Andre Drummond has been a key subject of trade rumors/reports about him as a potential player that would seemingly be moved by the Cleveland Cavaliers before the March 25 deadline.
Drummond, since him opting into his $28.8 million player option before the season, was it’d appear set to eventually be dealt before the deadline, anyhow. Reports around then were in that realm, too.
And while Drummond should get his credit for how he played for a good part of the season to this point, especially when the Cavs were especially shorthanded earlier on, things have been tailed off lately.
Obviously, the Cavaliers’ injuries played into it, but Drummond had been putting up a career-best 18.8 points per outing, and had been leading the league once again with 15.1 rebounds per game, to go with 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks in his first 14 games active.
By and large since Jarrett Allen was acquired via trade from the Brooklyn Nets nearly a month ago, though, Drummond’s play has seemingly fallen off, and the Cavs haven’t played well, clearly, he’s looked more disengaged in the past few games in sequences, in particular.
In Drummond’s past 11 games active, he’s had 15.8 points, 11.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals per outing, but he’s only appeared in 25.6 minutes per game and the lack of finishing touch/lack of screening effectiveness has been a key issue. Conversely, Allen when he’s been in there, has helped the Cavs offense flow far better, and has been a more viable rim protector/shot alterer and played with more effort game-to-game lately.
Anyhow, while on the potential Drummond trade talk, it was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst that the Cavs are moving forward with Jarrett Allen as their center of the future on Monday, and that they’ll be sitting Drummond in his remaining time before being traded.
That’s by the deadline, at the latest, and that was reportedly agreed to via talks featuring Cavs general manager Koby Altman, Drummond and his agent, Jeff Schwartz, per Woj/Windhorst.
Agent Jeff Schwartz of @excelbasketball tells ESPN: "Whichever direction this goes, Andre is 27, in his prime, and I believe strongly that he has a great deal to add to a team building toward a postseason run.”
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 15, 2021
From there, Wojnarowski and Windhorst did state in their report that Cleveland is “starting to guage the trade market, but there are no serious ongoing discussions with any team,” albeit it appears their are.
Per a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (subscription required), the Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors, a squad that reportedly had interest in Drummond before, are in “active talks” involving a potential deal centered on Drummond.
Charania expressed in his report that several teams such as the Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks, of whom he named specifically, would be interested in Drummond as a buyout candidate. Charania reported how while the Cavs acknowledged Drummond’s desire to play for a contender, it’s “unclear” how if they’d be willing to do a buyout and it’s “not the preference.”
These reports show the Cavs are doing the right thing here in regards to Drummond.
For the Cavs, it’s good to know that they’re moving forward with Allen as their starting 5, and not with Drummond starting on the floor with him, which didn’t have much success when that did play out.
Allen’s had 13.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and a team-leading 1.8 blocks in 25.5 minutes per game with the Cavs thus far, and him and Darius Garland have already had great chemistry as a pick-and-roll duo, with Allen being such an impactful screener and lob threat.
It was clearly time for the Cavaliers to be playing Allen as a starting 5, anyhow, and while it didn’t seem realistic that Drummond would be coming off the bench, both sides/his representation agreeing that Drummond would sit the rest of his time with Cleveland was a positive.
Drummond didn’t seem to be nearly as bought-in in recent games, and per Charania, reportedly had “multiple” sit-down conversations with Cavs head coach Bickerstaff seemingly about his “attitude and play” of late. And that also shows Drummond sitting from here, who was out Sunday at the LA Clippers due to rest, albeit it was the first leg of a back-to-back, is for the best.
As Wojnarowski and Windhorst highlighted in their report, Drummond had a sweatshirt on on the sidelines on Sunday with the word “Farewell” on it, so that said plenty, really.
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In terms of a potential deal with the Cavs and Raps, who are set to play the rest of the season in Tampa Bay still, Evan Dammarell of Forbes and Fear The Sword recently suggested that Toronto send Cleveland Aron Baynes, Norman Powell, Stanley Johnson, Patrick McCaw and a future second-round pick.
At this point, that’d seem pretty reasonable, given how Drummond’s a non-jump shooting presence and his lack of touch inside/sometimes odd fit in today’s league, but he is still an elite rebounder, and can be a viable rim protector, somewhat.
From the Cavs’ perspective, Baynes and Johnson are expiring, albeit Johnson can help in some minutes defensively, and McCaw would feasibly be waived, and I’d think Dean Wade would if that deal were to play out.
Powell, though he has an $11.6 million player option for next season, could potentially be a long-term piece for Cleveland as a reserve go-to bucket-getting guard? From there, a future 2 wouldn’t be completely unexpected, anyway, and the Cavs gave up two expiring non-rotation players at the time and a future 2 for Drummond to the Detroit Pistons near the deadline last season.
Although, we’d have to see still what would eventually play out, and Charania noted a potential deal could really take some time yet, and could also involve several clubs, because of Drummond’s bloated expiring salary. In that regard, Sam Amico of OutKick and Forty Eight Minutes noted recently how along with Toronto, “the Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Clippers” and Nets have been “listed” as Drummond potential suitors.
Amico would then suggest the New York Knicks as another “team to watch,” who are “looking to move” Kevin Knox. For further context, New York is reportedly set to be without 5 man Mitchell Robinson for approxmiately four-to-six weeks, due to a broken right hand, too.
But again, circling back, the Cavs have the right approach here, as moving forward with Allen, whose fit in so well with other pieces, is the proper move. And the Cavs/Drummond agreeing that he’ll sit in the rest of his time with Cleveland is nice to know.
Drummond was clearly not going to be a long-term piece with the Cavaliers, it seemed, and Allen, who is set to be a restricted free agent, will, conversely. If the Cavs eventually have to match a restricted offer sheet for Allen, I’d assume they absolutely will.
And with Drummond, it still wouldn’t appear to be all that realistic of a possibility that he’s simply just bought out at this point, albeit we’ll see.