Cleveland Cavaliers: Brandon Knight is looking for rebirth

Once upon a time, Brandon Knight’s name was in the same conversation as his fellow draft classmates Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker.

After being selected eighth overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, Brandon Knight spent his first two seasons with the Detroit Pistons. Though Knight averaged 13.3 points and 4.0 assists on 36.7 percent shooting from three-point range, Knight was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in the summer of 2013.

Knight’s arguably most significant moment from his time in Detroit was him getting crossed up by former Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving.

Once in Milwaukee, Knight once again performed well, putting up 17.9 points and 4.9 assists per game in year one with the Bucks, per Basketball Reference. Through 52 games the next season, Knight was consistent and was averaging nearly the same numbers, and was hitting 40.9 percent of his three-point attempts.

Despite what appeared to be Knight’s best professional season, Milwaukee traded Knight to the Phoenix Suns.

Knight would then spend the next two-plus seasons in the desert, where he put up 15.0 points per game, but his long-range shooting took a dip to just 33.4 percent, per Basketball Reference.

Knight then reportedly suffered a severe knee injury prior to the 2017-18 season and missed the entire year. Before he would have the chance to suit up again for the Suns, Knight was traded (again) to the title-contending Houston Rockets.

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However, Knight really never got the chance to play for the Rockets this season, as he only appeared in 12 games, averaging just 3.0 points per game.

Now the 27-year-old Knight found himself traded (as a Cavs’ press release noted) for the fourth time in his career, and is back in the Eastern Conference with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A big reason for the trade is that Houston, a team fighting the salary cap, wanted to shed some of Knight’s loaded contract. According to Spotrac, Knight is slated to make $14,631,250 this season and $15,643,750 next season.

That is quite the payday for a player that has not performed at that level in the past few years, as we’ve hit on here at KJG.

But the Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly received Houston’s 2019 first-round pick and a 2022 second-round pick in addition to adding Knight, which is why they took on his ugly contract.

For him, this is a chance to reboot his career. Knight is already playing for his fifth NBA team, and until his knee injury last season was actually performing like a solid NBA role player.

So now that Knight is on a team that is not so much worried about wins as they are building for the future, he can relax and work on getting his game back up to par.

The Cavaliers need to fill out a roster and need bodies on the floor, so as long as Knight is healthy, there is a good chance he will be out on the floor.

A scorer at heart, Knight will likely be asked to fill it up and some primary playmaking when rookie Collin Sexton is not out on the floor, and that could take some pressure off of Jordan Clarkson, who could actually be playing a starting role at times, anyhow, as head coach Larry Drew reportedly said yesterday (h/t Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor).

As you can see from the video clip above, Knight can get to the bucket and score the ball, he just needs to learn how to do so at a consistent pace.

Either way, the Cavaliers may be more concerned with the 2019 first-round pick, as KJG contributor Marcus Grey pointed out. With this pick, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have the chance to add a talented young prospect in the June draft.

That being said, Knight can also be a mentor to Sexton of sorts, as both were selected with the eighth overall pick, and Knight knows the kind of pressure of going to a bad team and being asked to be the centerpiece of a rebuild.

Though Knight’s career may not have panned out how he had envisioned it when he was selected in the top 10, he can help guide someone that is now in the shoes he was in before.

This could be the start of a career reset for Knight, as he still has a lot of basketball left in him at just 27 years old. But if he struggles to get things going, hopefully he stays engaged and helps the young players around him. Only time will tell.