When he was in games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the past two seasons, Lamar Stevens was not a player who was going to put up big traditional box score numbers. Stevens had 5.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per contest as a rotational contributor over the past two campaigns with Cleveland, and he was not much of a three-point shooting threat.
Stevens did find a way to make his presence felt in his time with the Cavaliers in his opportunities defensively, though, and on the margins. Stevens was a viable defensive option for Cleveland to use for stretches against bigger wings and forwards, and he was an active off-ball player on that end. He was fully bought into his energy role with the Cavs, too, and helped change their culture with how his on-floor will and how he invested he was as a locker room presence.
Now, Stevens is no longer in the picture with the Cavaliers, as he was a piece involved in the sign-and-trade for Max Strus. Stevens and Cedi Osman were dealt to the San Antonio Spurs, along with a future second-round pick, and Cleveland sent Strus’ former team, the Miami Heat, a future second-rounder. As an aside, Stevens was waived by San Antonio, and remains unsigned.
Granted, to reiterate, the former two-way guy in Stevens did not have necessarily the most noteworthy role with the Cavaliers, as we touched on. But, with a team-friendly signing, there are a couple of guys still on the market that could fill that former Stevens role with Cleveland.
Let’s take a closer look at those two potential Cavaliers targets to replace Stevens, then.
The first of the two possible Cavs targets was with the Chicago Bulls the past two seasons, whereas the one we’ll get into later spent the last season with them.