It is a very important concept in problem-solving that you don’t want to fix one problem by causing another one somewhere else. A classic Ernie and Bert sketch from Sesame Street has Ernie breaking a cookie jar, and then continually solving the problem in front of him by causing a subsequent problem. He puts the cookies from the broken jar into the sugar bowl, then puts the sugar into the flower pot, the flowers into the milk bottle, and so forth. While the audience laughs, Bert is incensed.
NBA teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers have to approach problem-solving with the practicality of Bert. If they are building a team of players set to win at the highest level, they can’t solve one problem by creating another one somewhere else. Trading your rim protector for a 3-point shooter boosts the offense and hurts the defense; teams have to solve both problems, so simply shifting the problem around doesn’t work in a vacuum.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are too smart to solve one problem by causing another.
Unfortunately, in a season where trade rumors are filling the air like a thick fog, many fans and even much of the media are a little too much like Ernie. They see a team’s need and suggest a trade to solve it without considering the bigger picture. They effectively stuff the cookies in the sugar bowl and expect someone more responsible to deal with the fallout.
One such trade from the popular NBA trade engine Fanspo does just this. It looks at the Cavs’ need for a wing, connects the reporting that they have had discussions about Tim Hardaway Jr., and suggests a solution that just causes problems elsewhere. Let’s dig into the deal and see just how bad a solution it is.
Awful trade idea for the Cavs
The problem: the Cavs need a wing who can shoot. The solution? Tim Hardaway Jr.! We’ll just send Kevin Love. But Ernie, now the Cavaliers need a backup center. No problem, Bert! We can take on JaVale McGee too. So on and so forth, until you land on this mess of a trade:
The above trade idea from Fanspo theoretically solves one problem, but it causes a whole host of other ones. The Cavs are trading three rotation players for a trio of players all having down seasons for the Mavericks, springing leaks and causing long-term salary problems as well.
Dallas would almost certainly make this trade in a heartbeat. Kevin Love would be an excellent pick-and-pop partner with Luka Doncic, and the Mavericks can manage the rotation for Love and Christian Wood to rarely share the court. Lamar Stevens gives them size and energy defensively, while Isaac Okoro gives them point-of-attack defense and the upside for more. It also gives Dallas substantial cap space this summer as they clear over $25 million off of their cap.
Garbage trade for the Cavs
The Dallas Mavericks are a team built around a heliocentric star in Luka Doncic, and the role players around him get on the court primarily for their ability to play off of him. Doncic has been incredible this season, neck-and-neck with Nikola Jokic for the MVP, and yet the Mavs have had an up-and-down season because the role players have not had a great year.
Those struggling role players are exactly who the Mavs would be sending back to the Cavaliers in this trade. JaVale McGee is entirely out of the lineup and at age 35 might be cooked, but has two seasons of guaranteed money left on his deal. Reggie Bullock has had a disaster of a season, ranking in the first percentile in the league in estimated wins added. Tim Hardaway Jr. is shooting the ball well from outside, but he is unable to generate offense or score inside the arc. He makes another $34 million over the two seasons after this one.
Trading two of this team’s best perimeter defenders and its best backup big for flotsam and jetsam taking up space on the Mavericks’ cap sheet is a disaster. It’s solving one problem by causing a host more, from frontcourt depth to perimeter defense to future cap flexibility. Not in a million years should the Cleveland Cavaliers say yes to this trade.
Grade: F- (can you give out an F minus? Well we just did)