The Cleveland Cavaliers have a lot of star power. Donovan Mitchell is an MVP candidate, Darius Garland is one of the league’s best passers, Jarrett Allen is the pinnacle of a pick-and-roll center and rim protector, and Evan Mobley is something we’ve never seen before as a versatile defender.
What they don’t have is a clear and obvious option at small forward. Last season Lauri Markkanen played out of position at the 3 to solid results, but he is now in Utah on track to make his first All-Star team. Dean Wade might be the best option, but he’s been sidelined with a knee injury and doesn’t offer any on-ball creation. Caris LeVert and Lamar Stevens have positives and glaring negatives.
In approaching the trade season, therefore, the Cavs have two primary needs to address. The first is a movement shooter, and we discussed one option earlier in the week. Now let’s look to the starting small forward spot. Can the Cavs make a deal that will fill that spot?
The Cleveland Cavaliers can upgrade at forward by trading for this Cavs killer
There is a player on the trade market that could fit the bill, a 6’9″ forward on the Washington Wizards. The Cavaliers will know him well as he tends to always play well against Cleveland, including a pair of back-breaking 3-pointers in an early season showdown last year. That player is Kyle Kuzma.
Should the Cavs make a deal to add this “Cavs killer” to the roster, presumably to start him at the 3? He’s averaging a career-best 21.5 points per game for the Wizards and is going to be coveted by a number of teams. Should the Cavs join the fray?
Cavs killer added in trade proposal
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a few options available to them in building trades. They can include Caris LeVert for more expensive players to match salaries, but Kyle Kuzma is making only $13 million this season. That allows for a smaller construction built around Isaac Okoro or Cedi Osman paired with Dylan Winder’s expiring deal.
Trade site Fanspo laid out one such construction with Okoro, Osman and some draft capital:
In this construction, the Cavaliers press right up against the luxury tax, and another small move down the line might be necessary to give them some breathing room. They cannot trade an outright first-round pick because of the Stepien Rule, which requires NBA teams to have at least one first-round pick every two years.
To get around that, the Cavs offer the Wizards a pick swap for next season; that’s incredibly unlikely to convey, but it’s all the Cavs really have. They add this year’s second-round pick, which belongs to the Golden State Warriors and could end up being fairly high up in the round.
The Wizards may hope for more for Kuzma, but he is on an expiring contract and they don’t have a ton of leverage since he already indicated he was going to sign elsewhere this summer. This might be the best they can find. If so, would the Cavs do it?
Would the Cavs do this trade for Kyle Kuzma?
Kyle Kuzma is playing some of his best basketball this season, taking advantage of an increased role to put up career-best scoring numbers. The Flint, Michigan native is also shooting 46.4 percent from the field, the highest of his career, showing that the increased shot volume isn’t decreasing his efficiency.
Playing with the Cavs, however, he would slot into a smaller role. He would have a chance to win and win big, as the Cavs are playing as well as any team in the league and have the best net rating in the NBA. Is he looking for a larger role somewhere, however? If so, and if the Cavs can’t get some indication that he would be open to sticking around this summer, trading their few remaining assets for a few months of Kuzma seems less palatable.
The other major issue is that Kuzma is not a shooter. He can hit shots, certainly, and did so against the Cavaliers and earlier in his career with the Los Angeles Lakers en route to a championship in 2020. Yet he is a career 34 percent shooter hitting just 34.6 percent this season, and his free-throw mark (72 percent for his career, 69 percent this season) shows little optimism in that department.
Adding a talented scorer to the starting lineup is tempting, but ultimately it will run into the same problems as having Caris LeVert start. Kuzma is a good scorer with the ball in his hands, and a decent passer, but he’s not going to be better than Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell. Giving him the ball produces less efficient offense, and playing him off-ball hurts the spacing.
Ultimately, this is not the player for the Cavs to pursue. If they are going to push in the chips for a small forward he will need to be a strong outside shooter. Otherwise, they are just perpetuating the same issues they currently have. Kyle Kuzma is a great player but he’s not what the Cavs need to put them over the top.