The Cleveland Cavaliers knew they had a weakness in the playoffs last season. Their primary rotation wings lacked a consistent 3-point shot, smothering their two dynamic guards when defenses left players undefended to double the Cavs’ actions. If the Cavaliers adjusted to put shooting on the court, their perimeter defense couldn’t hold up and forced the bigs out of position to aggressively help.
The mission for this summer? Add shooting. They did so at every point, signing Georges Niang and Ty Jerome, while adding a stretch-5 in Damian Jones in a trade with the Utah Jazz. Their biggest swing of the offseason, however, was a sign-and-trade for Miami Heat wing Max Strus.
The Cavaliers trade for Max Strus
The Cavs and Heat were in discussions on a sign-and-trade from the moment free agency began on Friday night. That allowed the Cavaliers to not only offer Strus a deal above the Mid-Level Exception, but also to use the MLE on a different player, in this case Niang. It helped the Heat by generating a trade exception they can use to add talent later in the season.
The rub? The Heat didn’t want to take back the matching salary the Cavs had to offer, necessitating a third team. That turned out to be the San Antonio Spurs, and the final trade saw Cedi Osman and Lamar Stevens routed to the Spurs:
Free agent Max Strus has agreed on a four-year, $63M sign-and-trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers, agent Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN. In three-team deal, Heat get a second-round pick and Spurs acquire Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens and a second-rounder. pic.twitter.com/xKAmqlx3aF
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2023
Did the Cavaliers win this deal? Let’s look at both sides of the deal; the signing of Max Strus and the value of trading out two players and two picks.