Cavs: Brandon Knight will have his opportunities on upcoming road trip

Veteran guard Brandon Knight will probably have his share of opportunities on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ upcoming six-game road trip, and hopefully he can give the squad productive minutes.

As the calendar moves further into January and the February 6 trade deadline creeps closer and closer, it’s clear that the Cleveland Cavaliers are a team that could feasibly make a number of deals in coming weeks.

To recap, even after the Cavaliers reportedly traded guard Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz in exchange for guard Dante Exum and two future second-round draft picks, Cleveland still has four players that are set to have expiring contracts after the 2019-20 season.

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Those pieces are bigs Tristan Thompson and John Henson, along with guards Matthew Dellavedova and Brandon Knight.

Thompson is a player, with his re-emergence this season on both ends with him being healthy leading to career-highs in points (12.2), rebounds (10.4), assists (2.2) and tied for career-best in steals (0.7) per game, as documented by Basketball Reference, that is likely to command the most trade suitors.

Henson has been a pleasant surprise when he’s been available for Cleveland as a screener and passer, and he leads the Cavaliers as the team’s only legitimate rim protector with 1.2 blocks per game, as shown by NBA.com.

With his injury issues since being acquired by the Cavs last season from the Milwaukee Bucks via reported three-team trade also with the Washington Wizards, though, I wouldn’t imagine Henson himself would warrant much.

Although, he could feasibly be included in another three-team deal along with Knight, perhaps, in exchange for a bad contract piece/pieces, developmental players and/or a future draft pick.

Kevin Love, who seems to have both his feet out the door at this point I’d imagine which will inevitably lead to a trade, given recent reports involving his relationship with the team and/or general manager Koby Altman, did apologize for his recent on-court/on-bench actions and will give the Cavs all that he has in his remaining time with the Wine and Gold, based on media availability comments on Tuesday.

That’s good to hear as a Cavs fan and I’m sure for head coach John Beilein at least, and Love had a heck of a game against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday which was just what he and the Cavs needed.

In the mean time before I’d think a potential for a bunch of trades, though, the Wine and Gold have an upcoming six-game road trip which begins on Thursday at the Pistons, actually. From there, it’ll be quite a gauntlet consisting of matchups at the Denver Nuggets, a back-to-back in Los Angeles at the Lakers then Clippers, continues on at the Memphis Grizzlies and wraps up at the Chicago Bulls.

On this road trip, to spell the young backcourt of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton and/or have them staggered to some extent to help the offensive flow, I’d expect Knight to have his share of opportunities.

Knight’s only appeared in 12 games in 2019-20, with the Cavs’ coaching staff rightfully, in my opinion, giving the youngsters the majority of guard minutes with the team rebuilding. Clarkson was also before often playing a significant minutes-share with rookie Kevin Porter Jr. as Cedi Osman‘s primary backup at the 3 and/or Garland running the point with reserves or Matthew Dellavedova, which was understandable.

That’s resulted in Knight only playing 13.4 minutes per game this season, of which he’s had 5.4 points per game on just 48.4% effective field goal shooting.

It’s not as if he’s been able to get into a rhythm much, though, and on the bright side, Knight is going to be a productive ball-mover,  and much like, Dellavedova, help his teammates get in the right position in settled offense.

Knight’s second on Cleveland behind Delly in assist-to-turnover ratio, as noted by NBA.com, and with the rocky play of Sexton, in particular, and with Knight having good chemistry with Kevin Love, Knight’s opportunities will likely come in meaningful minutes in this upcoming roadie.

It was against a banged-up Pistons club on Tuesday, but Knight did give Beilein and company much-needed energy in his minutes in there with 13 points (including three-of-seven from three-point range) and five assists, according to ESPN.

Now at this point, Knight’s not going to realistically be a positive on the defensive end, but that’s nothing new when it comes to Cleveland’s guards. His positional awareness is there as a team defender more so than the youngsters (and I’m not going to completely fault them for that), which is a positive for Beilein in that sense, though.

Anyway, I’m not totally sure if Knight’s going to play half the game in these coming contests, as he nearly did against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday and did against Detroit, but I would expect Beilein at this point to trot Knight out there a good chunk of meaningful minutes.

In some stretches, with Porter out for a good while with a reported left knee sprain, in particular, I’d think that Knight, Dante Exum (who is reportedly out against Detroit, though), Osman and Garland will all be tasked with playmaking duties for the Cleveland Cavaliers on this road trip.

Knight’s a heady player that the Cavs might want to just hold on to as a veteran at least as a locker room presence, much like Delly, but with his ability to operate in pick-and-roll, move the ball effectively and hit spot-ups, Cleveland may just want to retain him through the deadline and just have his 2019-20 contract expire.

Him being included in a potential deal, with him playing sparingly to this point and set to make $15.6 million this season, won’t be a simple maneuver.

In this upcoming road trip, though, maybe he can help the Cavs’ case in that regard, if they’re looking to go that route. Anyway, I’d expect Knight to have his share of opportunities in this road trip as a player Beilein can rely on in some stretches to help keep the offense on the right track and give the likes of Garland and/or Sexton a breather.