The Cleveland Cavaliers find themselves at 26-15 on the season at the halfway point of the 2022-23 campaign, and it’s apparent that they should make the playoffs this season. The group’s star backcourt and imposing defensive duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are the core players for the Wine and Gold, and the team has found a nice blend of other pieces to blend in in varying lineups with those players, or in stretches with staggered lineups.
Cleveland should be getting added help with the return of Ricky Rubio seemingly soon, which should pay dividends for a number of players, and for the team’s management of games. Rubio is coming off an ACL tear suffered in late December of 2021, so expectations have to be tempered, in fairness; even still, his playmaking and leadership proved invaluable last season, and he’s the teams’ best pure passer.
Nonetheless, as many have expressed, the Cavaliers could use more legitimacy on the wing.
Some of it has been because of injuries, and Dean Wade having been out for over a month (AC joint sprain) hasn’t been ideal, considering his 3/4 viability, but even with him, there’s flaws. Lamar Stevens and Isaac Okoro have shooting questions, Okoro is limited on-ball, and Cedi Osman has his warts.
With the wing inconsistencies, it’s not difficult to foresee why the Cavaliers are reportedly expected to seek short-term wing help via the trade market, per Zach Lowe of ESPN (subscription required). Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports further substantiated that, too, as he emphasized in a report how “it’s no secret around the league that a defensive-minded stopper who’s a consistent shooting threat stands as Cleveland’s true missing piece.”
Although, Fischer did express how fulfilling that is going to be far from a simple task, and that was made clear with how while Cleveland is a Bojan Bogdanovic suitor, a Detroit Pistons sharpshooter, the asking price is going to be steep. The same would go for Pistons wing/forward Saddiq Bey, and Fischer noted how the Cavaliers have used up their draft capital for Donovan Mitchell, who has been incredible, and Caris LeVert, with the latter dating back to near last years’ trade deadline.
From there, Fischer did mention how Kelly Oubre Jr. could’ve been a potential target for Cleveland, prior to his surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left hand.
That said, Fischer did seemingly suggest how possible players on contenders seem out of the question, Josh Richardson or perhaps Gary Harris and Terrence Ross could be left as “theoretical targets” for the Cavs to maybe pursue. As Fischer also hit on, all of those players’ deals are non-guaranteed for next season.
Taking that info into consideration and the wing rumors, the Cavs should consider these two feasibly low-cost trade targets.
We’ll begin with the aforementioned Richardson, with these being in no particular order.