As the Cleveland Cavaliers move forward they will get progressively more expensive in the years to come. That’s how it works when you build a core of good players and need to re-sign them; bargain contracts expire and good players become properly paid. Darius Garland begins his maximum rookie extension this season, Evan Mobley is eligible for one of his own next summer, and if Donovan Mitchell sticks around he will sign a veteran maximum deal to start in 2025-26.
Part of what will help Cleveland handle that payroll is that other role players will come off the books. Isaac Okoro is on an expiring contract, while Ricky Rubio’s deal is only partially guaranteed for 2024-25. Jarrett Allen is a bargain at only $20 million per season for the next three years.
The financially fiscal approach to sustaining this team would be to allow role players like Okoro and Rubio to fall off the books, replacing them with second-round picks and players signed to minimum contracts.
The bold approach, neglecting future luxury tax payments, would be to use their current contracts to trade for players who will help the Cavaliers win now and later, even if that means paying more in the long run. There are team-building difficulties to having too high of a payroll, but until you reach the second apron, most of the penalty is simply cash out of the owner’s pocket.
If Dan Gilbert is willing to pay, can the Cavaliers pull off such a trade? Let’s look at a deal that was recently pitched and discuss whether it’s worth the cost.
Isaac Okoro is an elite backcourt defender with some real offensive question marks, but if the Cavaliers sour on him, other teams will want to take a flier on him. The time to trade Okoro is probably right now, as another poor offensive season will decrease his value.
Even so, Okoro on his own is not bringing back much of value for a win-now Cavaliers team. That’s where Jarrett Allen comes in. The All-Star center is one of the league’s best rim protectors, and teams looking to upgrade their defense with a young big would likely be very interested in Allen.
That package together is intriguing, but it gets even more enticing if you add in a swap of the Cavaliers’ 2030 first-round pick. Together, that package is among the best the Cavs can offer without moving one of their tentpole stars. What could they get for it?
Over at Bleacher Report, Andy Bailey put together a trade idea for all 30 teams, and the deal he built for the Cavaliers brings back a pair of veteran players to fill out the starting lineup. Here’s the trade:
The Indiana Pacers would get a defensive anchor who is two years younger than Myles Turner, while moving on from Buddy Hield with a high-upside future pick swap and the developmental potential of both Okoro and Sam Merrill, who has a lot of Hield-like qualities as a movement shooter. Ricky Rubio joins the trade to balance out the contracts, returning the veteran point guard to Indiana for the second time in three seasons.
This is a very interesting deal for the Pacers; how does it stack up for the Cavaliers? Would they make this deal?
Jarrett Allen is a pillar of the Cleveland defense, a player who has proven himself capable of doing everything asked of him as a paint defender. He can even switch onto the perimeter in a pinch. Together, he and Evan Mobley built the league’s best defense last season.
The difficulty with pairing Allen and Mobley comes on the offensive end, as playing two non-shooters in the frontcourt lowers their offensive ceiling and puts even more pressure on the other three positions. Eventually, the Cavs will probably have to break the pair up and move Allen to build a more balanced lineup.
Myles Turner may not be quite the defender that Allen is, but he is in a similar tier, a two-time block champion who finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting a few years back. He can also shoot, hitting 37.3 percent of his four 3-point attempts per game last season. He and Mobley would make a nasty defensive combination, and on offense, he would help space the court.
Buddy Hield can obviously space the court as one of the best high-volume shooters in NBA history, and he would be an upgrade over Max Strus as the starting small forward even if he lacks ideal size and defensive ability for the position. The Cavs would be banking on a massive step forward on offense offsetting the defensive loss, and they would hopefully be able to fill out the final bench positions with positive defenders.
There are some downsides to the deal. Turner doesn’t solve the Cavaliers’ defensive rebounding woes, and playing with Mobley will allow opponents to place their center on Mobley and a smaller forward on Turner; he hasn’t proven he can punish teams for doing that, putting pressure on Mobley to try and beat centers off-the-dribble or by developing his midrange jumper.
Still, the positives outweigh the negatives here. Paying Hield and Turner on new contracts over the next couple of seasons is an expensive proposition, but they should be worth the money. The lineup of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Buddy Hield, Evan Mobley and Myles Turner brings four legitimate shooters to the court and maintains an elite defensive pairing on the interior. This is a trade worth making.
Grade: A-