Cavs News: Don-less in Denver, FT woes, not 1, but 2-forward trade idea

It’s no secret that Donovan Mitchell means so much to the Cleveland Cavaliers, as he’s proven in his first season with them post-trade acquisition from the Utah Jazz in the now-past offseason. Mitchell exhibited that in a 71-point outburst on Monday night’s overtime comeback win over the Chicago Bulls, and on the year, Mitchell’s had 29.0 points per contest, on career-best shooting splits.

With what he’s done with the Cavaliers, Mitchell should be in the MVP conversation, and would appear to be there at this juncture. On Friday night, though, the Cavs didn’t have Mitchell at the Denver Nuggets, with a rest designation, and as the game wore on, the Wine and Gold just couldn’t hang on nearly enough to make a run. Denver would win 121-108.

The Nuggets look to be a contender in the Western Conference with Nikola Jokic and others, and Jamal Murray back in the fold.

The Cavaliers did have a decent first half, but even with Denver on the second leg of a back-to-back, the Nuggets eventually pulled away, and went 17-of-35 from three (48.6 percent); they did cruise on Thursday night against the LA Clippers, too, in fairness. Jokic himself had 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, for good measure, and Denver’s starters and bench largely got the looks they wanted.

Cleveland did have Darius Garland back from missing time because of a thumb sprain, and he did make some great finishes, and had 21 points and eight assists. But he was hit in the thumb on a drive later on in the game, and was grabbing at that, and in the game overall, was one-of-six from three. So, one would have to assume it takes some time before he re-established the deep shooting rhythm.

More Cavs news

The Cavaliers did have some encouraging performances from Friday in the loss to Denver, as Cedi Osman did have 15 points in 28 minutes off the bench, on six-of-10 shooting, and Lamar Stevens did make some plays defensively in his 14 minutes. Along with those guys, Caris LeVert led the team with 22 points in another spot start, and shot eight-of-13.

Nonetheless, Cleveland’s free throw woes at times throughout didn’t help the Cavaliers’ cause. Regardless of one of Denver’s rims neading an adjustment in the early fourth quarter (which happened previously recently, too), Evan Mobley couldn’t find his free throw stroke last night. He was zero-of-six from the stripe, and Jarrett Allen and LeVert went five-of-eight and three-of-five, and overall, the Cavs went just 18-of-32 (56.3 percent) from the foul line. That was less than stellar.

Regarding other Cavs news, the following trade idea was recently suggested by popular trade site Fanspo, with the Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns conducting a three-team deal.

Our own Josh Cornelissen analyzed the potential trade, and ultimately graded the proposal. You can view more on that deal where the Cavs would acquire two forwards here, along with other rumors on the trade front.

NBA news

On Friday night, the Charlotte Hornets beat down the Milwaukee Bucks 138-109, which was definitely not an outcome one could’ve foreseen coming. The key takeaway there was how the Hornets stung the Bucks big-time, to say the least, by the tune of a 51-point first quarter. That tied a league record for team first quarter points, and the Hornets got the job done from there.

From there, another noteworthy league note from last night was Zach LaVine’s performance to help drive the Chicago Bulls to a road victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

LaVine, who has again been a star player mentioned in trade rumors of late, once again proved how dangerous he can be, as he had 41 points and nailed 11 threes. He also became just the second player ever to have 11 made threes and to shoot 80-plus percent from deep.

You could probably guess the other player that fit that criteria.

Next up: The Cavaliers will take on the Phoenix Suns once again on Sunday night, a team they beat in the closing moments on Wednesday night at home. That will be Cleveland’s second game of their current five-game road trip.