The three biggest questions about the Cavaliers’ offseason

#3: Trades, trades and more trades?

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The Cleveland Cavaliers will likely be a very active team on the trade market this summer. The Cavs have already acquired several future assets this past year (seven additional draft picks, in fact), but could feasibly look to acquire more this summer for the coming years.

One guy who could be very well be traded this summer is J.R. Smith. Smith, though he’s been fairly ineffective for the last few years and was reportedly not actively with the team since the season’s first 11 games, has a very team-friendly contract, as we’ve detailed often recently.

Only $3.87 million of Smith’s $15.68 million salary for next season (which is the final year of his contract) is guaranteed this season for Smith if he’s released on or before June 30, according to Spotrac.

Additionally, Fedor recently went into detail about how valuable the contract is and what the Cavs could get in return, and it seems that Altman is all over it when it comes to capitalizing on the possibilities on the trade market, even saying, per Fedor, that due to Smith’s contract, the Cavs are “the only team in the NBA that can provide guaranteed cap relief until July 1.”

Fedor would also touch on how due to owner Dan Gilbert’s willingness to take on bad contracts, it could only help in Cleveland’s rebuild with potential assets being acquired.

Smith won’t be the only name in trade talks this year and/or offseason, though.

The Cavs have several guys in Jordan Clarkson, Brandon Knight, Matthew Dellavedova, John Henson, and Tristan Thompson who are set to be on expiring contracts next season.

The Cavs almost certainly won’t trade all of these guys, as some will likely be extended this summer, but a couple probably won’t be back, and the Cavs will be seeking more assets in return for their expiring deals.

I believe Clarkson is on the side of the more likely to get traded due to his value as a bench scorer for contending teams, and Dan Gilinsky of KJG did a piece on why Knight is more likely to get traded, too, due to his potential trade value as a stable backup playmaker.

In my opinion, those guys are probably the most likely of the bunch to get traded, while it makes more sense to keep Thompson for a longtime veteran presence and leadership experience since Thompson’s been with Cleveland since 2011.

I’m sure Kevin Love‘s name, as it does every offseason, will get brought up in hypothetical trades, but the Cavs really seem to value Kevin, so it would probably take a monster trade offer for the Cavs to trade him, and along with that, Altman recently highlighted how Love projects to be a key piece of the Cavs’ future, too, as Gilinsky hit on.

You never say never, but it’s hard to imagine, given Love’s injury history, a team doing that.

Realistically, Smith, Clarkson, and Knight are probably the most likely guys that will get serious trade consideration for future assets.

Moreover, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be an intriguing team to watch this offseason, as they find out if they win the Zion sweepstakes, if they can hopefully find a head coach who will lead this young team for the next several years, and they’ll hopefully be able to make moves via trade to add more trade assets for the future.