The Cleveland Cavaliers had a great season overall. They easily qualified for the playoffs, winning 51 games, and while they lost in five games to the New York Knicks they weren’t blown out in any game. For a young team just coming together, it was a great step toward building a future champion, especially given the accountability the players took onto themselves. This core still has a bright future.
Now, however, they need to figure out how to upgrade the roster for playoff basketball. Winning in the regular season is not enough; the Cavaliers now need to find players who can play on the NBA’s biggest stage.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will be looking to make trades this summer
They have a second-round pick to add someone, and they will have the mid-level exception to add players in free agency. They will absolutely be mining the trade market, however, calling around the league to look for upgrades to their rotation, especially at small forward for that fifth starting spot.
With no first-round picks to trade, the Cavs have to rely on the value of the players already on their roster. Some players are untouchable, while others improved their value during the season. For a few players, however, their play this year has tanked their trade value.
Ricky Rubio tanked his trade value
There was a stretch two years ago when Ricky Rubio looked like the veteran savior of the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise. He stepped into a high-minute bench role and was right there with Darius Garland as the best guard on the team. Then he tore his ACL, and the team traded him as matching salary to bring in Caris LeVert.
The team loved what Rubio brought to both the locker room and the court, so they signed him to a three-year deal the following summer. Rubio spent much of this past season rehabbing from his ACL injury, making his debut in January and playing in 33 games.
Rubio averaged 28 minutes, 13.1 points, 6.6 assists per game and shot 33.9 percent from deep in 2021-22 with the Cavs; this past season he could only handle 17 minutes per game, averaging only 5.2 points, 3.5 assists and shooting an abysmal 25.6 percent from deep.
In the playoffs, Rubio became unplayable. He wasn’t able to generate any sort of separation with the ball in his hands, and the New York Knicks ignored him when he spaced out to the 3-point line. Defensively he has lost some of his lateral movement, making him a poor choice as a stopper on players like Jalen Brunson.
Rubio’s $6.1 million salary for next season is a logical candidate to use in a trade to find an upgrade, but he played so poorly he is likely to have little-to-no value to other teams. His trade value tanked so spectacularly that the Cavaliers likely have to keep the 32-year-old and hope he plays better next season as his knee continues to heal.
Dean Wade tanked his trade value
Prior to this past season, Dean Wade earned a three-year contract extension, a sign of how the organization valued him and wanted to keep him around. He began the season excellently, starting four games and proving his value as the potential answer as the fifth starter. He had a positive plus-minus in nine of his first eleven games and shot the lights out from deep.
Then the injuries began, with the most serious being a shoulder sprain. Add in a minor knee injury and an ankle sprain, and it was difficult for Wade to find his way back to the court. When he did, the lingering effects of the shoulder injury seemed to destroy his shooting form. Seemingly afraid to miss when his shot wasn’t going down, Wade then began passing up open looks, something the fifth-starter on this team can’t do.
Coming into the season Wade looked like a future 3-and-D starter for the Cavaliers or an enticing trade candidate for another team. Now, after getting virtually no chance in the playoffs, he looks like a fringe rotation player.
Can Wade recoup his value? Absolutely. Lineups with Wade on the court still grade out well, and his defense is stout. If he can continue to rehab his shoulder and regain his shooting form, next season Wade could earn back a firm rotation spot and maybe even compete again for the final starting position. That will rebuild his trade value and his value to the Cavaliers.
Isaac Okoro tanked his trade value
Coming into the league after he was drafted No. 5 overall in the NBA Draft, the scout on Isaac Okoro was simple. He profiled as an elite on-ball defender, the kind of player who can absolutely hound opposing guards and generate steals to spark transition opportunities. The question mark for Okoro was whether he could develop an outside shot or on-ball shot creation to make him a plus on offense too.
Over his first two seasons in the league, Okoro got a ton of playing time and proved two things. First, he was the defender he was thought to be; second, he was never going to be an on-ball shot creator. That left the question coming into this season: could Okoro improve his shot enough to become a 3-and-D player who could thrive alongside the stars in Cleveland?
The answer this season has been, mostly, a no. Okoro did have a nice shooting stretch in the middle of the season, but the end result was 36.3 percent 3-point shooting despite the highest percentage of wide-open shots in the league. Teams ignored him on the perimeter, and he wasn’t able to punish them enough for it to matter.
That came to a head in the playoffs, when the Cavaliers would have loved to play Okoro big minutes to defend Jalen Brunson. Instead, they had to pivot away, as Okoro was completely ignored by the Knicks’ defense. In five games he hit just four of his 13 3-point attempts and completely suffocated the Cavs’ offense.
Okoro is still young and an excellent defender, so a team may take a chance on him on the trade market. What is very unlikely is that another team values him as a future starter, because he has not proven he is anything but a disaster for an offense. Until that changes, his trade value is on life support.