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?
3 trade-down scenarios for Cavs in NBA Draft: The 2-for-1
The easiest version of the trade-down is the “2-for-1” deal, where a team with multiple first-round picks gives a team two lower picks for the right to pick higher. One team gains multiple bites at the draft apple, the other gets the chance to draft a more premium prospect.
In this scenario the Cavs’ trade partner is the San Antonio Spurs, but it could also be the Memphis Grizzlies (two first-round picks this year) or a team that adds a future pick into the mix. For now let’s use this San Antonio example to examine the merits of such a deal.
The Spurs would gain a second lottery pick (they also have the ninth overall pick) in order to try to add premium talent, likely in search of that second star to pair with Dejounte Murray. If there are prospects with star potential in this draft after the top six or so, the odds of the Spurs finding them are much higher at 14 than if they let another half dozen teams take their swings.
The Cav gain a second pick to move down, giving them two bites at the apple. Many view this draft class as weak but deep; that is, not a lot of star talent but a lot of similarly-ranked prospects who can be rotational pieces. By trading down perhaps the Cavs get a wing and a backup point guard instead of choosing just one; would they prefer, say, Malakhi Branham or the combination of Kennedy Chandler and Jaden Hardy? It’s an interesting question to ask.
3 trade-down scenarios for Cavs in NBA Draft: The Sweetener
This is a variation of the 2-for-1, but the payment is less because the difference in original picks is smaller. A team could send a second-round pick or two (as in our example here) or a lesser-valued player to induce a team to move back a few slots. This occurred in 2019 when the Boston Celtics picked up a second-round pick to move back from 20 to 24.
The move here is more valuable because the initial pick is higher, but the five-slot difference makes for the same basic idea. The Cavs trade down from 14 and still retain a top-20 pick, but also get to fill out more on the margins with their extra second-round draft capital.
Perhaps the Cavs can’t draft Johnny Davis at No. 14, to spitball a name, but instead they get Jalen Williams and can come back to the well for Wendell Moore or Dalen Terry or Walker Kessler at No. 40. They also have another pick in 2023 they can use in trades over the next year or utilize themselves.
The Minnesota Timberwolves make this move because they want to find legitimate two-way forwards to fit between Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards; their options this season were generally offense or defense, but rarely both. By moving up the Timberwolves give up relatively little and get a shot at a higher-upside forward.
3 trade-down scenarios for Cavs in NBA Draft: The Veteran Move
The final variation of a trade down in the draft is “the veteran move” where the Cavs move back a substantial amount and add a player from another team. Obviously similar to the “trade out” many teams do on draft night with their picks, here the Cavs still get a late first-round pick but also add a veteran who can help them meet needs immediately.
The Memphis Grizzlies have this offseason to make a big move to add to their roster before their young core starts getting very expensive. Moving De’Anthony Melton for Cedi Osman reduces the Grizzlies’ payroll slightly, but more importantly gives them a shot at a late lottery pick they can use to swing for the fences once more, as they did last season with Ziaire Williams.
Cleveland here gets a player in Melton who can work on-ball and off-ball, with good playmaking chops but also a strong perimeter shot and a high basketball IQ. Defensively he is a pest, with a long wingspan despite his 6’2″ height that allows him to hold up defending wings. The Grizzlies are flush with usable players, so he wasn’t always a mainstay in their playoff rotation, but his energy and versatile skillset would help the Cavs in a significant way.
The Cavs have plenty of options, and some of those options include trading down from the 14th pick. If they do so, they can add value back in a variety of ways, and might still come out with a prospect who fits their team like a glove.