As with any team entering the offseason, rumors are swirling wildly around the Cleveland Cavaliers. For every player on the roster they could trade, cut, extend, sign, release or replace them. Their draft picks are brimming with potential to draft any of two dozen players, to move up, down or out.
There are plenty of intriguing decisions to be made, and many of them will be difficult to judge now but will instead require the gift of hindsight to properly evaluate. Even so, some are immediately identifiable as poor moves for how this roster is constructed and how the league is trending.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to steer their ship towards contention. What rumored moves this offseason would be big mistakes for the Cavs to make?
As such, the preferred route for the Cavs would seek to avoid certain pitfalls. Unfortunately, the Cavaliers specifically and most NBA teams generally have a history of inconsistent decision-making, of bending to various internal and external processes or departing from a measured version of decision-making to make emotional calls on the futures of players and the use of assets.
What moves that are floating out there as possibilities should the Cavs avoid? A few are very specific and pressing, while a few are more theoretical. That being said, to properly steer the ship this offseason, the Cavs need to avoid these five moves that are clearly mistakes.
5 rumored moves for Cavs: Giving Sexton a massive contract
Collin Sexton was drafted by this team, the first major piece of the Cavs’ second post-LeBron James rebuild. He has developed into a dynamic scoring threat with the ball in his hands, and over four seasons and 218 games with the Cavs has averaged 20 points per game.
That kind of production for a player on a rookie contract almost always motivates his team to back up the truck and pay the man, but the Cavs were hesitant to give him a lucrative extension last season. That was likely in part because of the potential of fellow small-guard Darius Garland, and in part because of Sexton’s deficiencies as a defender and playmaker.
Garland’s potential blossomed into production, and the Cavs now have an All-Star at point guard. What does that mean for Sexton? The team wants to keep him around, according to reports and Koby Altman himself, but surely they understand that Garland and Sexton are not the foundation of a contending backcourt given their lack of size and Sexton’s weaknesses as an off-ball player or general ceiling-raiser.
Sexton looks like an extremely-talented Sixth Man, the kind of guard who comes in off the bench to run the offense and score in bunches. That’s not the kind of player you pay $20 million per season or more for. Do the Cavs stick to their guns and try to pay Sexton as a bench player, or do they capitulate to keep him around? How do other interested teams leverage this negotiation in one direction or the other?
Whatever they do, the Cavs can’t lock themselves into a lucrative long-term deal for Collin Sexton. It will immediately limit their ceiling and prevent them from becoming true contenders.
5 rumored moves for Cavs: Extending Caris LeVert long-term
It’s possible to track the thought process of the Cleveland front office at this past trade deadline. With Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio both injured and out for the remainder of the season, the Cavs were balancing on the edge of a knife. Stand pat, and the team could miss the playoffs; swing a trade, and it could propel them into the postseason.
The Cavs therefore traded for Caris LeVert, seeking to add a wing player who could serve as the secondary playmaker and shot-creator. They inexplicably sent multiple assets to the Indiana Pacers for the overpaid LeVert, and then promptly missed the playoffs anyway as LeVert was either injured or on the court not playing defense. While he had some moments offensively, clearly the early returns were poor.
The Cavs now have a decision to make. Do they acknowledge trading for LeVert was a mistake and try to move him this offseason to recoup some of the value they gave up? Do they stand pat and see what a training camp can do for integrating him into the team before making a decision at the trade deadline?
What they cannot do is double down, handing LeVert a long-term extension to stay in Cleveland. His lack of defense alongside Darius Garland makes for a tough combination, and the Cavs badly need floor-spacers at the 2 and 3, something LeVert is not going to help much with. If the Cavs keep both LeVert and Sexton this team’s defensive identity is going to flounder like a beached whale. Cleveland needs to move on, not lock the two parties into a long-term relationship.
5 rumored moves for Cavs: Re-signing Rajon Rondo and Ed Davis
Last offseason the Cleveland Cavaliers filled their final roster spot with a veteran big, Ed Davis, to serve as more of a mentor to the team’s young bigs than an on-court presence. That seemed like a solid idea at the time; no player available was likely to crack the Cavs’ regular rotation.
Unfortunately, the unpredictable nature of COVID-19 and the league’s health and safety protocols, on top of the normal vagaries of injuries, meant the Cavs had reason to call upon their third center multiple times throughout the season. Davis played hard, but ultimately the drop-off was painfully steep. The Cavs need to explore options for that roster spot that have more left in the tank than Davis does.
The same goes for point guard. The Cavs have their point guard of the future with Darius Garland, but they need something reliable behind him. They had that in Ricky Rubio before the veteran tore his ACL, and the two teams could reunite again this summer. Either way, the Cavs need to address backup point guard with a more dynamic player than Rajon Rondo.
The 16-year veteran has basically sworn off of scoring inside the arc, instead just jacking the occasional 3-pointer at decent volume and otherwise looking to move the ball; his pass-first tendencies have evolved into pass-only tendencies. The Cavs need a younger player more willing to pressure a defense behind Garland, and Rondo is not that answer.
5 rumored moves for Cavs: Drafting another small guard
Darius Garland. Isaac Okoro. Collin Sexton. Three of the Cavs’ last four lottery picks have been guards, and the Cavs have found themselves unable to fit them all together in a lineup that works. They started the three together during Okoro’s rookie season in 2020-21, and the result was a 22-win season.
Okoro is too small to play at the 3, and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff wisely moved him to the 2 last season. Yet that’s also Collin Sexton’s position, as the four-year player doesn’t have the passing chops to be a point guard. Add in Caris LeVert, who is 6’6″ but plays small, and the Cavs are flush with players best suited for the 2 and the 2 alone.
The Cavs need players who can fill minutes at the 3. That doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t draft a player who projects as a 2-guard, if they are sure he is the best player available, but he has to have enough size and/or length to play at the 3. If they do, they’ve sunk another lottery pick into the backcourt and failed again to address the small forward position.
Players such as Malaki Branham, Jaden Hardy and Ocahi Agbaji would be tough sells for this reason, and a pure guard such as TyTy Washington even more so. On the other hand, players with size like AJ Griffin, Jalen Williams and E.J. Liddell can step in and play at the 3 from the jump. That’s not meant to be a ranking, but simply an acknowledgment that the Cavs are moving from the “assemble talent no matter what” phase to the “build a team that works” phase of their team’s life cycle.
5 rumored moves for Cavs: Trading pick to speed up timeline
At the NBA Trade Deadline this past February, the Cavs seemed to punt on their future by trading a first-round pick and a lucrative second to the Indiana Pacers for Caris LeVert. They made a win-now move, which felt weird at the time given this team was projected to be deep in the lottery.
This next season may be the next step in the ascension, or it may be a consolidation year as teams get full scouting reports on this young core and they learn how to win together. All of their core pieces are locked up long-term and are incredibly young; this is not the year to push all of the chips into the middle and try to win now.
That doesn’t mean the Cavs have to keep their draft pick; if there is a deal out there that upgrades this team and is good value, they should absolutely pull the trigger. But shopping the pick simply because the team doesn’t want to wait on another player to develop is foolishness, especially if it means a short-sighted trade to try and chase wins this season. Building the Cavs into a contender is a long process, and the front office needs to be patient, not hasty.
The Cavs have the potential to build on an amazing season and continue growing as a team, but a number of pitfalls lay in wait. Can they avoid these mistakes and put together an offseason that propels them forward?