Cavs: 2 key takeaways from JaVale McGee trade with Nuggets

#2: The Cavs land a project 5 in Hartenstein; we’ll have to see there

Hartenstein, who was a second-round pick by the Houston Rockets in 2017, but whose NBA career with them begin in 2018-19, hasn’t had many fireworks to this point.

Hartenstein has played sparingly in his three career seasons, albeit on postseason/contending teams with Houston, who waived him last summer, and with Denver, of whom he signed a two-year, minimum deal with back in November. He’ll have a $1.8 million player option for next season, after which he could become a restricted free agent.

With Hartenstein, he again is definitely one that’d qualify as a project, if we see him back next season. In roughly 2.5 seasons thus far, he’s had 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per outing in 81 appearances.

He is definitely not a stretch big, albeit McGee wouldn’t qualify as that either, but he has been a capable roller with some touch on push shots/dives, which could work in filling in in spurts with Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and/or others.

On the defensive end, also on the plus side, he could provide some viable rotational rim protection in spurts, as he is fairly sturdy at 7-foot and 250 pounds and does seem to play pretty well with verticality.

And lastly, Hartenstein, just like Jarrett Allen, is still just 22. So perhaps Cleveland can find something here looking onward, and he should get a chance to prove his viability in real rotational burn here soon enough.

In any case, while again it stings some that McGee is no longer with the Cavaliers, I can’t blame them for potentially a few assets and/or a younger rotational 5 back, as Hartenstein can be a capable rim protector in burn, which is serviceable. And for what it’s worth, the Cavs, per Fedor’s aforementioned report, actually “expressed interest in Hartenstein this past offseason.”

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in regards to his outlook with Cleveland. For this season, Hartenstein has had 3.5 points and 2.8 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per outing, for further context.

Hartenstein did make his presence in a big way with the Rockets’ G League Affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, though, and had 24.9 points and 14.8 rebounds per outing in 2019-20. That was in 14 appearances with them.

Moreover, one could expect to see more moves involving the Cavs/perhaps Osman/Prince and maybe Drummond with the trade deadline approaching here at 3 PM on Thursday.