The Cleveland Cavaliers are a good shooting team. They certainly aren’t an elite one, not with multiple non-shooters throughout the rotation, but they have some real firepower launching 3-pointers. Kevin Love is one of the most prolific stretch-bigs in the league and both Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell are gifted pull-up shooters.
The problem for the Cavs is that their shooters fall in one of two buckets, either spotting up or pulling up. That leaves one category largely unfilled, that of movement shooters. These are guys whose shot is so versatile that they can catch, turn and shoot even while sprinting around screens.
The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have a movement shooter anymore.
The Cavs have been trying to get a movement shooter for years now. They drafted Ochai Agbaji in the 2022 NBA Draft to be that player, but he was included in the Donovan Mitchell trade and is starting to turn it on for the Utah Jazz. Lauri Markkanen was the closest thing they had last season, and he is in Utah as well.
We’ve discussed a couple of different shooters that could be available at the NBA Trade Deadline, but there is one recently linked to the Cavaliers that we should discuss. The San Antonio Spurs are in an all-out rebuild, and as such should be moving their extraneous veterans. One such player is Doug McDermott, a player who the Cavs reportedly have asked after.
Could the Cavs land the “Southwest Shooter”? Let’s take a look.