Cleveland Cavaliers: Arron Afflalo Should Be Targeted
By Luke Duffy
Recent reports over the last couple of days have speculated that the Cleveland Cavaliers have tried and failed to engage the Portland Trail Blazers in discussions for their guard Wesley Matthews. The news appeared suddenly on a number of news outlets, including CBS Sports.
Looking at it from Portland’s point of view, it’s easy to see why they wouldn’t want to trade him. Although an unrestricted free agent next summer, the Trail Blazers have to be confident in bringing him back.
They’d want to as well, because his defensive abilities and shooting touch are a key cog in what makes Portland a threat in the vicious Western Conference.
So with Matthews essentially out of the question, is there anywhere else Cleveland can turn to pick up a defensive minded player who can do some things with the ball as well? It turns out there is, and he would be available at the right price as well.
Before talking about why Arron Afflalo would be a perfect fit for the Cavaliers, we need to say a quick word on Dion Waiters. The guy is still relatively young and learning the game.
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He’s talented as well, he just comes across as little too outspoken and big for his boots on a team that features three All-Stars and a heap of veteran experience on it. This is not to say Waiters should know his place, knock down the open looks he gets and say nothing. It’s great that he has such belief in his own abilities.
But for the Cavs to truly work, he needs to know when to pick his spots, a little like Mario Chalmers would do for the Miami Heat when LeBron James was in town. In his third year, his stats are down across the board, but that was always to be expected with him seeing less of the ball. So that’s not entirely his fault.
Shifting gears, to me it seems clear as day that Afflalo is exactly what this contending team needs. In his first stint with the Denver Nuggets, he was somewhat underrated and came across as a quiet guy who did his job and that was that.
In Orlando with the Magic, those traits continued, only Afflalo emerged as the face and best player of a rebuilding team trying to find it’s way once more. Although Victor Oladipo has been groomed to be the face there since day one, it was Afflalo who provided a great stopgap, having a career year in his second of two years with the team.
His 18.2 points led the team in scoring, despite being known primarily for his defense. He was hardly an All-Star snub, but he was Orlando’s best player for most of the season. His Player Efficiency Rating of 16 also a career high and above the league average (15).
Last summer Afflalo was traded back to the Nuggets, and once more he’s faded somewhat.
You can tell his time in Orlando was valuable to him though, as he will gladly assert himself more on the offensive end, all while still defending the opposing team’s best guard. Being paid $7.75 million this season, and $7.9 million next year (which is a player option) is also incredibly reasonable for somebody who gives a team so much.
In fact, it was that great contract that Magic fans felt would net them more than just Evan Fournier in return for his services earlier in the year.
Here’s why Afflalo could do with getting out of Denver as well. That team doesn’t know what it is, going on five-game win streaks before losing six and looking like a full on rebuild is imminent. His 31.8 minutes a night is his lowest in five seasons, despite the fact he’s a starter for this team.
That’s because in the backcourt also looking for minutes are Ty Lawson, Nate Robinson, Randy Foye and Gary Harris. You could also argue Danilo Gallinari takes some of those minutes as well if the team goes big during a game. So there’s a logjam where he is, and a change of scenery to a contending team would surely be nice.
What would he give the Cavaliers? Well, think of his as Wes Matthews-lite. Not as physically imposing, Afflalo still plays defence hard and can shoot the ball as well. Last year with the Magic, when he had the ball in his hands a lot more, he was a 42 percent three-point shooter as well.
If he was doing that on an Orlando team where defenses had little else to zone in on but Afflalo, imagine what he could do with the open looks in Cleveland. He could also take Kyrie Irving‘s defensive assignment nightly, as the point guard maestro is still not really polished on the defensive end.
In an ideal world, Waiters could then be a spark of the bench, potentially even one of the best sixth men in the NBA.
Here’s where it gets tricky though. What do Cleveland have to offer the Nuggets? On top of that, they could also do with another big man on the roster who can defend, and that’s probably a more pressing concern.
Afflalo, like Matthews, would be a luxury in that they’d be great two-way players that tick a lot of boxes for the team, but are they as essential as a serviceable big man? Returning to potential trades, other than Waiters himself, the likes of James Jones and Louis Amundson don’t inspire much desire.
Shawn Marion‘s expiring is something, but not much. In fact, Cleveland would have to shed all four of the above players just to make the trade work, and it’s hard to know if that’s even worth it.
Still though, there are people paid a lot of money to make the numbers work. If there is a way of getting Arron Afflalo, it needs to be explored.
He does similar things to Wesley Matthews, is currently in a pretty poor scenario himself and is a part of a team not heading to the playoffs this season that would be more open to exploring potential trades. It would be an upgrade for Cleveland at the 2 spot, and it’s why it makes perfect sense to me.