Grade the Trade: Cavs add Croatian scorer in trade proposal

Cavs add scorer in trade proposal: Grade the Trade

Bojan Bogdanovic is a really talented offensive player, the kind of guy who can score off of movement and off the dribble, with a potent outside jumper and a bag of tricks inside, especially against smaller players. If he started at the 3 for the Cavs he could routinely feast on smaller wings trying to defend him.

The defense is certainly more of a question mark for Bogdanovic. He is a decent on-ball defender and can use his strength in certain matchups, but he gets caught in traffic off-ball and doesn’t provide much of any secondary rim protection. Adding and starting Bogdanovic instead of Dean Wade or Lamar Stevens would be a downgrade defensively, although obviously a huge upgrade on offense.

Bogdanovic makes $19.55 million this season and just over $39 million combined over the next two seasons, very reasonable money for a player who can put up 20 per game. The Cavs likely won’t let Caris LeVert and Kevin Love both walk in free agency, so they aren’t going to be cap space players. Flipping LeVert for a player under contract is a good use of money.

Bogdanovic can help relieve pressure on the backcourt to score, spaces the court at an elite level and opens up some of the sets the Cavs did run or designed to run with Lauri Markkanen. In a better defensive ecosystem, he could play better as a 1-on-1 defender. LeVert is a solid player but he is very redundant on this roster, so flipping him for a different kind of scorer makes sense.

Grade: A-