Cavs shouldn’t have interest in a potential trade for Russell Westbrook

There seems to be a growing contingent campaigning for the Cleveland Cavaliers to potentially trade for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook, and I can’t seem to figure out the reason.

Fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers and some elsewhere have to understand that the Cavaliers are at the beginning of a full-rebuild; that means they have to preach patience, and it seems that general manager Koby Altman and the organization are well aware of that.

Some others clearly need to have a reality check when it comes to possible Eastern Conference contention in the near future for the Cavs, though.

The Oklahoma City Thunder it seems may be thinking of shifting toward somewhat of a rebuild, or at least retooling, of their own, now, because as you probably are aware of, the Thunder traded uber-talented wing Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers, as was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, for a truckload of future first-round draft picks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari.

The Thunder did get to the Western Conference postseason in the two seasons they had George, but they were knocked out both times, in 2018 by the Utah Jazz and in 2019 by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Given the George dealing out of town, Westbrook has to question what the Thunder’s direction is moving forward, and based on another report from Wojnarowski, the 30-year-old OKC point guard and his agent are in discussions with the Thunder organization, and it seems that will involve potential trade suitors.

Clearly, Westbrook is a heck of a player, as evidenced by him averaging 22.9 points, 11.1 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game last season (per Basketball Reference). He’s averaged a triple-double the last three regular seasons, which is nothing short of insane, especially for a player who is listed as a 6-foot-3, 200-pound lead guard.

So as far as where Westbrook might want to go, you’d think it’d be a legitimate contender, and according to Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale, potential trade destinations for Russ could be the Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns.

As far as the Cleveland Cavaliers are concerned, they acquired three young pieces that I believe could all be really valuable pieces for their future in Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr., and it would be reasonable to imagine at least one of them would be moved in a potential trade for Westbrook.

In a hypothetical deal, Favale suggested that Cleveland would send J.R. Smith, Brandon Knight and Porter.

The key it seems from the Favale deal for the Thunder from that return is the cap relief purposes given Smith’s partial-guarantee of now $4.4 million.

For the record, his guarantee date was moved back to July 15, per The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon (though his fully-guaranteed 2019-20 salary of $15.68 million would count as the number for trades), and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted that the guarantee date could be moved back to August 1.

Anyhow, in this hypothetical deal (which goes through in the ESPN NBA trade machine by the way), Favale would go further for the salary relief for OKC, so perhaps this is a deal they’d be interested in, but from the Cavs’ perspective, I’ll pass.

"“Oklahoma City won’t find more immediate savings. A deal including Porter, Smith and Brandon Knight trims more than $17 million from the bottom line and gets the Thunder under the luxury-tax threshold-provided, of course, they waive Smith.The Cavaliers would have to reconcile the expensive overlap of this scenario. They’ll have to cut salary to avoid the luxury tax even if they waive Smith themselves. Taking on Westbrook consigns them to a payroll north of $150 million, before taxes next season.”"

Now, the roster would probably change more via trades after this potential scenario, anyway, and will almost certainly with the Cavaliers having a bunch of expiring contracts after next season.

Favale would also suggest that in a potential deal, Cleveland may have to send OKC either Garland or Collin Sexton to sweeten it, and in that case, I would imagine the Cavs might want a player such as Darius Bazley, a promising prospect, in exchange. Furthermore, I’d think Cleveland would feasibly have to send a few future draft picks.

Anyway, I’m not a fan of the Cavs trading for Westbrook, who has a remaining dead cap number of over $171 million on his contract, though the last year of it has a player option of a hefty over $47.0 million for 2022-2023, per Spotrac.

Yes, the salary cap will increase in coming years, but what would the Cleveland Cavaliers be doing?

Would they really be contenders with the addition of Westbrook, who though he is a really good player, swallows possessions from other players, and does not seem easy to play with?

One could understand why Kevin Durant originally left OKC as an unrestricted free agent, given Westbrook’s question decision-making, rushed shots and ill-advised turnovers.

I get that the Cavs would possibly be a postseason team next year if they traded for Westbrook and Complex’s Zach Frydenlund believes they’d be a “legit threat” in the East, (I don’t agree) but regardless, that’s fully reliant on Kevin Love being healthy for most of the 2019-20 season, anyway, and that’s a big if.

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

Additionally, Westbrook’s lifetime usage rate of 32.6% and three-point shooting hit rate of 30.8% (both per Basketball Reference) wouldn’t be a great fit in Cavaliers head coach John Beilein‘s offense, which will be more predicated on perimeter shooting and man/ball movement with an emphasis on not over-dribbling.

Along with that, I don’t want the Cavs to trade Collin Sexton, who as we’ve often highlighted, improved as his rookie season progressed, and looks to project as a much better shooter (and shot 40.2% from three-point range in 2018-19, per NBA.com) than Westbrook, whose shooting has gone progressively downhill in recent years.

Westbrook is a lifetime 58.8% shooter from 0-3 feet from the rim, 31.6% lifetime shooter from 3-10 feet from the rim, 39.1% lifetime shooter from 10-16 feet out and a 38.4% lifetime shooter from 16 feet to the three-point arc (all courtesy of Basketball Reference).

Needless to say, for a player that has averaged 18.6 shots per game for his career, he’s not exactly the poster boy of efficiency, and that’s being nice; a career effective field goal shooting clip of 46.5% is lower than (though it was a one-year sample size) Sexton’s of 48.0% (again, per NBA.com).

With the Eastern Conference being deep, and the Cavaliers not realistically having a chance to beat the Indiana Pacers, who had a great free agency period, the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, and I would argue wouldn’t have much of a chance against good defensive teams in the Miami Heat and even minus-Kawhi Leonard now, the Toronto Raptors, what’s the point of getting Westbrook via trade?

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to give Beilein and his staff time to develop young pieces such as Garland, Sexton, Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic and Porter, and be patient, as this rebuild needs time.

Trading for Westbrook (who wouldn’t be able to hunt for steals defensively and would have to aid in the growth of other players by playing off the ball more on offense), to cement Cleveland as the East’s seventh-placed team, provided Love is healthy, and paying out potentially over $171 million to a point guard who doesn’t space the floor and is difficult to play with would be hurting the Cavs’ future.

It wouldn’t be a winning an NBA championship, or really even winning a postseason series type of move, so Cavs fans on Twitter and on local radio should quit the campaigning for it.