NBA Trade Rumors: 5 Trades for Timofey Mozgov
The Cleveland Cavaliers appear to be making a change, and Timofey Mozgov may be the odd man out. Here are five trades involving Mozgov that could be made before the NBA’s trade deadline.
The Cleveland Cavaliers may have the best record in the Eastern Conference, but there is no question that they are looking to improve their team. It appears as if the Golden State Warriors, who beat the Cavs in the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder are all better than the Cavs.
The Cavaliers have already been in discussion with the New Orleans Pelicans on a deal for Mozgov, according to The Vertical‘s Adrian Wojnarowski. Omer Asik didn’t interest the Cavs, but perhaps a different deal would be enticing to them.
Taking a look around the NBA and seeing what other players are reportedly on the trade block, there may be mutual interest for the Cavs to trade Mozgov for another player who has been in trade rumors. There are likely other deals that are being discussed that haven’t been leaked, or haven’t gone deep into trade discussions.
But a change for the Cavs is needed, and it started with general manager David Griffin firing former head coach David Blatt and hiring Tyronn Lue last week. Change for the roster appears to be on the way. Whether that’s involving Mozgov or Kevin Love or someone else has yet to be seen.
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Love has adapted nicely to Lue’s up-tempo offense. He’s scoring 18.5 points per game in the team’s first four games under Lue. That’s up from his season average of 16.0 points per game. That may rule out Love being moved, for the time being.
With Mozgov’s name being mentioned most recently, it indicates that he may be the odd man out. It comes with good reason as to why Mozgov could be traded. His numbers are down from last season, where he played 46 games with the Cavs and through 42 games this season, it provides a good statistical comparison.
Last season, Mozgov played 25.0 minutes per game in 46 appearances with the Cavs. In 42 games this season, he’s down to 17.9 minutes per game. Due to the gap in minutes played, using basic statistics wouldn’t tell the whole story. The analytical numbers will provide the best comparisons for Mozgov.
Mozgov’s usage rate was 18.1 last season and has fallen to 16.9, which isn’t a major difference. However, his true shooting percentage has fallen 5.2 percentage points from 62.1 to 56.9 this season. Lastly, he had 2.5 offensive win shares in 46 games last season and now he is down to 0.9 offensive win shares in 42 games this season.
Furthermore, Mozgov’s rebounding and defensive numbers are down. His total rebound percentage was at 15.9 percent, but it has since fallen to 13.6 percent. In terms of blocks, his percentages have fallen from 3.9 to 3.4 percent.
At the very least, the Cavs should be looking for a defensive-minded center that can control the glass. Between Matthew Delevadova and Iman Shumpert, they could also use a third offensive option on the second unit, if the Cavs were to use Tristan Thompson in the starting unit. Fortunately for Griffin, he has a lot of options at his disposal.
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