3 increasingly bold ways for Cavs to enter Russell Westbrook trade

3 bold ways for Cavs to enter Westbrook trade: Snagging a player

In early 2021, the Houston Rockets were shopping James Harden. The Brooklyn Nets were interested but didn’t have enough picks unencumbered. They offered a young center in Jarrett Allen but the Rockets weren’t interested. The Cavs then shrewdly stepped in and offered to take on Allen in exchange for a first-round pick, which the Nets added to the pot to trade for James Harden.

Harden has already moved on from the Nets, but Allen was an All-Star last season and is a foundational part of the Cavaliers’ young core. The Cavs got an excellent return on their investment by hopping into a trade and adding a player to help other teams grease the wheels.

Could the Cavs do the same in a trade involving Russell Westbrook? Yes, but the pathways are much more narrow here. The idea would be that the Lakers could move bad salary for draft capital to help offload Westbrook, but they don’t have any left.

What could work would be if the team taking on Westbrook had matching salary that either didn’t quite make the numbers match or that the Lakers didn’t want. The Cavs could step in, take back a player, and send out some salary and a draft pick. Players like Malik Beasley and Bojan Bogdanovic on the Utah Jazz or Buddy Hield on the Indiana Pacers.