The bigger trade involved two other teams but landed the two pictured players, who were teammates with the Utah Jazz last season.
The Cavaliers bring in two talented players that both bring versatility and the ability to help diversify the defense in adding George Hill from Sacramento and Rodney Hood from Utah.
The 31-year-old Hill joins his third team since leaving Indiana before the 16-17 season and disappointed in his half season with the Kings as his numbers have dipped in almost all categories (Hill is shooting 45 percent from three-point range, which is five points higher than his previous career high), but Hill can run the point, has been a good defensive player in the past and should be the type of player that thrives in being a lower scoring option on a good team, doing the little things that help playoff teams and should pick his game up after leaving a lottery team in the Kings.
The Cavaliers will have Hill signed for the next two seasons as he signed a three-year contract going into this season with Sacramento.
Rodney Hood averaged just under 17 points in Utah and at 25, the swingman should be just beginning to have his game mature.
An often explosive scorer, Hood's main problem has been staying on the floor as it seems nagging injuries have tended to add up for the 25-year-old Hood.
Hood shoots well, although he is reported to not always attack the basket and settles for fadeaway jumpers and avoids contact.
Hopefully, in Cleveland, where he won't be required to be as aggressive and will be asked to knock down jumpers, Hood's game will be an offensive asset.
Hood will be a restricted free agent at the conclusion of the season and unless someone signs him to a huge deal that is far more than he is worth, Hood should be returning to the team for a while.
So what's heading out of Cleveland?
Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose are going to Utah, Iman Shumpert is now a Sacramento King, the Kings also received the 2020 second rounder obtained from the Miami Heat and...
Let's get back to another deal quickly, the Cavaliers acquired that draft pick from Miami for Dwyane Wade earlier in the day.
With the new arrivals and the projected increase in playing time for Cedi Osman, the Cavaliers didn't think that Wade was going to see as much time on the floor and asked Wade if he would prefer to be traded and if so where and the Cavaliers would try to accommodate him as the circumstances that brought him to town and his projected role had changed.
The team was able to send Wade to Miami, where he had spent most of his career and still lives, so I thought that was a classy move by the team to take care of an aging star that did his best in Cleveland, played hard and did everything that could have been asked for as a Cavalier.
Utah is expected to release Derrick Rose, who wants to play for a contender ( ever notice that no one ever takes a buyout to play for a rotten team? ) after playing just sixteen games for the wine and gold with a tenure filled with injuries ( like that sentence has never been written about Derrick Rose ), excused absences and questions about his desire to even play basketball.
Rose's release by the Jazz will create some extra cap space for Utah, who will try to rejuvenate the career of Jae Crowder, who came to Cleveland as a touted two-way player that was part of the recent success of the Celtics but never seemed comfortable as a Cavalier.
Crowder averaged just over eight points per game, barely shot over 40 percent from the field and after a while didn't seem interested in changing his game at all in an attempt to be better suited to what the Cavaliers were doing on either end of the floor.
Of the entire trade involving Kyrie Irving, it's the lack of getting anything at all out of Jae Crowder that is the most disappointing to me.
Isaiah Thomas was a risk considering his injury, but a risk worth taking, Jae Crowder was thought to be the sure thing- a hard-working, two-way player and one that would be an asset for a considerable time with a very team-friendly contract.
None of that worked out, which is why you never know when a trade is going to work out or not.
Iman Shumpert goes to Sacramento after playing in just fourteen games this season and playing less than twenty minutes a night.
Shumpert had knee surgery in the offseason and never found a role in this year's rotation.
Shumpert saves the Cavaliers eleven million on the cap for next season as he had a player option, which he almost definitely will activate.
Shumpert at one time was a terrific defender, but knee injuries have slowed him down and at 27, Shumpert appears to be on the downside of his career.
After all of that shuffling, what has happened to the Cavaliers for the stretch run?
Cleveland has gotten better in the locker room, although Channing Frye and Dwyane Wade will be missed and haven't been part of the problem (Frye, in fact, has been given a large amount of credit for being one of the few players that have kept things together as much as they were).
They also have gotten younger (Clarkson, Hood, and Nance are all 25), more athletic and more versatile as well.
They should be better defensively with what Nance brings to the interior defense, having the ability to guard all three frontcourt positions and Hill has shown the ability in the past to guard both the one and two.
Is it perfect?
No, but few things are, still, Koby Altman was able to make his team younger, quicker and more stable for both the immediate and longer-term- LeBron James or not...
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