Cavs: Suggested Andre Drummond trade with Knicks would be win-win

Why this Cavs-Knicks deal would be sensible for the latter

The Knicks, as Amico stated, have been a club previously linked to Drummond, and in terms of an immediate need, the Knicks could be interested in Drummond’s services to help them further make a difference in the paint.

New York starting 5 Mitchell Robinson is set to miss approximately up to 4-6 weeks due to a fractured right hand, and that was a big blow for them. Nerlens Noel, conversely, has done a solid job as a backup 5, and was with the Oklahoma City Thunder the past two seasons.

Albeit from the Knicks side of things, as Davies seemingly alluded to, Noel has been mostly a reserve 5 in recent seasons. He’s done a commendable job in minutes spelling Robinson, defensively, particularly, with 5.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 18.5 minutes per outing thus far in 24 games.

That said, as Davies touched on, the Knicks could benefit, at least from Drummond being more of an offensive presence.

Even while Drummond’s finishing inefficiency hasn’t exactly been a positive this season, he still is a double-double machine, and could be an interesting frontcourt pairing with Julius Randle, whose maybe had All-Star numbers with 23.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and a remarkable 5.6 assists per game.

Drummond could, in theory, aid the likes of Immanuel Quickley, Randle, RJ Barrett, the recently-acquired Derrick Rose and company as a defensive presence on the interior as well, if he’s locked-in, of course, too. Perhaps Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau could get that sort of thing out of Drummond, at least as it seemed Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff did earlier on this season, although that wasn’t seemingly as much the case of late.

Additionally, from there, as Davies hit on, if the Drummond acquisition were to work out and Dre were to help the Knicks make a playoff push, maybe he could be around long-term by committing to that this offseason, as the Knicks would hold his Bird Rights in that case. Drummond, per a report from Marc Berman of the New York Post, believes that the Knicks would be a “good landing spot,” if a trade were to commence ultimately, too.

As a further update, the Knicks are said to reportedly be interested in Drummond’s services, and could allow them to ideally, from their perspective, allow Robinson to develop further behind Drummond, when he is back, per Dammarell.

Dammarell suggested the same trade as Davies, along with two others, but plus a 2021 second-round pick via the Detroit Pistons in that one. Dammarell noted how New York could help their offseason cap space standpoint, though, but anyhow, that second-rounder would seem hard for the Knicks to include as well.

Lastly, in regards to Ntilikina and Knox, while I firmly believe the former has real promise, both have been out of the rotation, as Davies stated. Moreover, the Knicks, who have $15 million in cap space, could still fit in Drummond’s nearly $29 million salary for this season just fine, even with not near-salary matching and only sending out $15.7 million.

Moving along from there, I’ll discuss why the Cavaliers would be wise to do this proposed deal from Davies.