Cavaliers add Max Strus, trade Osman, Stevens

  The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't rest on their quest to improve their outside shooting after signing Georges Niang as they participated in a three-way trade that landed them Max Strus, sent Cedi Osman and Lamar Stevens to the San Antonio Spurs, and one future second-rounder to the Spurs and the Miami Heat.

The trade will not be official until July 6.

The twenty-seven-year-old Strus averaged eleven points per game for Miami last season as one of their three-point bombers, shooting forty-one percent from the floor and thirty-five percent on three-pointers.

Strus spent three seasons with Miani after a two-game cameo with the Bulls, who signed him as an undrafted free agent from DePaul and Strus can play either small forward or shooting guard.

Strus saw his shooting percentages drop last year from 2021-22 but he also was playing more in the Heat's rotation, averaging a career-high twenty-eight minutes per game.

Strus made four or more three-pointers twenty-five times for Miami last season and is the type of shooter that excels with the 'catch and shoot' style of getting his shot off quickly, which Cleveland definitely lacked last season.

Cleveland traded their 2030 second-rounder to San Antonio and a 2026 second-rounder acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers will be sent to Miami.

Cedi Osman was an often polarizing player for Cavalier's watchers.

Many liked his energy and athleticism off the bench along with those periods when he would catch fire and explode with a huge offensive output.

Others were frustrated by his inconsistency and occasional defensive lapses.

Osman averaged 8.7 points last season and on an interesting note, Osman shot higher percentages from both the floor and three-point range (45-41 overall, 37-35 from three) than Strus, who has been signed to be a knockdown shooter.

Lamar Stevens is one of those types of players that fans love because of his hustle and work ethic as well as his willingness to do the dirty work along the boards. 

Stevens averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in eighteen minutes of playing time per game and while I like Stevens as a player, his type of players aren't hard to find around the league.

I still will miss Osman and Stevens and I'm not sure that I love this deal.

Strus isn't a bad player but I don't see where he is a sizable upgrade over Osman, let alone Osman and Stevens and two more second-round picks out the door.

I see what the Cavaliers are trying to do in improving the shooting and I really liked the signing of Georges Niang.

However, while I'm not knocking Max Strus, I'm wondering if the Cavaliers haven't swapped one similar player for another here and really didn't upgrade themselves.

Cavaliers charge by Boston in OT

    The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to be on their way to a flat outing and defeat to the visiting Boston Celtics, trailing most of the game and often by double-digits before a run with under four minutes to go put them back in the game.

Cleveland held a brief lead but it was the Celtics with a chance to win with two free throws from Grant Williams and under a second to play.

Williams shoots over eighty percent from the free-throw line, so it seemed that the Cavaliers comeback would be for naught.

However, Williams missed both charity tosses and a Marcus Smart putback attempt failed and would force overtime that would see the shorthanded Celtics run out of energy and allow Cleveland a surprising 118-114 win.

Donovan Mitchell scored forty points and grabbed eleven rebounds with Evan Mobley providing the main support with twenty-five points and seventeen boards to lead the wine (err black) and gold to the win.

Cleveland will travel to Miami for an unusual two-game set against the Heat on Wednesday and Friday, which is followed by an even odder pair of games in Charlotte against the Hornets on Sunday and next Tuesday.

Swashbucklings

1) While this was a terrific ending for Cleveland in winning a game that they didn't really deserve to win, their play up until the final half of the fourth quarter was less than stellar.

The Cavaliers seemed disinterested at times and as talented as they are, I would hate to see them fall into a trap of thinking that they can turn their play off and on when they think they need it.

2) What makes the game even worse is Boston playing without Jayson Tatum and Al Horford and the Celtics reached town late and were exhausted from a double-overtime loss in New York to the Knicks the evening before.

Under those conditions, the Cavaliers should have never been in this situation.

3) Lamar Stevens didn't enter the game until the fourth quarter with the Cavaliers faltering but Stevens scored eight points and added eight rebounds in his seventeen minutes in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Stevens even hit a three-pointer, which doesn't happen often, and should he develop that shot more consistently, the high-energy forward could find himself as a key contributor off the bench,

4) The win for the Cavaliers was their first over a team with a winning record since February 10 and improved their record in overtime to 7-0.

