Cavs: 3 takeaways from reported trade with Utah Jazz

It was recently reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz in exchange for guard Dante Exum and two future second-round picks. Here’s a few takeaways from the deal.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten good production out of bench scorer Jordan Clarkson for a while, especially in the 2018-19 season, when Clarkson averaged a career-high 16.8 points per game, as noted by Basketball Reference. Clarkson also has been quite solid for the Cavaliers this 2019-20 season, and was third on Cleveland in scoring with 14.6 points per game only behind Collin Sexton and Kevin Love, according to NBA.com, heading into the Cavs’ game Monday against the Atlanta Hawks.

It was recently reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, though, that Clarkson was traded to the Utah Jazz in exchange for guard Dante Exum and two future second-round picks. Those will be 2022 (via the San Antonio Spurs) and 2023 (via the Golden State Warriors) second-rounders, Wojnarowski hit on in an article on the trade.

This is not really shocking, considering many local reporters such as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor and Sports Illustrated‘s Sam Amico, among others, hit on how Clarkson could feasibly be a good trade piece for Cleveland and general manager Koby Altman due to Clarkson being a nice expiring contract bucket-getter for contending teams this upcoming postseason.

Fedor also said that the NBA will likely make the trade official as a result of a call with the Cavs about it with Utah soon.

So what’s the first takeaway from this deal?

Takeaway #1: The first expiring domino hits

As Cavaliers fans are pretty well-aware of at this point, Cleveland headed into this season with five expiring players, not including Cedi Osman, who could have been eligible to be a restricted free agent next offseason but since reportedly signed a four-year contract extension.

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Anyway, those five expiring pieces were Clarkson and now are still Tristan Thompson, John Henson, Matthew Dellavedova and Brandon Knight.

Given how the Cleveland Cavaliers are rebuilding under head coach John Beilein and will likely be playing young pieces such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Kevin Porter Jr., along with feasibly Dylan Windler when he’s back from a reported stress reaction in his left leg, big minutes in coming years, I’d expect other trades/a three-team deal to likely follow by the February 6 deadline.

Though the Cavaliers could potentially have simply let Clarkson’s contract (he’s due to make $13.4 million this season per Spotrac) expire to open up cap room next offseason, at least they got back two future second-rounders.

I could realistically see the Wine and Gold trying to do a similar thing with Thompson, too, who could have value for contenders given his presence on the interior on both ends and elite screening ability on and off the ball.

So, anyhow, with the Cavs being primarily focused on their rebuild in coming years, it’s good for them to get two future second-rounders that could maybe be players Beilein and others could develop. On the other hand, those could be picks they could flip down the road in other deals, or in an upcoming draft, such as how Cleveland reportedly sent four future second-rounders to the Detroit Pistons, along with cash considerations, for the draft pick that became Porter.

Basically, the first takeaway is the asset accumulation by Altman and the front office again, just like the Cavs did throughout the 2018-19 season.

One of those deals was with Utah, for reference, which then initially involved Cleveland reportedly sending Kyle Korver to the Jazz in exchange for Alec Burks, who they would later trade last season via three-team deal to the Sacramento Kings, along with two future second-rounders.

Along with that, Cleveland did a deal near the 2018 deadline where they moved Jae Crowder and that deal involved most notably getting Rodney Hood at the time, too, as Wojnarowski noted.

Again, expect more deals by the 2020 deadline to come with four other expiring contracts, and further, with Henson now healthier showing he’s capable of playing productive reserve minutes from a defensive, screening and even passing standpoint, but Henson has injury concerns, though.

For reference, our own Tyler Marling was on the ball here in suggesting that the Cavs could feasibly move Clarkson to Utah, and Marling also suggested Exum as a potential piece in a deal.

Now to the second takeaway from this reported deal with Utah.

Takeaway #2: More playmaking chances for KPJ

Porter has really come on in recent weeks as a reserve wing, and while mostly appearing at the 3 spot as Osman’s primary backup.

This season, KPJ has shown plenty of flashes as a driver off-the-bounce, and is so talented near the rim as a finisher, and coupled with that, he’s shown much more feel off the ball at this point as a 19-year-old than I would’ve expected to this point.

Porter has averaged 7.9 points per game this year in 21.1 minutes per game, and most of those minutes have come with Clarkson on the floor with him, and with KPJ showing flashes of reserve scoring and the ability to create for others, I’d expect more chances for him to make plays without Clarkson now in the rotation.

Porter is consistently able to create space off-the-bounce when he’s in, and plus, he’s really been a promising passer as a reserve, as evidenced by a respectable assist rate of 14.8% for a score-first player, as indicated by NBA.com. Now Porter will turn it over, too, as he has a turnover rate of 14.1%, but as a rookie wing, that’s more than understandable, and his vision is a big positive.

With Clarkson out of the lineup, I’d expect KPJ to have more usage, and him shooting 37.2% from three-point range in his last 15 games (as noted by NBA.com) is particularly encouraging, and again, without Clarkson in there with him going forward, I’d think KPJ could become much more of a focal point in his minutes.

His chemistry with Darius Garland when Garland’s been in with reserves in recent games has been a budding one, and in coming months, expect that to grow even more, too.

Alright, so on to the third takeaway.

Takeaway #3: A rotational defensive piece..maybe?

Now we’ll touch on the Exum piece to the deal a bit for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I’ll start here in noting that Exum has been injured quite often in his career to this point, and Exum has appeared in just 11 games and only played 7.5 minutes per game in 2019-20 with the Jazz.

Exum missed the entire 2015-16 due to a reported ACL tear, and as Bleacher Report’s Kyle Newport noted, Exum played in just 14 games in 2017-18 due to shoulder surgery. Newport also touched on how Exum tore his patellar tendon in March of last year, too, and clearly, injuries are a huge concern with him and his offensive impact is pretty minimal.

He’s played just 14 and 42 games the last two years, according to Basketball Reference.

A big plus here, though, as mentioned by ESPN’s Bobby Marks, is that Cleveland is reportedly creating a $3.83 million trade exception, and is now “$5.1 million below the luxury tax.”

In terms of on-floor positives, Exum has shown when he’s healthy, that he can be a quality defender against opposing 1’s and 2’s, and at 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan, that could help out Beilein and the coaching staff in some rotational minutes. Exum has pretty solid feel off the ball in getting through screens, too, which is a plus.

Exum is not really a scorer, as shown by him having just 5.7 points per game in his career and only 2.2 points per game in 2019-20, and as noted by Basketball Reference, Exum’s shot just 30.5% from three-point range and has a lifetime 46.8% effective field goal shooting rate.

In some rotation minutes, Exum could potentially run the offense some for Beilein, and he’s a decent ball-mover that is going to generally make the right play in that regard.

Overall, though, Exum, who has a cap hit of $9.6 million this season (per Spotrac), could be very injury-prone with the Cavs, and I really am not sure how much he’ll be able to contribute for Cleveland’s bench.