veterans such as Kyle Korver, George Hill, Sam Dekker and Hood.

Hood had some really good games this year for the Cleveland Cavaliers and averaged a respectable 12.2 points per game, but the writing seemed to be on the wall when it came to him getting dealt by Cleveland by the trade deadline, given his team-friendly contract being a clear target for postseason contenders.

With him having “veto power” on trades given him playing this season on the one-year qualifying offer, as Wojnarowski highlighted, it was beneficial that Altman was able to find a partner that would suffice for Hood, who was said to have “enthusiasm for joining the Blazers on a playoff push,” again, per Wojnarowski.

This sort of deal was a no-nonsense move for the Cavs, who now have a good number of future second-round draft picks in the near future, which could allow them to gradually build their roster better and get a younger core in the coming years.

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It’s unclear as to how Stauskas and Baldwin will fit into the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rotation, but that’s a minor issue, considering Cleveland isn’t focused on winning games the rest of this season, realistically, anyway.

Stauskas, a shooting guard, is a decent mainly catch-and-shoot role player off the bench, as evidenced by his 6.1 points on 51.3 percent effective field goal shooting in 15.3 minutes per game this year, per Basketball Reference.

He could provide some decent minutes for Cleveland’s bench occasionally next to Matthew Dellavedova or Jordan Clarkson. Baldwin, a reserve point guard, has only played in 16 games this season, and has averaged 1.9 points and 0.8 assists in 5.9 minutes per game, per NBA.com.

I wouldn’t expect him to have much of a role with Collin Sexton, Dellavedova and Clarkson taking the vast majority of perimeter playmaking duties in front of, but we’ll see.

Could Clarkson be moved in the next few days? As our own Eli Mooneyham noted, Sam Amico of Amico Hoops noted that there is “interest in Clarkson” on a recent podcast with Chase Smith of “Cavs on the Break.”

It would seem that dealing Clarkson near the deadline could feasibly add to the future draft stockpile even more, given that Clarkson has led qualified Cavaliers in scoring this season with 16.8 points per game on 54.4 percent true shooting, per NBA.com.

In addition, as Wojnarowski emphasized in an above tweet, it would make sense that the next player Cleveland could be trading soon is guard Alec Burks, who has an expiring contract and could help contenders, just like Hood. Burks has been a steady player for the Cavs since being traded to them by the Utah Jazz in December, as he’s averaged 11.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game in 33 appearances, per Basketball Reference.

According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, the Houston Rockets shown interest in Burks and (would have in a Hood trade), noting that “Houston will peddle a future first-round pick attached to Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight until the buzzer.”

Lowe said that the two sides have “discussed sending Knight and a pick for Burks.”

He then followed that up by saying “those talks have quieted,” per sources, but the narrative is clear.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will almost certainly be moving Burks, who can help contending teams, and they are focused on building for the near future by acquiring future draft picks.

Altman is doing the right thing right now for Cleveland, and that’s all you can really ask for in regards to jump-starting Cleveland’s full-rebuild.