5) Donovan Mitchell's forty points look even more impressive considering that Mitchell is playing through a finger sprain suffered in Cleveland's blowout win over Detroit last Saturday.

Mitchell hit fourteen of thirty-four shots and while I am certainly not knocking Mitchell by any means, it will be interesting to see how long the finger injury takes to heal and could it affect his shooting while he is playing through the injury,

Cavaliers club Jazz 111-91

   The Cleveland Cavaliers received double-digit points from all five starters with a surprising leader as Lamar Stevens scored a career-high 23 points as Cleveland defeated the depleted Utah Jazz 111-91 in Salt Lake City.

Lauri Markkanen finished with twenty points with Darius Garland picking up his first career triple-double ( 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 15 assists) to help Stevens in the Cavalier victory.

Cleveland will visit San Antonio Friday night before finishing their six-game road trip Saturday night in Oklahoma City.

Swashbucklings

1) Before the game, the Cavaliers announced that general manager Koby Altman's contract had been extended through 2027 and added the title of director of basketball operations to his business card.

Altman had his share of struggles in his first few seasons as general manager but has done a very good job over the last year in his reshaping of the Cavaliers roster.

Some of that was fortunate breaks such as Detroit and Houston taking Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green (especially Houston!) over Evan Mobley but part of being a quality personnel evaluator is being lucky enough to have players available in the draft that shouldn't be and then being smart enough to take them when they fall and his trades over the past year to land Jarrett Allen, Ricky Rubio and a sign and trade for Lauri Markkanen have been positives.

Maybe you could argue that half a season of strong play isn't enough to extend Altman right now but Altman only has one year remaining on his contract and the Cleveland thinking is likely to take speculation off the table for the next year and a half to give the franchise some stability.

2) Lamar Stevens's twenty-three points led the team and Stevens scored the first thirteen points for Cleveland in the second half.

Stevens is a player that I've liked since Cleveland signed him last season, he'll be a role player at best over his career but role players that do one or two things well have no problems finding employment and can have long careers.

3) Utah was at a major disadvantage in this game as the Jazz were missing all three of their centers (including Rudy Gobert) due to Covid-protocol and dressed only eleven players.

Utah used 6'5 Royce O'Neale at center in desperation, hoping that O'Neale's quickness would help at least somewhat against the taller Cavalier big men and O'Neale did finish with nine rebounds to lead the Jazz in that department.

Cleveland's clear game plan was to bang the ball to their big men to use their height advantage and it worked as their three frontcourt starters finished with 49 points and 23 rebounds.

4) Utah finished the game with only ten players after starter Joe Ingles drew a technical foul in the first quarter after an elbow to the head of Jarrett Allen and a second in the second quarter for a referee beef.

Ingles had missed four games in Covid protocol and lasted thirteen minutes in his return.

5) Darius Garland's triple-double was the first of his career and the first for a Cavalier since Kyrie Irving's three stat stuffer back in 2014.

6) The Cavaliers slammed this one in the win column early in the third quarter with a chunk of the thirteen-point streak of Lamar Stevens part of a 21-0 run to leave the Jazz in the dust with Cleveland leading by 25!

7) Rajan Rondo missed the game with a tight hamstring and Denzel Valentine, who was the player that Cleveland traded to acquire Rondo, made his debut with the Jazz.

Valentine would score five points in seventeen minutes of playing time.

8) As for Rondo, he was listed as questionable entering the game and some of this could be maintenance for Rondo, who has seen a significant increase in his minutes since arriving in Cleveland and the signing of Brandon Goodwin to a two-way contract can occasionally allow Rondo to rest up.  

Stevens Slam ends Ten Game skid!

  Undrafted rookie Lamar Stevens took a pass from Collin Sexton and drove an open late for a two-fisted slam with four seconds to remaining to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 112-111 win at home over the Atlanta Hawks.

With the Cavaliers down by one with twelve seconds to go, Stevens grabbed a missed Trae Young shot and pitched it to Collin Sexton, who began to work his way up court as Cleveland eschewed a set play off a timeout.

