This trade and signing would make Cavaliers true title contenders

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Jerami Grant, Detroit Pistons. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images /

Laying out the trade for the Cavaliers

Jerami Grant is the kind of player the Cavaliers would love to sign. He is tall and long (6’8″) with the combination of size and strength to defend both forward positions. He is a defensive playmaker, and while his impact on that end has waxed and waned with his offensive load, there is no denying he’s a plus defender.

On the other end of the court, Grant has blossomed into a talented scoring threat. He proved that he can score at decent efficiency as the top option and at excellent efficiency as the co-star. Last year in Portland he had a career season, shooting 40.1 percent from 3-point range and averaging 20.5 points per game.

Grant is a free agent this summer, but his market is well outside of the range of the Cavaliers’ $12.2 million MLE. There is literally no path to signing Grant outright. There is, however, another option for the Cavs: a sign and trade.

In this scenario, Grant would sign a contract with the Portland Trail Blazers that he would not be eligible to sign with the Cavaliers, but then is immediately traded to Cleveland. The Cavs would need to both match Grant’s salary and make it worth Portland’s while. That trade would look something like this:

It’s obviously painful to give up two young pieces of the Cavs’ core, but the positional game demands it. Grant is a plus scorer and good shooter who will be a legitimate two-way player for the Cavaliers, and they can’t acquire that type of player anywhere else.

For Portland, they get a starting center to replace Jusuf Nurkic would should be an excellent fit with Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons in pick-and-roll, and he is young enough to be a part of a youth movement if the Blazers move on from Lillard this summer. Isaac Okoro effectively replaces Gary Payton II as an on-ball stopper to work in with Lillard and Simons.

If the Cavs make this trade happen, they will still be a starter short. What this move does, however, is give them positional versatility. They could still pursue a starting small forward with the MLE, starting Grant at the 4 and Evan Mobley at the 5. They would still face the same issue as before, however. What this trade opens up is the possibility of now using the MLE to pursue a starting center.