At this point, it’s not shocking that the Andre Drummond trade rumors have been out there. The Cleveland Cavaliers seem likely to eventually move Drummond by the league’s March 25 trade deadline, and according to a poll from HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto featuring opinions of a number of opposing NBA executives, four believe Drummond could feasibly get “one or two second-round picks.”
Scotto then noted two believed the Cavs could perhaps “squeeze” out a first-round pick, I’d think a lower one, with one being protected, anyhow; two others then thought Drummond would get bought out.
That still doesn’t appear to be that likely, though, frankly, and even with the Cavs sliding lately, I wouldn’t expect Drummond to want to do that, given how it’d impact him in unrestricted free agency this coming offseason.
Anyway, in regards to a potential suitor for Drummond, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor reported that the Toronto Raptors are among those interested in the veteran 5 man. For what it’s worth, O’Connor previously reported that he’s “heard” the Raptors and the Dallas Mavericks were interested in Drummond.
But in the case with Toronto, that was what he reported more recently, and in that case, that’s the squad I’ll focus more on here in regards to Drummond trade rumors.
In that realm, Evan Dammarell of Forbes and Fear The Sword, who believes the Cavs should deal Drummond sooner rather than later, recently suggested a trade between Cleveland and Toronto. That involves Cleveland sending Toronto Drummond in exchange for Aron Baynes, Stanley Johnson, Norman Powell, Patrick McCaw and a future second-round pick.
Dammarell then reported how, per his sources, they believe “at best,” the Cavs can get a second-round pick or perhaps two for Dre, which seems about right.
Drummond has had a career-best 17.9 points per game and we know about how he’s an elite rebounder, but the inefficiency finishing this season hasn’t aided the potential value, one would assume. Albeit he has provided rim protection/shot altering, and he’s currently seventh in the league in deflections per game with 3.3, per NBA.com’s player hustle data.
Anyway, in regards to the aforementioned trade suggestion from Dammarell, the key piece that jumps out is Powell.
Involving that, here, we’ll hit on what Powell could provide for the Cavs.
Firstly, we’ll get into the reserve scoring punch.