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.
#1: Why the Cavs would be wise to trade for Ross
Terrence Ross is a player that would be a terrific trade acquisition by Cleveland. He’s rumored to be available with the Orlando Magic having a number of young perimeter players that need their share of minutes, and maybe a deal could involve Larry Nance Jr. and of Cleveland’s 2022 second-round picks for Ross?
Nance is a player that can affect games in a number of ways when healthy, now I know that’s the concern with him, but it could help clear up developmental minutes for Orlando in the process.
With Ross for Cleveland, he did miss the end of last season/was held out of final games with a back injury and was active in only 46 games, he’s mostly been durable in his career with Orlando and before with the Toronto Raptors.
And even with him having to do more on-ball last season and some more as a playmaker with injuries to Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony to some degree, Ross did still have 15.6 points per outing as a bench bucket-getter.
For Cleveland, as KJG’s own Amadou Sow detailed, Ross could bring plenty of bench scoring pop at the 2 and 3 spots, lineup-dependent.
Ross, who has had 15.1 points per game in the last three seasons, did only knock in 33.7 percent from three-point range last season. But for his career, he’s hit 36.7 percent from deep on 5.2 attempts per contest.
He’s more than capable of filling it up coming off screens, as evidenced by him placing in the 67th percentile in off-screen scoring last season on a frequency of 21.3 percent, per Synergy Sports, and the 73rd percentile the season prior on a 28.2 percent frequency. He was sixth in the league last season in off-screen scoring too, also per Synergy.
He’d provide a valuable floor spacing wing as well, and can apply pressure in the pull-up game and as a driver/finisher.
The 30-year-old Ross would provide Cleveland with a go-to shooter to target off the bench, and if he were to be a key option in crunch time in games, that could be added firepower for the Cavs. He’s also signed through the next two seasons, like Nance, albeit at a bit more at $12.5 and then $11.5 million.
#2: Why the Cavs would be wise to trade for Anderson
Secondly, of those rumored potential trade candidates that seem realistic, Kyle Anderson could be another one I’d be on-board with the Cavs trading for. Maybe Nance and one of those 2022 Cavaliers second-round picks could do for him, or both, similarly to the suggested deal for Ross?
I acknowledge that Anderson’s a 3/4, but even with Nance having an improved handle, Anderson is a more reliable perimeter player in terms of his ball handling, and he can create offense for himself to some extent. Even with Nance being a quality passing big, Anderson in set offense would be more of a playmaking presence, feasibly, game-to-game, and even with him as possibly a key bench player, so be it.
If the Cavs were to deal for Anderson he took opportunities away from Cedi Osman or Dylan Windler, and perhaps made one or both expendable, so be it.
Granted, I get that Anderson has only had 6.5 points per outing in his career, and aside from last season, when he hit 36.0 percent of his 3.6 three-point attempts per game and had 12.4 points per game, hasn’t been much of a deep shooting threat. He had more of a role with Jaren Jackson Jr. dealing with injury much of the season too.
Even so, with Anderson being such a versatile defender at 6-foot-9 and a defensive playmaker, a capable pull-up shooter, very polished finisher at the rim and with floaters and with him being a viable pick-and-roll initiator, he’d be a great add.
I do believe that with his improved touch in other areas, that with guys such as Darius Garland/Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio, along with Evan Mobley, that Anderson could be a respectable catch-and-shoot threat from three, too.
Additionally, with players such as Dillon Brooks, Ziaire Williams, Jackson seemingly back, and to some degree, reported trade acquisitions (per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Tuesday) Jarrett Culver and Juan Hernangomez, Anderson could be somewhat expendable for Memphis.
It’d be another 3 in the mix, but maybe Cedi Osman and those two aforementioned 2022 seconds could be of interest for Memphis? Osman’s shooting struggles last season are concerning to me, but perhaps the Grizz could have interest in him as a shooter and/or see him as another potential trade candidate for down the road.
Anderson, who is set to make $9.9 million next season in his age-28 campaign, is set to be expiring after next season, anyway.
If the Cavs were to trade for him though, if it worked out well, maybe he could be a player they look to re-sign next offseason. We’d have to see on a potential effect on Isaac Okoro, but I wouldn’t be overly concerned about that, really.