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.
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.
Why this Cavs-Knicks deal would be sensible for the former
Okay, so from the Cavs viewpoint here, to me, Cleveland would be able to land another quality backup 5 in Noel that’d be an impact rolling/lob threat and effective screener, which could mesh well with Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and company. And from there, if the Cavs were to trade JaVale McGee, whose been a reported trade candiate himself, too, per Charania and is on a very tradeable expiring deal at $4.2 million, then I’d get their reasoning.
Noel is not a player with the thickness of McGee in terms of the defensive interior, but as a backup 5, would fill in more than fine there and has consistently proven to have great team defensive instincts.
In that realm, Noel, who has a 7-foot-4 wingspan, has averaged 2.1 steals per-36 minutes in his career, and has been a nice energy big in that way, so I’d think he could help out Cleveland’s defense. Plus, if Noel were to work out with Cleveland, he could perhaps be re-signed seemingly via team-friendly deal this upcoming offseason, anyhow.
From there, while Knox is not a player that’s worked out well with the Knicks, as evidenced by him having an effective field goal shooting percentage of 44.4 percent thus far in his coming on 2.5 seasons.
That said, Knox has at least shown flashes as a 6-foot-9 wing shooter, and has hit 38.5 percent of his deep attempts this season, so perhaps he could benefit from a change of scenery with Cleveland in some minutes; though I’m not discounting that Knox has a ways to go.
He’s set to be a restricted free agent after next season, however, and could maybe a piece that could be of use in a trade down the road, whether that’s wishful thinking or not.
Lastly, to me, Ntilikina, who has not been in the rotation really this season and has only been four active in games, because of Quickley’s emergence, and Elfrid Payton, I’d imagine Rose from here and some due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols, could be a very meaningful piece for the Cavs.
Ntilikina, whose had a career effective field goal percentage of just 42.5 percent, is raw offensively/as a shooter. He’s a 31.6 percent three-point shooter lifetime, for what it’s worth, but on the plus side, did show mid-range pull-up growth last season, which is a positive.
Albeit with Ntilikina, he has made strides as a playmaker, and with Cleveland’s need for a legitimate backup point guard with Matthew Dellavedova still working his way back, if he can eventually be back, that’d help out Garland/Sexton. At 6-foot-4, and being a strong defender against 1’s and 2’s, and primary guard playmakers, especially, I’d imagine that Ntilikina could be a valuable reserve for the Cavs right away, too.
Ntilikina could maybe end up being another solid rotational piece for Cleveland to have in the fold in coming years as well, and could potentially have some room for growth, as he’s only 22. Ntilikina is set to be a restricted free agent this upcoming offseason, though, and a qualifying offer for him is set to be $8.3 million.
The Cavaliers would have some decisions to make in these potential scenarios to come in the offseason, when Allen definitely, and reportedly, Collin Sexton, new deals/extensions appear to be on the horizon.
For Drummond, though, Noel and Ntilikina, mostly, could be very valuable defensive rotational pieces right away, and could maybe end up being able to re-signed this upcoming offseason on the cheap if they’d end up being sold on playing with guys like Sexton and company.
At the very least, Cleveland wouldn’t be taking back any bad contracts, really, in this hypothetical deal proposed from Davies. “Frankie Smokes” I’d be really on-board with, also.