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Mavericks would be logical trade suitors for Cavs’ Tristan Thompson

ByDan Gilinsky|
Cleveland Cavaliers big Tristan Thompson handles the ball against Dallas Mavericks big Boban Marjanovic. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Cleveland Cavaliers big Tristan Thompson handles the ball against Dallas Mavericks big Boban Marjanovic. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
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Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers bigs Kevin Love (#0) and Tristan Thompson (#13) extend one another a high-five. (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images)

After a crushing Achilles injury to big man Dwight Powell, the Dallas Mavericks could quickly emerge as a top trade suitor for Cleveland Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson. We’ll take a look at a few possibilities.

With what he’s shown throughout the 2019-20 season, I would imagine that Cleveland Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson is going to have trade rumors surrounding him heat up more and more leading up to the February 6 NBA trade deadline.

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Thompson is on track for having career-highs in points (12.6), rebounds (10.6), assists (2.1) and is on track for tying a career-best in steals per game this season, according to Basketball Reference.

TT is clearly the unquestioned leader of the Cavaliers, and even in Year 9 with the Cavs, the team that drafted him in 2011, he’s as relentless on the glass on both ends as he was early on in his career.

Along with Thompson being a quality team/help defender and/or back-line communicator and being able to switch out pretty competently for a big on to perimeter players at times in pick-and-roll coverage, TT is a terrific screener for pieces such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman for Cleveland, too.

Nonetheless, given that Thompson is playing so well this season and has always been considered an outstanding teammate that’s so unselfish on the floor, once again, the trade calls from other NBA teams you’d think will start coming a bunch, feasibly right up until the deadline.

One of those that could quickly emerge as a Thompson trade suitor is realistically the Dallas Mavericks.

Dallas unfortunately sustained a big blow to their rotation and postseason hopes against teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers and/or Utah Jazz, because Dallas big man Dwight Powell reportedly suffered a right Achilles injury on Tuesday, per Mavericks PR, that the Mavs fear is likely season-ending. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon had this update following that, and a few local media members suggested the Mavs as a potential Thompson trade suitor, following the Powell injury news.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium also reported that the Mavs fear that Powell’s done for the year.

Mavs PR would also then announce that Powell, is indeed, done for the year, due to an Achilles rupture.

Anyway, Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amico and Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz suggested that given Powell’s injury, Thompson to Dallas could be a possibility, given their similar skill sets as high quality rollers, defenders that can switch out competently and both clearing the glass on both ends.

Powell was averaging 9.4 points and 5.7 rebounds in 26.5 minutes per game in 2019-20, and had the best net rating among regular starters for Dallas this season, according to NBA.com.

Amico, for reference, hit on how Dallas could be interested in the “available” Cavs’ bigs, and I’d think that’s referring to Kevin Love, and the expiring John Henson and Thompson. Swartz mentioned Thompson specifically.

We’ll get into a potential deal now.