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

The Cavs-Nets portion of the deal

Allen Crabbe has been up and down for Brooklyn since being traded there by the Trail Blazers before the 2017-18 season.

This season, he’s averaged 9.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in 26.1 minutes per game, but shot only 34.3 percent from the field.

Granted, Crabbe gets some of a pass, however, considering that he’s been sidelined since December 12 (due to a knee injury), and is reportedly just now available to play tonight against the Nuggets, per Bryan Fonseca of SB Nation’s NetsDaily.

Crabbe has shot 38.7 percent from three, though, and that could help the Cleveland Cavaliers, who currently are tied for a league-low in three-pointers made per game, per NBA.com.

The elephant in the room with Crabbe that seems to make trading him a priority for Brooklyn?

If Crabbe opts in to his player option for the 2019-20 season (which would make sense for him to do), he’ll be due to make $18.5 million, per Spotrac.

That’s something that would greatly hamper the Nets’ 2019 summer free agent hopes, as Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale highlighted, and allows them to not renounce D’Angelo Russell‘s restricted-free-agent-hold.

That would be ideal for Brooklyn, considering Russell is having a heck of a season and looks to be ascending this year, based on him averaging 19.6 points on 53.4 percent true shooting and 6.4 assists per game.

"“Finding a taker for Allen Crabbe’s 2019-20 money gives them a line to more than $40 million in wiggle room without renouncing D’Angelo Russell’s restricted-free-agent-hold. The Nets shouldn’t give up their own pick to do it, but Denver’s selection or attaching [Rondae] Hollis-Jefferson to a goulash of second-rounders is worth the extra spending power.”"

At first glance, Brooklyn taking back J.R. Smith‘s more than $14.7 million salary for this season (per Spotrac) probably doesn’t sound too fantastic, but he’s only guaranteed to make $3.87 million for the 2019-20 season.

As far as the rest of this season is concerned, considering Smith has not been actively engaged with the Cleveland Cavaliers since November, he should be more than rested, and his 37.3 three-point percentage lifetime (per Basketball Reference) could provide similar spacing for Brooklyn to Crabbe.

For the Nets likely pouring Crabbe’s bloated player option onto the Cavs for next season, them sending over the Denver Nuggets’ top-12 protected pick (which is currently slated as the 27th overall pick next year, per Tankathon, right now) seems more than fair, and Altman adds to his developing draft pick stash for the near future.

Overall, this trade seems to considerably benefit all three sides, and based on the mentioned suggestions and reports, I could see happening.