Cleveland Cavaliers: Time For A Trade?
By Joshua Howe
The Cleveland Cavaliers are now 5-7 after their latest loss to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday. It was a relatively important game for Cleveland, with the team coming off of a loss against the Washington Wizards in which LeBron James looked beyond frustrated.
Before the game on Saturday, James said that he was in a “good place” and that the Cavs just have to keep plugging away in an attempt to get better every night.
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They started off the game strong, smacking the Raptors around in the first quarter and outscoring them 34-21. The Big Three looked pretty good. James was making no look passes, Kyrie Irving was actually trying hard on defense and Kevin Love was doing his best to demand the ball in the post.
And then everything changed with the bench.
Dion Waiters especially, led the way as the Cavaliers began to fall to pieces. At one point early on, they held an 18-point lead that suddenly went up in smoke and exploited them again in all facets of the game.
Their main problems remain the same:
- No consistently tough play over 48 minutes
- Bad defense for about 38 minutes
- Low-scoring bench
- Errant without LeBron running the show
- An erratic Waiters
- Bad body language
- No one’s having fun
- David Blatt’s still working on rotations
LeBron summed things up pretty well after the game, calling his squad “fragile”.
It’s only November and the Cavs have only played 12 games, yes. But the way they’ve looked and lost the games is much different than when (as people love comparing this to) LeBron joined forced with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.
Those Heat teams were deeper. Not a lot deeper, but deeper. Dwyane Wade also had championship experience when James came to the team. Love and Irving have none of that. Wade was the one to hold things down and act like James’ big brother.
The Heat themselves never seemed this worried in Miami. Even when James had that whole spat with Erik Spoelstra, Pat Riley and Wade were on it, putting out the flames.
Now James is on his own, forced to be the leader after having four straight years where he went to the NBA Finals, a feat that lots of people seem to forget is extremely difficult in itself.
It’s true that James wanted this. He wanted to go home, wanted to play with younger but also great players. But perhaps he took for granted how difficult things were going to be. Certainly, after having so much go his way for four years, one can see why he’s so frustrated.
So, even though it’s early, perhaps it is time for Cleveland to entertain the idea of a trade. Not out of panic, because those sorts of trades rarely work out, but out of sheer realization that what they have as it is right now just might not work.
Dion Waiters has to go. At some point. As the season goes on, he just doesn’t seem to be the right fit for the club. Even in that recent game against the Wizards, he came in and completely ignored Love on a fast break, instead trying to jam it home over Kevin Seraphin. Needless to say, Seraphin stuffed the ball back down his throat and that was the end of that.
But where? How? And what do the Cavaliers need to look for?
Two things: a defensive center and a defensive wing that can hit three-pointers, the latter often being affectionately referred to as a 3-And-D player.
It’s more difficult for the Cavs to make a trade than it seems though. Most of their intriguing pieces are signed to deals that make them un-tradable. That leaves very few options, especially after the most recent deal that Anderson Varejao signed.
But here’s one that may pique some interest:
- New York Knicks receive
- Tristan Thompson
- Dion Waiters
- 2015 1st round pick (via Miami)
- Cleveland Cavaliers receive
Now give this a few moments to sink in.
Why it’s good for New York:
- Thompson is a good rebounder who’s better than that injury-ridden Italian they still have on the roster
- Both guys they’d be getting are young (23 and 22 respectively)
- A starting lineup of Amar’e Stoudemire, Thompson, Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and Jose Calderon could be fun
- They won’t be a lot worse defensively
- Their record is 4-10, they might like to explore options
- THEY’D GET A DRAFT PICK!!!
- Dalembert is 33 years old
- Gets rid of Moultrie’s contract
Why it’s good for Cleveland:
- They get a good defensive wing in Shumpert
- Opponents have only scored 40.4 percent of the time when being defended by Dalembert at the rim
- No more antics from Waiters
- They’d be closer to winning now
- This would push them to immediate favorites in the East
- LeBron would be happy
- Blatt could stagger the Big Three’s minutes more
- Rotations would likely be cemented quicker
- A starting lineup of Dalembert, Love, James, Shumpert and Irving would be fun
- Anderson Varejao gets more rest
In a perfect world, this is the sort of thing that would go down. And if things don’t get better over the coming months, then perhaps it will. But until then, it’s difficult to say for certain what this team will become with the way it is.
This is just one option, Cavs. But if you want things like this to stop, then maybe you should consider it.