There is a lot of basketball left to be played this season. The Cleveland Cavaliers have roughly two dozen games remaining to tune things up and secure the No. 1 seed, followed by a postseason brimming with potential. This is a Cavs team with a legitimate shot at coming out of the Eastern Conference and winning a title.
Yet the work of a front office is to not only look at the road directly in front but at the road that waits around the bend. Koby Altman and the rest of the Cleveland organization have to be planning for the offseason even now, evaluating current players, free agents, draft picks, trade targets, financial realities and so much more.
The Cavaliers made a bold trade at the deadline this year, adding De'Andre Hunter at the expense of two fan-favorites in Caris LeVert and Georges Niang. NBA trades are often painful, but they are a way of life in the league and one of the key pathways to improving a team.
Which players could join LeVert and Niang this summer and be traded away from the team? That's a broad question with many potential answers. If the team flames out in the playoffs earlier than they expect, it's at least possible that larger changes occur to the core. Could the team finally trade Jarrett Allen and move Evan Mobley to center full-time? It's a possibility, but a faint one, especially considering how dominant this group has been this season.
More likely, however, whatever happens in the playoffs will set the stage for a smaller deal. That could be a cost-cutting move to make the team financially viable, or a means of shoring up depth, or addressing a need that became apparent against the very best teams in the league during the postseason.
Who could be traded away this summer? Let's look at four players who could realistically be moving to a new franchise in the offseason.
No. 4: Isaac Okoro
Most of the time when a team and a player stay together for an extended period of time, it's because both sides value working together. Whether it's a star, a beloved role player or a prospect with potential, teams usually keep players around because they absolutely want to.
With Isaac Okoro, the relationship seems to be maintained more because of circumstance than anything else. Okoro re-signed with the Cavaliers this past summer because, as a restricted free agent, he couldn't find another team willing to outbid the modest salary being offered by Cleveland. The Cavs set the bar low, seemingly unafraid of Okoro walking, and he came back to the table later in the summer and signed a three-year deal.
His name was then bandied about in trade rumors all season long, and will likely come up again this upcoming summer. His contract is very movable, he is a fine offensive player and good defensive one, and he should have value around the league. He has value to the Cavaliers as an on-ball stopper, but that value is lowered because the strength of Cleveland's three-headed guard rotation is that Okoro has to play most of his minutes at small forward, where he is less valuable.
On a team that needs an excellent backcourt defender Okoro could make a great impact, and his $11 million deal can be useful matching salary in a trade. He has history in Cleveland and the team isn't trying to dump him, but he is a prime candidate to be moved this summer.
No. 3: Ty Jerome
The Cavaliers are less interested in moving Ty Jerome, who is in the midst of a career season and is a very real reason this group has one of the best offenses of all time. At the same time, however, he will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and the Cavs are limited in what they can offer him in a new deal -- both because they will have just "Early Bird Rights" to set the number for a starting salary, and because they will be pushed past the Second Tax Apron given the current cost of their core players (and potentially even further if Evan Mobley wins some hardware).
If Jerome receives a contract offer much higher than the Cavaliers can offer him, he may come back to the team and ask for a sign-and-trade. Now, that is complicated because as a second apron team the Cavs cannot take back players in a sign-and-trade deal, but they could execute the deal either into cap space or as part of a multi-team deal and get back a small asset if it allows Jerome's new team a better avenue to adding him.
Jerome could also sign a new deal with Cleveland this summer and be traded later in the year when trade restrictions cease, allowing the Cavs to lower their tax bill or turn him into a player at a different position. They would like to keep him around, but it's not certain they can afford to do so.
No. 2: Max Strus
The Cleveland Cavaliers executed a sign-and-trade for Max Strus two summers ago, envisioning him as the finishing piece for their starting lineup. In some ways, that proved to be the case; the starting lineup with Strus at small forward has been extremely successful, outscoring opponents by 33.7 points per 100 possessions this season. That is the best net rating of any 5-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).
Why, then, would the Cavaliers want to trade Strus? While he has been extremely successful, he is also undersized at small forward, especially against teams with larger wings like the Boston Celtics or Oklahoma City Thunder -- the kinds of teams that Cleveland has to now measure itself against. That is why they went out and added De'Andre Hunter, who is bigger and longer than Strus and can shoot from outside more accurately and at a higher volume.
Strus absolutely has a role on the team, and they will be leaning on him heavily down the stretch as one of their Top 6 players. Yet if they see a chance to make a significant move this summer, they may need Strus and his salary to do so. He is no longer absolutely crucial to the team's starting or closing lineup, which may make such a move more of a possibility.
No. 1: Jaylon Tyson
It was somewhat surprising when the Cleveland Cavaliers made a major swing at the Trade Deadline and didn't have to include promising rookie forward Jaylon Tyson. They managed to land De'Andre Hunter without putting their one young prospect on the table, which means he can continue to develop into a long-term rotation player for the team.
At the same time, teams that are competing for a title in the present can rarely afford the luxury of developing talent for the future. If a trade comes around that makes them better next year but sacrificies some long-term upside, they may pull the trigger and include Tyson in a deal.
Tyson may therefore appear to be the most likely player on the roster to be traded, but a few things work in his favor to stick around. First, as a second apron team, the Cavaliers cannot aggregate his salary with someone else's this summer to bring back a player. They cannot add Tyson's $3.5 million to Okoro's $11 million and bring back someone making $14.5 million, for example. They could trade Tyson into another team's exception and use Okoro for a player making less than $11 million, so a deal with Tyson as the sweetener is possible, it's just more difficult.
Secondly, the Cavaliers need cost-controlled players to make their run of contention financially feasible. If they move on from Max Strus or Isaac Okoro or Ty Jerome, they need options that can fill a rotation role and not break the bank. For the next three seasons that applies to Tyson; in the final year of his rookie contract, in 2027-28, he will make $5.6 million - only three percent of the salary cap. That will help offset rising costs for the team's stars.
The Cavaliers may not make any trades this summer. They may win the title and look to shore up a championship team. They may also recognize how to improve and pull the trigger on a deal -- and if they do, one of these four players will almost certainly be involved.