5 Cavaliers who won't last the entire season in Cleveland

No. 1: Jarrett Allen

The biggest move that the Cavaliers can make is to trade Donovan Mitchell, but they are understandably reluctant to pull the trigger. The next step down, then, is to trade one of their other starters, and Jarrett Allen looks like the most likely candidate to be moved in a deal.

It's not that he isn't important to the Cavs; the first two weeks of the season illustrated that when he is out of the lineup, the Cavaliers are a worse defensive team and exert less vertical pressure on the rim. He has had a few dominant games where his rim-running and defense have overwhelmed opponents, most recently against the Atlanta Hawks and most memorably in shutting down Nikola Jokic in a win over the defending-champion Denver Nuggets.

Yet while the Cavaliers' success without Evan Mobley the past few games has illustrated Allen's strengths, it has also spoken to the categorical weakness of this roster. Playing a shooter at power forward opens up the offense in a dynamic way, Mobley and Allen together are elite defensively but put a ceiling on the offense; one alone can still be strong defensively and allows the offense to be unleashed.

That doesn't mean the Cavaliers will be quick to make a move, but they will strongly consider it. Unless Evan Mobley takes a major step forward as a shooter, a step he has shown no indications of as he has regressed even more as a shooter this season, the Cavs will eventually need to break up the elite defensive pairing.

There are not a lot of suitors on the market for Allen, but there are certainly at least a few. His combination of ability and salary could be the foundation for a trade to bring a two-way forward onto the team, even if their pure talent level is lower than Allen's. Could someone like Jerami Grant or P.J. Washington be part of a deal?

No one single player on the Cavaliers is "likely" to be traded, but at least a few certainly will be. These five players have the greatest chances of being moved in a deal and not finishing the season on the Cavaliers' roster.