Grade the Trade: Cavaliers add Max Strus, lose two wings

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:

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.

Grading the signing of Max Strus

Max Strus is signing with the Cavaliers on a four-year, $63 million deal that will pay him an average of $15.75 million per season. Strus, now 27 years old, will turn 31 a few weeks before this contract ends, giving the Cavs the heart of his prime.

Strus was an undrafted free agent who bounced around the league his first year before landing in Miami for the 2020-21 season. He became a full-time rotation player in 2021-22, eventually supplanting Duncan Robinson in the starting lineup. He has started all 41 of the Miami Heat’s playoff games over the past two seasons.

He presumably steps into the starting small forward spot for the Cavs. He’s a bit undersized for that role at 6’5″, but his strength has allowed him to fill that role for the Heat plenty over the last two seasons, switching between the 2 and 3. With Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen behind him you can survive a smaller player at the 3, and his strength could allow him to cross-match if the Cavs need to deploy Mobley on combo forwards like Jimmy Butler.

Strus is being signed because he is a good defender who can shoot the basketball, a combination severely lacking on the Cavs this past season. He is a 37.1 percent 3-point shooter for his career, not exactly a premier number, but it’s the volume that is the best indicator of his shooting prowess: 7.0 attempts per game last season, and 9.5 attempts per 36 minutes for his career.

He doesn’t stop shooting in the playoffs, either, and famously has had multiple games where he catches fire and gets up double-digit attempts. He only had 1.4 wide-open 3-point attempts in the playoffs this past season, because opposing defenses are terrified to leave him open. That, more so even than his accuracy, is what will help the Cleveland offense the most.

$15.75 million per season is less than other “shooting” wings have received in recent seasons, be that his old teammate Duncan Robinson or players like Tim Hardaway Jr. (who has more on-ball scoring pop) or Joe Harris. Given their other options, it’s a fine number for Strus.

Grade: A-

Grading the trade

To facilitate a sign-and-trade and add Strus at a number above the Mid-Level Exception (starting at $12.4 million) the Cavaliers had to work out a sign-and-trade. The final deal sends out longtime Cavaliers wing Cedi Osman, who was the last remaining holdover from the LeBron James Finals teams, and Lamar Stevens.

Osman was beloved by the fan base, but his complete lack of an above-average NBA skill made him expendable. He should have value around the league if the San Antonio Spurs choose to move him again, as a wing without any big weaknesses, but it was time for Cleveland to upgrade on him.

Stevens is a fiery defender who was a key part of the Cavs’ defensive culture the past two seasons, but his complete lack of a 3-point shot made him unplayable in the playoffs. He played only nine garbage-time minutes in the playoffs last season.

Moving just two second-round picks to grease the deal is a very fair price, even if the loss of that 2026 Lakers second stings a bit; they could be very bad by then. Strus is a player who can step in as a starter on a low-end starter salary, and moving two players outside of the rotation and two seconds was a totally fair piece of business.

Grade: A