Cavs: A hypothetical 3-team trade involving the Nets and Rockets

The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly willing to take on salary to acquire draft assets, and a potential trade with the Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets would seem to make sense for all parties involved.

The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly are, and should be, sellers near the upcoming February 7 NBA trade deadline. Cleveland has shown that throughout this season by dealing away veterans in Kyle Korver, George Hill, Sam Dekker, and most recently, Rodney Hood (who was reportedly traded to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski). The common thread as far a return in those trades for the Cavaliers was draft picks, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks recently emphasized.

Players such as Matthew Dellavedova, who was involved in the George Hill trade to the Milwaukee Bucks, should, in my opinion, stick around through the trade deadline with the Cavs. He’s seemed to help in rookie Collin Sexton‘s development, and has played relatively well since coming back to Cleveland. Dellavedova’s type of situation doesn’t fit the narrative surrounding the other pieces returned to Cleveland in their trades executed this season, though, which are players such as Alec Burks or Nik Stauskas, who have been acquired by Cleveland mainly due to them having expiring contracts that are up after this season.

A player such as John Henson, who came over from the Bucks in the previously mentioned Hill trade, also fits.

Henson’s contract is not exactly a bargain; he’s due to make over $20 million combined this season and next, per Spotrac. That’s a lot, considering his marginal production (just 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in 20.1 minutes per game for his career, per Basketball Reference), but is a salary dump Cleveland’s accepted, because of them willing to pay more money for future draft picks.

With Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert willing to take on money to help asset-accumulation, just like in the past post-LeBron James departure (as was described to Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto by former Cleveland general manager David Griffin recently), the Cavs will likely keep wheeling and dealing by Thursday’s 3 P.M. deadline.

Two teams that could be willing trade partners for the Cleveland Cavaliers, given Gilbert’s financial help, are the Brooklyn Nets and the Houston Rockets. Here’s the trade that I believe is reasonable for all parties involved, and works in the ESPN NBA Trade Machine, for the record.

So why does this trade make sense for the Cavs, Nets and Rockets?

We’ll start with the Cavs-Rockets perspective to the hypothetical deal, and the situations in regards to Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss.