Grade the Trade: Cavaliers go 2-for-1 in brilliant proposal

The Phoenix Suns were angling to be a part of the Damian Lillard deal because they knew that the Portland Trail Blazers were interested in Deandre Ayton, something that didn’t apply to every team. After spending the summer loading up on role players, the Suns turned Ayton and prospect big Toumani Camara into three rotation players in Nassir Little, Grayson Allen and Jusuf Nurkic (as well as failed prospect Keon Johnson).

One of the reasons to make such a deal would be to turn around and make a consolidation trade for a player they feel helps them more than an expensive center. Jack Simone wrote on this idea over at our sister-site Valley of the Suns in the aftermath of the trade, and one player he thought the Suns could target was Caris LeVert.

Here’s the trade he proposed between the two teams:

For the Suns, they would be shoring up their bench playmaking and building in redundancies for Bradley Beal or Devin Booker missing time. LeVert took a big step forward defensively last season with the Cavaliers and made himself that much more attractive to a contending team. He could run the bench offense for Phoenix and be a candidate for the closing lineup.

The Suns could always move LeVert again at the Trade Deadline or next summer, but this deal solves a roster crunch and gives them a player who fills a need, while Allen and Little overlap with players the Suns signed this summer.

Would this deal make as much sense for the Cavaliers as it does for the Suns?