Grade the Trade: Cavaliers send Mobley to the Warriors in controversial mock deal

It's easy to come down on either side of the argument. Most fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers are on the side of not trading Evan Mobley, and likely not under any circumstances. He is too talented, too young and too home-grown to even consider such a drastic move.

For others, most of them not Cavaliers fans and therefore divorced from the emotional attachment, the simple fact that the Cavaliers had the league's best net rating for the month of January, nearly all of that with a stretch-4 instead of Mobley alongside Jarrett Allen, gives them the underlying support to begin crafting deals for Mobley.

No matter which camp you fall in, you can likely agree with this sentiment: if the Cavaliers were ever going to trade Evan Mobley, they should be slow to make such a deal, and only for the exactly correct package coming back.

The Cavaliers should be slow to trade Evan Mobley

We've discussed a few possibilities over the past couple of weeks, as the concept of a Mobley trade is both controversial and imminently fascinating. Is there a scenario where a team would trade a young phenom like Mobley? The Sacramento Kings did so with Tyrese Haliburton, but he hadn't broken out yet. There aren't many other recent examples.

What would a trade look like that Cleveland would also consider? It would need to be for either a no-doubt NBA superstar -- deals that don't grow on trees -- or for another young prospect who plays a different position but is on a trajectory to make All-Star Games.

It just so happens that a team in desperate need of rim protection could have the ideal player to send back to the Cavaliers. Let's look into a trade idea that pairs Cleveland with the Golden State Warriors and see what such a trade could look like.