Can Cavs take advantage of Lakers’ desperation for a trade?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been there. When LeBron James is on your team, you go all-out to put a contender around him. Draft picks, young players, anything that isn’t nailed down is sacrificed in the name of putting the best possible team on the court to maximize having an all-time great on the roster. That approach brought the Cavs 5 trips to the NBA Finals.

Now they got the chance to build a different way, and instead of mortgaging the future to serve the present (well, except for that Caris LeVert trade), they have built a young core set up to compete for a long time. And LeBron’s new team? Well, they’re panicking.

The Los Angeles Lakers are being driven by LeBron James to make a move. The Cavs understand that spot all too well; can they take advantage?

LeBron James is now 37 years old, and after the Los Angeles Lakers won the title in 2020 they have been well below LeBron’s standards since. Two seasons ago they had to battle their way out of the play-in only to lose to the Pheonix Suns in the first round, and last year they didn’t even make the play-in. The roster around James is in rough shape outside of the oft-injured Anthony Davis.

When healthy, LeBron James is still a top-10 player in the NBA, but he won’t be for long. The Lakers know that, and the internal pressure of having LeBron on your team and the external pressure of being one of the league’s premier franchises are all driving the front office to be bold in making any and all moves possible. At the Lakers’ Media Day, Rob Pelinka said as much:

Desperation fuels mistakes, and the Cavs would love to leap into the fray and take advantage of a Lakers team in crisis. Is there a way to do that? Let’s look at the two basic options available and see if there is a roadmap to extracting value from a team ready to try anything.