It was reported on Monday by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Andre Drummond/his camp agreed that for the duration of his remaining time with the Wine and Gold, that he’ll be sitting.
Drummond/his agent Jeff Schwartz agreed with Cleveland that considering that he reportedly was not satisfied with his minutes-share since Jarrett Allen was acquired via trade from the Brooklyn Nets, that he’d be sat until the club can find a trade partner for him. The Cavs are fully committed to Allen as their long-term future at the 5, so in that realm, I’m on-board with this.
And regarding potential suitors, the Cavs and Toronto Raptors are reportedly in “active talks” involving a possible Drummond trade, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (subscription required).
Though it has been rumored that Drummond could seemingly end up being simply bought out, Charania emphasized how that’s clearly not Cleveland’s preference, and it still seems as though Cleveland could figure something out here. And Charania noted, perhaps it could take a number of teams; there is interest out there it seems, anyhow.
As far as a hypothetical scenario, Evan Dammarell of Forbes and Fear The Sword previously last week suggested that Cleveland and Toronto do a deal involving Drummond being sent to the Raps in exchange for Norman Powell, Aron Baynes, Stanley Johnson and Patrick McCaw, to go with a future second-round pick.
That’s something I’d be more than on-board with, provided the Cavs shortly thereafter waive McCaw, and seemingly they’d waive Dean Wade before his guarantee date of Feb. 24.
We’d have to see if that could perhaps play out, though, albeit if it were to, Powell could be quite the scoring presence for Cleveland’s bench unit. And while he has an $11.6 million for player option next season, Powell could potentially be a player the Cavs could maybe look to re-sign/sign long-term.
Regarding other suitors, however, Sam Amico of OutKick and Forty Eight Minutes noted that along with the Raptors, Drummond has been linked with the New York Knicks, and the “Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers,” to go with the LA Clippers and Brooklyn Nets.
On the subject of the Knicks, in particular, though, Spencer Davies of Basketball News, who suggested other hypothetical trades involving Drummond, some of which were seemingly fairly realistic and some of which he feasibly noted were out there, had a Knicks deal I was a big fan of.
That involved Drummond being sent to New York in exchange for Nerlens Noel, Frank Ntilikina and Kevin Knox.
That suggested trade from Davies seemed to be a win-win for the Cavs and Knicks.
We’ll get into that reasoning next, starting with the Knicks side of things here.