Cleveland Cavaliers: Grading recent trade with the Nuggets

The trade deadline has come and gone and with it, a new player has joined the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the mid-morning of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, the Cavaliers had dealt center JaVale McGee in exchange for Isaiah Hartenstein and two future second-round picks to the Denver Nuggets, of which you can view the reported details here. The second-round picks are an unprotected one in 2027 and a top-46 protected one in 2023. The Cavs did also generate a $4.2 million trade exception for McGee, for what it’s worth.

Briefly looking at this trade for the Nuggets, McGee returns back to Denver and will provide them with solid minutes at the center position when Nikola Jokic isn’t on the floor, provide length and rim protection on defense, and be a capable lob threat on offense.

Now, looking at the Cavaliers’ haul, Hartenstein is an interesting get for them. Hartenstein is a 7-foot, 250-pound center who had “some” buzz last season. With the Houston Rockets last season, Hartenstein had a trio of quality games for them, providing a dump-off/lob-threat for James Harden as well as being a defensive presence in the paint, tallying five blocks in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Cavaliers caught a glimpse of what Hartenstein can do when the Nuggets had faced off against the Cavaliers in a blowout win for the home team. In just 7:40 minutes of play, Hartenstein logged four points, two rebounds, and three blocks.

So how did the Cavs grade out in this trade with the Nuggets, then?

At the very least, Hartenstein is a young center that the Cavaliers can take a flier on with backup burn behind Jarrett Allen, along with getting multiple second-round picks.

The 22-year-old Hartenstein has not played much to this point in meaningful NBA burn, however. So far this season, he’s had a bit more run than in his first two seasons with Houston, but has still had only 9.1 minutes per appearance in 30 games active, in which he’s had 3.5 points and 2.8 rebounds on average.

Overall trade grade: This warrants a C+ for the Cavs

This trade was simply just for the Cavaliers to get something in return for McGee. Despite McGee’s positive presence on the court as well as in the locker room, it was always likely that McGee would look to sign with a contender in hopes of chasing another ring rather than returning to a rebuilding team like the Cavaliers in the offseason.

For McGee to return this upcoming offseason, it may have taken an overpay, one would imagine.

To acquire McGee, the Cavaliers received a second-round pick from the Los Angeles Lakers so in the end, they received three second-round picks to take on McGee for half a season.

Hartenstein’s time with the Cavaliers may not be long, depending on his play, but for now, he will provide backup minutes at the center position for the Cavaliers and give them another big body.

Essentially, the “overall” grade of this trade depends on what Cleveland general manager Koby Altman does with the picks, well at least if he potentially looks to use those via package, perhaps during the draft, for example. Altman is known for taking on picks and using them in even bigger moves.

These second-round picks could be added to spice up a trade or used to trade up in an upcoming draft, if given the opportunity, if that’s in the 2021 or 2022 NBA Draft, maybe.

All in all, for a rebuilding team, acquiring any type of draft compensation is a plus and even though it isn’t a splash trade that many fans may have wanted to see, it was still a positive trade for the Cavaliers. Albeit it wasn’t one that was again, a deal that knocked it out of the park at face value, it appears, really.