Grading a trade pitch to bring flawed forward and sleeper big to the Cavaliers

The NBA trade season is heating up, and despite early predictions that it would be a slow market, three trades have already taken place before December was complete.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have historically been an active team ahead the Trade Deadline, from dealing for Caris LeVert to add to this group to adding players such as Larry Nance or J.R. Smith during the LeBron James years. It would not be a surprise for them to make a win-now move to further bolster their chances at contending this season.

The Cavaliers have no glaring needs on the roster, and they may keep things as simple as looking for a third-string center on the trade market. It is also possible that they consider bigger swings; even for as well as they have played, there is technically only one true two-way forward on the roster, and that is the injury-prone Dean Wade. Could Cleveland look to find a player capable of playing both the 3 and the 4 and elevating the team on offense and defense?

Such a player would likely be expensive just by nature of his skillset, and the Cavaliers are limited in the trade assets that they can send out because so much of their future draft rights are owned by the Utah Jazz. They also would have to move one or more rotation players to match the salary of another player. That puts a lot of pressure on the front office to try and thread the needle and find the right match -- someone who genuinely helps, is affordable and doesn't cost too much in salary.

A trade recently proposed by the Trade Site Fanspo attempted to thread this needle, building a 3-team deal to bring Portland Trail Blazers forward Jerami Grant to the Cavaliers. The Dallas Mavericks would upgrade on the wing, the Blazers add a couple of draft picks, and the Cavaliers would get a two-way forward plus that backup center they need.

Here is the deal in full:

To boil it down to just the Cleveland portion, they would be sending out Max Strus, Georges Niang, Tristan Thompson, Craig Porter Jr. and this year's second-round pick for Jerami Grant and Duop Reath.

The Dallas Mavericks would somehow be getting away with trading salary flotsam and a second-round pick for Max Strus, which seems like an underpay -- especially when you relaize Maxi Kleber is under contract for another season. The Portland Trail Blazers are largely getting bench players and just two seconds to send out Grant and Reath. Those pieces seem unrealistic.

What about for the Cavaliers? Is this a trade they should make?

The Cavaliers need to pass on this deal

In the summer of 2023, Portland and Jerami Grant agreed to a new five-year, $160 million contract that will pay him an average of $32 million. In 2027-28 a 33-year-old Grant will make $36.4 million. That's a lot of money to pay a non-star in the current NBA, and with the Cavs' young core each on significant deals Cleveland has to be very judicious in how it is spending its money.

Is Grant worth the squeeze? The answer is almost certainly no. He is a player who deserves credit for morphing his game to his context, leveling up as an on-ball scorer as the primary option in Detroit but scaling down as more of a supplementary scorer and shooter in Portland. Yet he doesn't bring anything undeniable to the table.

Could he scale "all the way" down in Cleveland to fit alongside their star players? He is a good shooter, hitting 38.2 percent of his 3-pointers this season and clearing 40 percent in each of the last two. His defense has taken a nosedive since he was known for his impact on that end early in his career, and it has never come back.

Add to that the reality that Grant is one of the very worst rebounders in the league for a player his size. Over the past five seasons, there have been 40 instances of a starter who is 6'7" or taller posting a rebounding percentage of 7.7 or lower. Jerami Grant has done so in all five seasons.

Paying over $30 million to a good shooter who is questionable on defense and a terrible rebounder makes very little sense for this team. Grant is valuable because he can provide decent shot creation for a team without many creators; the Cavaliers are overflowing with creators.

What they need are players who thrive off-ball, and that is exactly what Max Strus provides. Trading him for a player who is bigger and longer, yes, but also worse at all of the things the Cavaliers needs makes very little sense.

Duop Reath being adding in to the deal is a nice touch, and his combination of defense and floor-spacing as a center would be valuable. At the end of the day, however, he would be a third-string center not seeing the court each game. That's not enough to make this deal worth it for Cleveland.

This deal is highway robbery for the Mavericks, makes no sense for the Trail Blazers, and ultimately chains the Cavaliers to a lucrative contract to add a player who doesn't make them much better, if at all. This is a hard pass for Cleveland.

Grade: D