Grade the Trade: Ryen Russillo pitches Allen deal for Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not the buzziest team in the NBA rumor mill. The future landing spots of players like Damian Lillard, Karl-Anthony Towns and Draymond Green are the hot-button topics right now. Even so, that doesn’t mean they aren’t being discussed, and specifically what they might do with All-Star center Jarrett Allen.

It’s not that the Cavaliers have to trade Allen, nor that he is unhappy in Cleveland. The greater NBA community just understands both the difficulty of building a balanced lineup with two non-shooting bigs, and the challenge at finding a high-level two-way forward with limited assets. Trade proposals are therefore popping up that would help the Cavs address both issues.

Ryen Russillo has a trade proposal of his own

Ryen Russillo of The Ringer recently jumped into the fray, when he and Bill Simmons discussed some potential trades around the league on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” last week. Simmons had an idea of his own to send Jarrett Allen to the Phoenix Suns in a “challenge trade” for Deandre Ayton that we discussed last week.

Russillo’s deal was more in the vein of most fake trades, where the Cavaliers send out Allen and receive back a player who could start at small forward. It’s a deal I haven’t heard pitched before, and would be a creative option for two teams to trade from strength to upgrade a weakness.

The trade partner is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Would the Cavs be willing to work out a deal? Let’s take a closer look.