Cavaliers trade for Andre Drummond

The Cleveland Cavaliers were expected to be sellers at the trade deadline if they participated at all.

Kevin Love would be an addition that most teams would normally be interested in but after the Cavaliers
signed him to a four-year extension in the off-season for over 100 million, contenders simply didn't want or couldn't swallow a contract of that size.

Tristan Thompson is in the middle of his best season as a pro (11.9 PPG and 10.2 RBG per game) and with his contract expiring at the season's end, Thompson was thought to at least bring a second-round pick or two, or even a young player with potential in return for a contender.
I would have thought the market for Thompson would have a few teams kicking the tires and some team making a trade for Thompson would be more likely than not.

So, of course, since they are the Cleveland Cavaliers and as a firm member of the Cleveland sports family- A team with the worst record in the Eastern Conference (13-39) and second-worst in the league holds on to Love (as expected) and Thompson (a mild surprise) and trades for another big man that can be a free agent at the end of the season and loads up at one position.

Cleveland added center Andre Drummond from the Detroit Pistons in exchange for John Henson, Brandon Knight and a second-round pick in 2023 (Either the Cavaliers or the Warriors pick that Cleveland holds, whichever is lower).
Drummond is averaging a career-high 17.8 points a game and is grabbing 15.8 rebounds, which currently leads the league in that category.
The 6'10 pivot is in his eighth season since the Pistons selected him in the first round in 2012 after Drummond played one season at Connecticut and Drummond has led the NBA in rebounding in the three previous seasons as well as the current one.
Drummond has a player option for 28.5 million for 2020 and he'll make the decision on if he wants to look around in the off-season or pick up the option and return to Cleveland.

Here's the good news:
Cleveland gets a player averaging close to 18 and 16 a game, which is always going to be an improvement when you are a bad team.
Drummond shoots a high percentage and doesn't have a tendency to take a ton of bad shots.
Drummond also is a decent rim protector, ranking tenth in the league in blocks and will be moving to a team that has the least amount of blocks in the league.
The cost was next to nothing- two veterans with expiring contracts that had missed time with injuries
(Henson averaged five points in 29 games and Knight 4.9 in 15 games) and one of those second-round picks that almost always is more valued for their ability to make trades than the actual player selected with them.

Here's the bad news:
Drummond could accept the option and clog up any money that the Cavaliers could theoretically have for any other improvements.
Drummond is basically a better Tristan Thompson.
Yes, 18 and 16 is better than 12 and 10, but does Drummond make this team substantially better?
Suddenly at a time when the league is transitioning to a different game, the Cavaliers have four guys that play the same position that is beginning to become mildly devalued  (Power Forward/Center) in Drummond, Thompson, Kevin Love, and Larry Nance Jr and that raises the point of how to get all these players the minutes that you are used to giving them?
That's going to be interesting to watch that situation play out.

I'm not sure how or if Andre Drummond fits with the Cavaliers, but I'm Ok with this.
This trade boils down to this- the Cavaliers receive either a half-season or a season and a half if Drummond picks up his player option, to see if Drummond is part of the future of the organization at what will be in the end - a second-round pick, as Henson and Knight would have been allowed to leave at the end of the year anyway.
A second-rounder is a commodity to be moved about to attempt to make trades in the current state of the NBA, so if that's all it costs to take a test drive, I'm in.

Cavaliers add Brandon Knight and more

Writing about players that the Cleveland Cavaliers acquire over the last year requires a willingness to have articles quickly become obsolete as new players are often coins to be accumulated and then moved along for other merchandise.

Case in point, yesterday's article on the Cavaliers adding Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin was out of date that quickly as both of the new Cavaliers became old Cavaliers as part of a three-team trade between Cleveland, the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings.

The Cavaliers shipped Stauskas, Baldwin and the biggest chip in Alec Burks to the Rockets (Burks would later wind up with the Kings) as their part of the trade, while Cleveland added guard Brandon Knight, forward Marquese Criss and most importantly for their trouble- the Rockets 2019 first round draft pick.
Burks was averaging eleven points and five rebounds in his thirty-four games in Cleveland and since he would be a free agent at the end of the year, this is the situation that the Cavaliers hoped would play out since trading for him with the Utah Jazz as part of the Kyle Korver trade- Feature him until the deadline, hope that Burks would play well and would bring something back.

Mission Accomplished.

The 27-year-old Knight averaged double figures in points with the Pistons, Bucks, and Suns, but has never been able to stay healthy and missed the entire 2017-18 season with a blown-out ACL.
Knight is signed through next year and earns a whopping fifteen million next season.
Considering that Knight's knee hasn't helped his comeback in Houston (ten minutes a night in just twelve games and averaging three points) and for the weight that his contract carries, Knight didn't seem to be worth exceeding the salary cap tax that the Rockets are trying to avoid.
Houston was willing to float their first rounder in 2019 to avoid that tax and Cleveland was willing to take the contract on in exchange for that pick.
It'll be interesting to see if the Cavaliers actually use Knight or simply list him as a name on the roster, but since the Cavaliers are paying Knight anyway, they might try assisting in his comeback.
During next season, Knight's contract will be an expiring one and if Knight can return to two-thirds of his past game, Knight could be a valuable trade piece himself this time next year.

Marquese Chriss is the other player in the deal and he's another interesting case.
Remember all the prose that I wrote about Nik Stauskas yesterday, a lottery pick that showed some occasional strong play that turned pro too soon and might need a chance to play a lot for a bad team?
Save me the typing and apply all that to Marquese Chriss, who was the eighth pick in the 2016 draft out of Washington by Phoenix.
The 6'10 Chriss had a decent rookie year with the Suns averaging nine points and four boards with 50 percent shooting, but his second year saw a drop in play before moving to the Rockets before this season in a trade that also included Brandon Knight.
Chriss played very little for the Rockets as he averaged 1.8 points in only sixteen games and demanded a trade.
At 21, Chriss will be a free agent at the end of the year as the Rockets declined his rookie option, but still, this could be a good situation for the Cavaliers to take a free look and Chriss to show something to help him sign a new contract whether with Cleveland or someone else.

As for the first rounder- it is lottery protected, but the Rockets are the fifth seed in the Western Conference right now, so that's unlikely, but the more games the Rockets lose, yet still make the playoffs will improve that draft pick.
In the end, the Cavaliers will have to make the best of what they have, but considering that they started with Kyle Korver and a few months have turned one aging shooting specialist into a number one, two second rounders and an eventual expiring contract.
Time will tell who those players become, but you have to give Koby Altman credit for what his deals this year have brought in return.