Grade the Trade: Could Cavaliers land Nets wing after Durant deal?

Building a Cavaliers deal with the Nets

There are a lot of potential trade options on the Brooklyn Nets. Mikal Bridges and Nic Claxton are outside of the Cavs’ price range, Ben Simmons is radioactive and Jae Crowder was just rerouted to the Milwaukee Bucks. Movement shooters like Seth Curry and Patty Mills are intriguing, but not the best picks. Joe Harris has a big contract and plenty of injury risk.

The player the Cavaliers should pursue is Royce O’Neale. A former teammate of Donovan Mitchell’s with the Utah Jazz, O’Neale is a quintessential 3-and-D wing. He is a career 38.6 percent 3-point shooter hitting 40.3 percent of his attempts this season. At 6’4″ he isn’t the tallest wing, but he has a huge wingspan and plenty of strength, and would profile as a better option on small forwards than Isaac Okoro.

O’Neale is also on a bargain contract, making $9.2 million this season and $9.5 million next year. The Cavs can’t really get to matching salary with Dylan Windler plus minimums, but they can move Cedi Osman and some picks to bring him in.

The Nets don’t need O’Neale, and there aren’t a limitless number of first-rounders still out there. Two seconds is reasonable value for O’Neale, and keeping him around doesn’t do them a ton of good. Osman is fine as a replacement if they try to stay respectable this year, or they can flip him somewhere else. This isn’t a no-brainer for the Nets, but it’s a reasonable offer from the Cavs.