The Cleveland Cavaliers have been continually linked in trade rumors to this player, or that player. It’s obvious that the Cavs need to upgrade at small forward, and so an endless stream of options is paraded before them, seemingly impossible to choose from.
What if the Cavs didn’t choose? Or, at least, didn’t have to choose just one? The Cavaliers don’t really have the ammunition to add a surefire 3-and-D veteran wing, but adding a single bench wing doesn’t do much to move the needle and probably costs the Cavs a rotation player in return.
The Cleveland Cavaliers could elect for a bigger move than just adding one player via trade.
A recent trade proposal from Fanspo follows this line of thinking. Instead of the Cavs depleting their resources to add one imperfect wing, what if they completely overhauled the bench and added three? With an open roster spot plus Dylan Windler, the Cavs can turn one rotation player into three with the right move.
This proposal links the Cavaliers up with the Detroit Pistons and the Miami Heat, delivering a tested veteran to the Heat to juice their ball-handling and adding a trio of very different wings to give the Cavs a completely new look to their bench. Does it work? Let’s take a closer look.
Laying out a three-team trade with the Cavaliers
There are a number of ways for the Cavs to make a trade without sending out Caris LeVert, and a few reasons to hang onto him, but his large salary of $18.8 million allows the Cavs much more flexibility in bringing back another player. In this case, it is the foundation for bringing back three:
The Cavaliers would add a movement shooter in Duncan Robinson, a proto-3-and-D wing in Saddiq Bey, and a combo guard in Alec Burks. That is three different wings with three different skillsets to overhaul the bench and give the Cavs plenty of lineup versatility.
The Heat have been trying to get off of Robinson’s contract for the past few months as his shooting has declined and they have realized their need to have a better defensive option in that slot with the deficiencies of Tyler Herro on that end. It costs a first-round pick to do it, but now the Heat have another ball-handler for the playoffs and the cap space flexibility this summer with LeVert on an expiring deal.
The Pistons make this deal for the draft equity. They are building a new core with Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey, and Saddiq Bey is not a lock to be a part of it. This move gives the Pistons a real asset to draft a new player this June and gets them off of Bey’s contract before he needs an extension. They almost certainly want more capital than this to move both, but the reasoning is at least present.
Would the Cavaliers make this three-team deal?
On the surface, this kind of deal makes a lot of sense. The Cavs have been riding with a paper-thin rotation this season, so adding usable players makes a lot of sense. They have lacked the lineup flexibility to go small around one of their bigs because of a lack of wings, so bringing on three certainly has some intrigue.
On the other hand, Bey is the only one of the three who can even remotely claim tobe a plus defender, and he’s certainly no Isaac Okoro. Robinson is a movement shooter by trade, but his shooting accuracy has declined precipitously each of the last three seasons since his breakout 2019-20. He is hitting just 33.1 percent this season from deep.
Caris LeVert may not be a great fit with this team’s other stars, but he is excellent redundancy for when one of Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell go down, and he can survive defensively enough to stay on the floor. Alec Burks is fairly duplicative with the other guards on the roster and wouldn’t have a clear role. Robinson might be dead money at this point.
Saddiq Bey is the tough decision here, as the young wing still has plenty of upside to become a great player. If all he is as a player is a 3-and-D wing that’s a great outcome for the Cavs, and he could certainly be more.
There is merit to this general concept, and the Cavs should use their open roster spot(s) as leverage to get the player they truly want. This deal might not work quite right, but there are certainly plenty more to dig into as we try to predict what the Cleveland front office will do.