Cavs Trade Rumors: 4 teams, 4 Cedi Osman trade offers

Cavs Trade Rumors: Charlotte Hornets

Why Hornets are Interested: The NBA is a league where wings / forwards are the most valuable commodity. That’s honestly as far as one gets when considering whether the Hornets are interested enough to make a legitimate offer for Osman. With multiple players heading towards a pay day, including the big-without-a-home P.J. Washington, perhaps a structure like this works for the Hornets.

They get a cost-controlled in Osman to serve as a backup to Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier as a 2/3. The second-round pick this year from the San Antonio Spurs is likely to fall in the 30s, another low-cost asset to continue filling out their bench. They sell moderately low on Washington but don’t have to worry about extension talks this summer.

Would Cavs say yes? This one is at least possible. On the one hand, the Cavs are flush with bodies at power forward, which is Washington’s best position. The odds of him getting a lot of playing time are low. Yet he is a recent lottery pick that has done little to lower his value since then, and he would be a valuable asset to use in another trade, perhaps this summer.

Yet the Cavs hope to make some noise in this year’s playoffs, and turning Osman into a pair of bigs unlikely to see minutes in the postseason seems like something they wouldn’t do. It’s a very solid asset play, but it probably wouldn’t happen. If Washington isn’t a part of the deal it is unlikely one happens, as the rest of the Hornets’ matching salary is too valuable (Miles Bridges, James Bouknight) or not valuable enough to the Cavs (Mason Plumlee).

Verdict: …Maybe?