If asked, should Cavs trade Evan Mobley for Kevin Durant?

Should Cavs trade Evan Mobley for Kevin Durant? What a trade would look like

As the third overall pick in the draft, Evan Mobley is making just $8.4 million next season. Kevin Durant, on the other hand, is making $44.1 million max contract. For a trade to be feasible, the Nets and Cavs would have to match up salary by including more contracts heading back to Brooklyn.

One configuration used Kevin Love’s salary as the main chunk to match up with Durant’s. Love make $28.9 million in the last year of his extension. If you add in Mobley, plus Isaac Okoro and Cedi Osman, you get a deal that works financially. Then the Cavs would toss in a pair of first-round picks and a pair of pick swaps, and perhaps they get themselves a deal.

The Nets would then have Love’s expiring deal, a pair of reasonably-priced wings in Okoro and Osman, and their future star to build around in Mobley.

The other version of this deal involves more moving parts, but the Nets might prefer that to maximize their flexibility in moving those players again at the trade deadline. Lauri Markkanen makes $16.4 million, and Caris LeVert $18.7. Add Mobley and Okoro and you get a framework that should work, and perhaps the draft capital heading out is a bit less.

Let’s assume the Nets want the first configuration for the salary flexibility and evaluate the deal from there.