Dante Exum could be a productive rotational player for the Cleveland Cavaliers next season if he’s available most of the time.
In late December, the Cleveland Cavaliers made a trade with the Utah Jazz, a deal that could end up being wins for both teams. In this mid-2019-20 season deal, the Cavaliers traded away a fan favorite in Jordan Clarkson for Dante Exum and then-two future second-round picks.
For the Cavaliers, this trade gave their young trio in Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr., and Darius Garland more opportunities, an interesting player in Exum, and some picks which then could be used in future deals.
Utah’s still 2022 second-round draft pick as a piece involved in the deal (via the San Antonio Spurs) could potentially be a future pick used to select a “diamond in the rough” down the road or perhaps be involved in a trade package via different deal.
As stated earlier, the Cavaliers did acquire Exum in this prior trade with Utah and he could end up having a major impact for the team moving forward. In 24 games for the Cavaliers this past season, Exum averaged 5.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game on an efficient 47.9 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from three-point land, albeit on low attempts.
Exum’s 6-foot-5 frame gives the Cavs the ability to play him at multiple positions and knowing this, he could be a Swiss Army Knife-type player for them for next season and beyond. That’s if the Cavaliers eventually re-sign Exum, who is slated to have an expiring contract currently after the 2020-21 season.
That could maybe happen, as Exum is seemingly a player of the variety Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff talked about as fitting the type of pieces the team needs to take “the next step,” too, in terms of versatility, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.
Depending on how the upcoming draft and free agency goes, the Cavaliers could be left with just Darius Garland and Collin Sexton as capable point guards for next season, though Porter could feasibly be utilized in that role at times. Either way if that were to be the case with just Garland and Sexton as more natural players in that role, there’d be a great chance that Exum could see an increased role next season.
An increased role would lead to new milestones and goals to hit and here, I will be discussing two key goals for Exum to hit next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The first has to do with Exum’s perimeter shooting.