Regrading the Cavaliers trade for Caris LeVert last season

Regrading Cavaliers trade for LeVert: Final Verdict

LeVert’s best moments have come when one of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland have been out injured. His redundancy for the Cavs has been valuable this season, and at times he has put up big stat lines in relief. He has also had games where his only contributions were missed shots and turnovers as he tried to play hard in his limited minutes.

There are ways this pairing could have worked out worse. LeVert could be calling it in on defense, but instead is genuinely bought in and playing hard on that end, even if he’s not a good technical defender. He hasn’t chafed at his role, and while his shot selection isn’t optimum he isn’t trying to hijack the offense, either.

There is also a path not taken where this worked out better. If the Cavaliers had moved on from Collin Sexton but not traded for Donovan Mitchell, LeVert could have been a reasonable running mate for Darius Garland. But therein lies the rub: the Cavs invested multiple picks in a player who was only ever going to raise their floor, not their ceiling, and to get where they want to go he was going to become redundant and/or marginalized.

The Cavaliers should have never made the trade; that was fairly obvious at the time, even as the paths for it to work were still in view. Now they’re gone, and the Cavs need to move on from Caris LeVert this summer rather than committing a large contract to keep him around. The Cavs are making moves now to refine a contender, and LeVert’s value to a different team will be much higher.

Regrade: C