3 trade candidates for Cavs using Disabled Player Exception

3 trade candidates for Cavs: Matt Thomas

If Ben McLemore is the Dollar Tree version of a shooter for the Cavs to add, then Matt Thomas is the garage-store version. The 6’4″ wing joined the Toronto Raptors as an undrafted free agent for the 2019-20 season and established himself as a gunner off the bench for head coach Nick Nurse to deploy in specific situations.

He has bounced around over the past calendar year, traded to the Utah Jazz at the deadline and then signed with the Chicago Bulls this past summer. He has barely played for a Bulls team flush with 2-guard-sized players (they are essentially starting four shooting guards) but could be another inexpensive option to provide shooting off the bench.

In the smallest of sample sizes, Thomas is just 1-for-7 from deep this season, but he is a career 40.3 percent shooter who is used to coming off the bench cold and shooting immediately when he catches a pass with space to fire. He competes on defense, but the real reason he would ever see minutes is to be leveraged as a shooter who can run around screens, wear out a defense, and fire when he fits into those tiny seams open up.

Thomas is primarily riding an elite rookie season, followed by an inconsistent 52 games since. He may turn out to be a one-hit-wonder. The Cavs certainly can’t invest any sort of real asset into him. For a flier, though, he fits financially and his ideal role would be an asset to this team.