Trade rumors continue to swirl around the Cleveland Cavaliers, as they have proven they are not afraid of making a big swing and clearly have their eyes set on making it further in the playoffs next season. They made their moves in free agency, bolstering shooting at three positions, and now their best option to further improve is via trade.
That could come via a sign-and-trade of one of the free agents still available. One such player mentioned recently has been P.J. Washington of the Charlotte Hornets, and the Cavs could put together a package for him. Kelly Oubre Jr. and Christian Wood have also been mentioned.
The best options available, however, are those players under contract. To entice a team to give up a good player under contract, however, the Cavaliers will need to provide something of value in return. With a paucity of draft picks available after spending most of them in the Donovan Mitchell trade, that means moving a good player in such a deal.
New trade candidates for the Cavaliers
We come thus to Jarrett Allen as a form of matching salary and a recent All-Star and All-Defense candidate who would be valuable to another team. Rumors that Allen could be moved are not new, but many such whispers over the past two months have involved players eligible to be traded right now; wings from the Brooklyn Nets or Dallas Mavericks, or even a move to the Oklahoma City Thunder. All sorts of ideas have been spun about.
What if the trade happened further down the road? Players who signed contracts this summer will become eligible to be traded during the season, and most of them prior to the NBA Trade Deadline. That would open up more trade possibilities for the Cavaliers. Is there a midseason deal available to swap Allen for help at another position?
There’s at least one that comes to mind; let’s take a closer look.
Laying out a Jarrett Allen trade
The reason the Cavaliers would be open to moving Jarrett Allen is that he and Evan Mobley overlap in role a fair amount defensively, and unless Mobley takes a major step forward as a shooter the pairing constricts the spacing of any lineup built around them. Trading Allen for a frontcourt player who can shoot solves that issue.
Such players are obviously highly valued around the league, but one potential target is Jerami Grant of the Portland Trail Blazers. He just re-signed with the Blazers on a lucrative new deal, but they appear headed for a roster reset of some sort after drafting Scoot Henderson, with Damian Lillard requesting a trade.
Grant will become eligible to be traded in January, and a Portland team looking to compete in a few years instead of right now could look to move Grant while he still has strong value. The deal could look something like this:
Grant’s new contract is ascending, so the easiest path to salary-matching comes in the first season. The Blazers would get younger and the Cavaliers would balance their roster better positionally. Does that mean the two teams would say yes?
Do the Blazers accept this trade?
The Portland Trail Blazers clearly value Jerami Grant, trading for him last offseason and giving him a large new contract this summer even in the midst of uncertainty with Damian Lillard. In fact, they announced the deal with Grant on the first day of NBA Free Agency, only for Lillard to make his trade request the following morning.
That may mean that Portland wants to keep Grant around as they retool, the veteran star to shoulder the load while the young guards develop into their roles. There is certainly some merit to that approach, but Grant will also turn 30 before the end of the season. If Portland wants to maximize the next couple of seasons, they should probably look to get younger while losing enough to pick another couple of top picks.
That means Grant, on an ascending contract paying him over $30 million per season well into his 30s, should be a prime candidate to be moved. If they get to that point, they may want to go after draft capital. The other option, though, is providing Portland with the solution at center they haven’t had for years.
Allen is still only 25 years old and could grow with their young core. Under contract for three more seasons at just $20 million per year, he won’t be a major hindrance to their cap space plans in future years, and he can provide a defensive foundation to a team that has found a collection of offense-first backcourt players.
Isaac Okoro helps to balance the salaries and gives them a backcourt defender to work into the rotation, a replacement of sorts for Gary Payton II. He and Matisse Thybulle would give the Blazers options defensively on the perimeter, and as he hits restricted free agency they can decide whether to bring him back or let him walk.
Do the Cavaliers accept this trade?
The question now swings back the other way, to the Cleveland Cavaliers trying to improve their roster balance and field the best possible lineups. Jerami Grant can start at power forward next to Evan Mobley, providing a mobile defensive option who can defend both forward positions and also provide decent team defense.
On offense, Grant shot 40.1 percent from deep on solid volume last year, his fifth-straight season shooting at least 35 percent from deep. He can open up the court as a shooter and also do some on-ball creation as the situation allows. Grant isn’t the best passer, but he’ll be playing with Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.
The downside to such a move is seen in the clock; Grant is five years older than Jarrett Allen, putting even more strain on Cleveland to win now. Grant helps the Cavs maximize the next two years with Donovan Mitchell, but his increasing contract could dovetail with the age-related decline of his play and result in a bad situation by the end of the deal.
These next two years are the ones to maximize, though, and Grant’s fit with Mobley is a better one than with Allen, likely a step worse on defense and two steps better on offense. Any trade to break up the Allen-Mobley duo is both painful and risky, but this deal looks like a way to actually improve the team’s chances of winning a title. That makes it worth making.
Grade: B+