As the NBA dissolves into chaos, with star players fit to be traded at the drop of a hat, the Cleveland Cavaliers should approach the NBA Trade Deadline with a much more measured approach.
An up-and-down January moved the Cavaliers from runaway title favorite to mortal title contender, but even after a loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night the Cavs are 40-10, 4.5 games clear of the second-place Boston Celtics. They have the league's best offense and second-best net rating behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Now is not the time to overreact and make a large-scale move. In the aggregate, this Cavaliers team is still outperforming expectations and in an excellent position to make noise in the playoffs. Things were always going to settle back down a little from a 15-0 start of a 35-6 first half that had Cleveland on pace for 70 wins. They are a really good team, but they are not one of the five best teams of all time.
How should the Cavaliers approach the Trade Deadline, then? As MVP candidates are traded without warning and every star on the market is being hounded by the Golden State Warriors and Jimmy Butler tries to act grounded while he's actually just trying to get paid hundreds of millions of dollars, what are the Cavaliers to do?
They can look at their recent struggles and find the answer. It's not time to make a massive change, but it is time to add another perimeter defender.
Cavaliers need to add defense at the Trade Deadline
For the month of January, the Cleveland Cavaliers led the league in offense, scoring 122.3 points per 100 possessions; that was 1.6 points better than the second-place Denver Nuggets, who were closer to fifth than they were to Cleveland in first.
Defense was a completely different story. The Cavaliers ranked a disappointing 24th in defense in January, giving up 116.5 points per 100 possessions. That means their net rating of +5.8 was merely sixth in the league despite that dominant offense.
That's the kind of defense that will get shredded in the playoffs by the very best scorers in the league. The likes of Jalen Brunson, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jayson Tatum would be licking their chops for the chance to attack the 24th-ranked defense.
Some of that poor play was due to injuries, as the Cavaliers suffered quite a few throughout the course of the month. Evan Mobley missed multiple games, as did Caris LeVert, and Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade are in the midst of lengthy absences that have extended into February.
Therein lies the issue, in fact. If Evan Mobley misses time in the playoffs, the Cavaliers are not going to reach their goals as a team. That goes for most any team and their stars. What Cleveland needs to address is not completely falling apart on defense if Dean Wade misses time.
Wade, currently sidelined through the All-Star Break, has become a vital piece of the Cavaliers' rotation. His versatility on defense and 3-point shooting on offense allow Kenny Atkinson to deploy him anywhere from small forward to smallball center. He is the only player on the team best suited to defend opposing 3s and 4s, the "big wings" that populate the league now. Who is defending Franz Wagner, or Jayson Tatum, or Cade Cunningham? Wade is Cleveland's best answer.
Many of Wade's minutes are played when the Cavaliers take one of their two star bigs off the court, which should decrease the team's defensive ability. Yet when he is on the court the Cavaliers allow 2.8 fewer points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass. And what's more, there isn't a player on the roster who can fill in for Wade's role if he misses time.
Trading for another offensive weapon like Cameron Johnson would make them all-the-more potent, but it doesn't address their biggest need. Every other position on the roster is redundant -- that is, there is someone ready to fill in. Ty Jerome can step up for Darius Garland, and Caris LeVert for Donovan Mitchell. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen replicate one another.
Dean Wade? He doesn't have a backup. To unlock this team's defensive versatility and ensure they can continue defending at a high level even without the injury-prone Wade, the Cavaliers need to find another option to fill his role.
Their mission at the Trade Deadline? Don't overreact, but also don't just target shooters. Find a defender and seal up the last big weakness on the roster. If at the same time the Cavs can find a third-string center that's great too, but the top priority?
A backup to Dean Wade.