Athletic proposes Cavs trade with Pistons for Jerami Grant

The Athletic proposes Cavs trade for Jerami Grant: Why Cavs would it

The Cleveland Cavaliers built something special last season, turning around a team in the dregs and sitting in the playoff field for most of the season. Eventually, injury attrition became too much and they slipped to eighth and eventually a play-in loss, but there is something strong to stand on in Cleveland.

The question is how to continue building from here. The front office should absolutely not be impatient in mortgaging the future to help the present (you know, like they were in February making the Caris LeVert deal in the first place) yet this looks like a team ready to push for a legitimate playoff berth next season. Adding a veteran forward in Jerami Grant isn’t a crazy idea.

He has the defensive versatility to play at the 3, likely starting and pushing Lauri Markkanen to the bench. Suddenly the Cavs go from the tallest frontcourt in the league to the best defensive one, even better it seems than the Boston Celtics. Grant is a reasonable shooter, a reasonable secondary creator and can thrive in both high-volume and low-volume roles.

Losing the No. 14 pick is no fun, but any player drafted there has a low chance to be even as good as Grant and will take multiple years to get there. That’s fine, as the Cavs aren’t in a rush, but it’s a reasonable price for Grant. LeVert as the salary ballast and balancing value is not a huge blow to the Cavs here; any loss in on-ball creation, likely slight, is more than made up for with Grant’s defensive improvement on LeVert. This deal would also save the Cavs from a potentially bad contract extension with LeVert.