King James Gospel
Fansided

3 scenarios for Cavs to trade down in the 2022 NBA Draft

By Josh Cornelissen

De'Anthony Melton, Memphis Grizzlies. Photo by Ethan Mito/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images
De'Anthony Melton, Memphis Grizzlies. Photo by Ethan Mito/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 4
Next
Cavs
Johnny Davis, Wisconsin Badgers. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) /

The Cleveland Cavaliers tried their best to get rid of this year’s first-round draft pick. They traded with the Indiana Pacers at the NBA Trade Deadline this past February to bring in Caris LeVert,  but then a tough ending to the season saw them slip out of the playoffs and retain that lottery-protected first.

The debt to Indiana rolls into next season, and the Cavs now have optionality with the 14th pick. They could stay put and take the best available player, someone like Jalen Williams or Johnny Davis. They could think about trading up to swing for a better draft prospect. On the flip side, they could also trade down and add other assets in the process.

The Cavs have plenty of options with the 14th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. What are the different kinds of trades down they could consider?

Trading down is almost always a shrewd move in the NFL Draft, but it’s less clear whether NBA teams should make such moves. The unpredictability of draft evaluation suggests you can win out by playing the asset game, but the impact one player can have means that getting “your guy” could be franchise-altering.

The Denver Nuggets won their trade-down deal in 2014, moving down from 11 (the Chicago Bulls drafted Doug McDermott) and taking Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris at 16 and 19, both productive starters. The Nuggets then lost their next big trade-down, however, moving down from 13 to 24 and watching the Utah Jazz take Donovan Mitchell with that 13th pick. In that same 2017 draft both teams lost when Portland traded up to 10th to take Zach Collins (perpetually injured since) while the Sacramento Kings traded down to 15th and 20th and took a pair of players in Justin Jackson and Harry Giles who couldn’t make it in the league.

Given the wildly different outcomes, the decision to trade down isn’t a slam dunk. There are certainly risks involved. Yet if the Cavs find the right deal it could be a way to add multiple players to help this team’s rotation, rather than just one. Here are three different kinds of trade-down deals and an example of each; should the Cavs pull the trigger on any?