Sexton shoveled the ball to Stevems with Sexton's path blocked by an Atlanta double-team with Stevens cruising by a either indifferent or surprised Trae Young to reach the basket for the jam.

Atlanta did not have a timeout remaining and with the Cavaliers closely guarding Young, Young had little to but to pass the ball and the Hawks were unable to get the shot off before the buzzer.

The win snaps a ten game Cleveland losing streak and gives the Cavaliers a chance for two home wins in a row against struggling Houston tonight in Clevelamd.

Collin Sexton led Cleveland with 29 points, Darius Garland had 17, and Dylan Windler played well off the bench with fifteen points off five made three-pointers.

Swashbucklings

1) The Cavaliers almost lost this game on the possession before the Lamar Stevens dunk.

Down by one, Darius Garland tried to go one on one against Atlanta's Kevin Huerter, who didn't fall for the fake and took the ball away with ease.

Had Trae Young's floater fallen after that, Atlanta likely wins the game.

2) The Cavaliers are struggling up front at power forward with Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr out with injuries and a banged up Taurean Prince, so Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade are receiving extra time.

Stevens finished with eight points and four rebounds in sixteen minutes, while Wade had five and two in twenty one minutes after starting.

3) Collin Sexton didn't make the All-Star game and neither did Atlanta's Trae Young and both came out blazing to show their worth.

Both players are playing well, but the Eastern Conference is stacked in the backcourt and despite being the pair being deserving, they were up against strong competition that was very deep.

4) Atlanta caught a bad break when John Collins, their second best scorer, suffered a concussion after playing only thirteen minutes.

Collins had scored thirteen points at that point on five of six shooting, so the Cavaliers were fortunate to see Collins leave the floor.

Shorter than usual as I am off for my second dose of the Covid Vaccine- Wish me luck.

Cavaliers find no Magic in the Kingdom

   On a day that our country won't forget, there was a basketball game in Orlando.

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost their second straight game in Orlando to the hometown Magic, this time by a score of 105-94.

Collin Sexton led Cleveland with 21 points and Andre Drummond scored 19 points with 15 rebounds,

Cleveland gets no breaks on the schedule as they are back at it on Thursday in Memphis against the Grizzlies.

Swashbucklings

1)  I'm going to admit something.

I didn't watch this game as closely as I normally do because of the events in Washington. 

I was watching, but I didn't take my normal amount of notes and I was paying just as much attention to a more important event.

2) The Cavaliers got off to a hot start unlike their first game in Orlando when the Magic scored the first ten points of the game.

This time, Cleveland held Orlando to 15 points in the first quarter, but the lack of depth made this unable to be sustained.

3) Orlando lost point guard Markelle Fultz for the season when Fultz tore his ACL when Isaac Okoro cut off Fultz's path to the basket and Fultz's knee buckled and gave way without touching Okoro.

Sorry to see as Fultz had begun to turn his career around with the Magic and was averaging fourteen points and six assists this season.

4) The Cavaliers did become a bit healthier with the return of Isaac Okoro to the lineup.

Okoro scored ten points in twenty-eight minutes of action and hit four of his five attempts from the floor.

5) Part of the health problems for J.B. Bickerstaff is having to find more minutes for players that have moved up the bench with players ahead of them being unable to play.

The beneficiary against Orlando was rookie power forward Lamar Stevens, who scored ten points and grabbed six rebounds in a season-high twenty-one minutes of play.

Earlier in the season, the player that was playing more off the bench was Dean Wade, so it'll be interesting to see if Stevens has moved ahead of Wade in Bickerstaff's eyes as a situational four off the pine.

6) Collin Sexton scored 21 points to keep his twenty-plus point streak alive but tweaked an ankle in the loss.

Sexton says he can play through it, but that's something to watch against Memphis with Sexton being a player that relies on being explosive to the basket with penetration. 

7) Cedi Osman didn't have his shot falling in this one as Osman finished with only four points and hit only one of his twelve shot attempts.

Osman continued his streak play after scoring 18 points in the previous loss to Orlando.