Cavs: Ranking every offseason move from worst to best

Cavs: Ranking every offseason move from worst to best – 3. Sign and trade for Lauri Markkanen

Deal: Four-year, $67 million contract in sign and trade for Larry nance Jr., Denver’s protected 2023 second-round pick

As the musical chairs of free agency settled down, Lauri Markkanen became the last man standing. His fellow restricted free agents either returned to their teams (such as Jarrett Allen) or worked out sign and trade deals to land in new destinations (including Lonzo Ball briefly joining Markkanen in Chicago). For a while, Markkanen was left in the cold.

Then suddenly Cleveland swooped in and worked out a sign and trade of their own, bringing in Markkanen on a four-year deal paying him around $16.9 million per season, although the final season is only partially guaranteed. In one offseason the Cavs drafted a power forward at No. 3 overall, re-signed Allen to a $100 million contract, failed to trade Kevin Love and now doled out another $67 million to a power forward upside play.

On the surface, the money paid to Markkanen is fine. For a player who can space the floor at the 4 (40.2 percent from 3-point range last season) $16.9 million is a reasonable price. Yet Markkanen will most likely come off the bench behind Evan Mobley, and that $16.9 million is a lot more difficult to swallow when it’s for a backup. Now factor in coming pay raises for Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Isaac Okoro all during the life of Markkanen’s contract, and his money becomes even more onerous.

Perhaps Markkanen will capture the upside he came into the league with and develop into a true impact player on offense, a player who can average 20 points per game while knocking down a high volume of 3-pointers at a clip above 40 percent. Yet the question then becomes, what then? Do they continue to pay Markkanen’s salary as a bench piece? Do they have to try and trade Jarrett Allen to slide Evan Mobley to center and make room for him?

That’s a fine problem to have, but it’s the best-case scenario. What if Markkanen doesn’t capture that upside and is simply a role player, a good-not-great shooter who is a significant problem defensively and never develops as a passer or screener? The Cavs have all-but-guaranteed they won’t have cap space for the rest of their rebuild, simply to add a player at their most clogged position.

No one could pay Lauri Markkanen the amount of money the Cavs did. Who was beating a deal at $10 million per season? The Chicago Bulls didn’t care, since they were getting draft capital in the deal. If Markkanen truly wanted out, the Cavs could have brought him in without committing to such a long deal.

One final point of evaluation is the cost to simply have the right to sign Markkanen to this deal. The team traded Larry Nance Jr., their best defensive player and a true locker room leader, along with a second-round pick in the sign-and-trade for Markkanen. Nance is a truly helpful player with positional versatility on a bargain contract, the kind of player any contender could use. How did the Cavs fail to get significant value for him? It was poor asset management with the team’s only remaining win-now piece.

Overall, the Cavs didn’t break the bank to add a talented young player with some amount of upside. If he works out and takes a major step forward, it will most likely be fine. Even so, it’s a bizarre use of resources and not the kind of patient move a rebuilding team should invest in.