Cavs: 2 rumored candidates they’d be in right to trade for

The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t been active on the free agency market, which hasn’t necessarily been surprising.

The Wine and Gold were set to have the $9.5 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and to some extent, the $3.7 million bi-annual exception. Taking that into account, their options were pretty limited.

Regarding other moves, I was relieved that the Cavs ended up selecting Evan Mobley at #3 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, and I thought Cleveland’s trade acquisition of Ricky Rubio was a solid one, with him solidifying their backup point guard position for next season.

But circling back to free agency, it wasn’t shocking that the Cavaliers ended up being priced out of rumored wing free agency targets such as Doug McDermott, Reggie Bullock and Alec Burks, either.

From there, per a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, the Cavs are said to have “some interest” in Denzel Valentine, and he seemingly touched on the likes of Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Garrison Mathews as possible targets.

The same went for maybe James Ennis III or Stanley Johnson; Fedor’s report noted how Cleveland will be discussing “bottom-of-the-barrel wings that probably wouldn’t cost the mid-level exception.”

Maybe a one or two-year deal for those players at a team-friendly number via some of the MLE could do the trick, and for what it’s worth, Mathews or Mykhailiuk would be very sensible.

That said, another takeaway from that report was that the Cavs, who reportedly previously had sign-and-trade discussions centered on Josh Hart with the New Orleans Pelicans, per Fedor but was recently extended, generally  have “also explored the trade market.”

Fedor’s report then touched on how Cleveland has been in contact with the Atlanta Hawks about Cam Reddish, and in an overall sense, here’s more on what the Cavs might need to send out in a potential trade to land notable wing help.

"“In initial conversations, sources say most teams are asking for Cleveland’s 2022 first-round pick (with protections, of course), but that would be incredibly risky for a team with 60 total wins the last three years and projects to, in a best-case scenario, compete for a Play-In spot in 2021-22. Without the future first-rounder, which the Cavs seem unwilling to put on the table for any of the “available” wings, interest turns to either Larry Nance Jr. — one of the few adults and winning players on the roster — or the pair of extra 2022 second-round picks (Houston and San Antonio). Does combining one or both with Cedi Osman get the Cavs anywhere?”"

Fedor in the report before that mentioned how Reddish, Kyle Anderson, Terrence Ross, Joe Ingles Bojan Bogdanovic, T.J. Warren, Thaddeus Young, Tobias Harris, Jeremy Lamb and Harrison Barnes are “all said to be available.”

Even with the cap element involved, I do question what it’d take for Ingles, and the likes of Bogdanovic, Warren and Harris for Cleveland? I don’t see that, nor Barnes, and Lamb, to go with Warren, who barely played last season because of injuries, being that realistic.

Here though, we’ll touch on the two rumored trade candidates that I’d be fully on-board with for the Cavs to pull the trigger on.

First, we’ll examine how Ross could be a near-ideal target.