It's been a couple nights of sleep since De'Andre Hunter was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Sacramento Kings. That extra time and perspective has made this deal look like a flat-out coup. How did the Cavaliers get such good value back given the circumstances?
Cleveland traded their struggling forward to Sacramento. The return for cutting their losses short in the Hunter experiment was much better than it had any business being. They got Keon Ellis, Dennis Schroder, and shed salary in the process.
There are some teams in the NBA who have an inescapable reputation as easy to take advantage of on the trade market. The Kings, often thought to be in that group, did themselves no favors of shedding the label after the deal with the Cavaliers.
Cavaliers flipped a shaky situation into one of their smartest moves in years
It was only a few days ago that Jake Fischer was reporting how bad Hunter's value was on the trade market. His salary and injury history made the version of who he was this season a player that should have been difficult to move.
Fischer wrote, "Sources say that the Cavaliers, meanwhile, are engaged in various conversations on De'Andre Hunter, but many teams view his $20-plus million salary for next season as negative value when also factoring in his injury history."
The Cavaliers should have been selling low here. Hunter's scoring efficiency was awful, and his defense was even worse. The options to move off his bloated salary had every right to be limited and awful.
Instead, what the Cavaliers got was the top 3-and-D player available on the trade market, plus a reliable backup point guard to fill the void left behind by Ty Jerome. It still feels incredibly difficult to wrap one's head around how that was made possible by Koby Altman and the Cavs front office.
There should be even more kudos given to the fact that no one just waited around for the situation to get worse too. That was a very real possibility that could have plagued the Cavaliers.
Imagine if Cleveland stuck with Hunter, got to the NBA Playoffs, and on that big stage, the former Cav absolutely annihilated his trade stock further by underperforming in the postseason. That would have been a nightmare, to say the least.
The Cavaliers were daring enough to pull the plug now. In doing so, somehow, they actually got a clear upgrade to the roster in return.