Tank Or Not To Tank For Cleveland Teams?

After it was announced that Manny Machado signed a $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres, the conversation around town quickly turned to Francisco Lindor, and the possibility of the Cleveland Indians keeping him after he can become a free agent following the 2021 season.

Being Cleveland, we heard many fans saying if the Indians weren’t going to try to sign the star shortstop, then they should trade him now and start rebuilding for the future.

Which brings us to the question of the day: Tank or not to Tank?

With the Indians having the starting rotation they have along with two of the best position players (Lindor and Jose Ramirez) in baseball, a total rebuild is the last thing on the minds of the front office.

Especially with Lindor still here for three more seasons.

Now, if prior to the ’21 campaign, Lindor’s agents make it clear he will not re-sign with the Tribe and the team gets off to a poor start, dropping out of contention, you might see a deal for the guy who is arguably the best position player in team history.

However, no team is going to give up a chance to win a championship, and if the Indians win the AL Central they will have that shot, to start rebuilding.

Let’s look at two instances of rebuilding jobs in our own town–

The Cavaliers didn’t intend to tank this season, but when you lose LeBron James, drop your first six contests, and then lose your best remaining player for basically the entire first half of the season, you change your way of thinking.

Once you hit the end of November with one of the NBA’s worst records and Love is still going to be out until February, GM Koby Altman had to try and get one of the first picks in the June draft, and hopefully you get Zion Williamson with the first choice.

The Browns were stuck in mediocrity for most of the last 15 seasons, when then GM Sashi Brown decided to gut the roster, purging it of veterans and trying to go with young players who can hit their prime together.

We don’t believe he envisioned 1-31 over two seasons, but Hue Jackson’s guidance took care of that, and earned the Browns a franchise quarterback, and a franchise pass rusher.

In both cases, the circumstances (poor start and Love’s injury for the Cavs, an extended period of crap football for the Browns) dictated the tank.

Tanking isn’t guaranteed to work. While people point to the Cubs and Astros in baseball, both of those teams drafted very well, with Chicago getting Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, and the Astros drafted George Springer, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman in the first round in a three year span.

Let’s say the Cavs wind up with the worst record and the fourth overall pick, do they subject their fan base to another year like this? It’s also tough for the front office/ownership to sit through.

And for the Browns, they tried a whole bunch of things. They tried helping young players by supplementing them with veterans. They tried getting veteran quarterbacks, getting players with local ties.

None of it worked.

Why not try what the Dallas Cowboys did when Jerry Jones bought the team and hired Jimmy Johnson. Gut the roster, accumulate draft picks, and see if that works.

We started to see the fruits of this plan, aided by hiring a good talent evaluator in John Dorsey, this past year.

If you decide to tank, here is the difficult question no one wants to ask–What happens when you don’t get the first overall pick?

You have to have a back up plan. If you don’t, you lose your job. That’s why more teams don’t do it.

Cavs Get More Picks, And Gamble On A Young Big Man.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a busy week before the NBA trading deadline, but some wish they’d have done more.

Yes, they moved their two most tradable commodities in Rodney Hood and Alec Burks, and they did gamble on some young players, but they didn’t make the big splash many hoped for.

Don’t get us wrong, we are happy with what GM Koby Altman did. He accumulated more assets. Cleveland added another first round pick in this year’s draft (from Houston) and more second rounders, which can be used to sweeten the pot in some other deals.

We have heard folks be critical of the Hood deal, but the player had approval over where he could have gone, and quite frankly, the way Hood played in the wine and gold didn’t have other GMs beating down the Cavs’ doors.

Hood is 6’8″, athletic, with a decent shooting touch. He visually looks like he should be a very good NBA player. However, he disappears when he’s on the floor a lot. He had an opportunity in Cleveland to be a primary scorer, but never embraced the role.

Perhaps he’d be a better player if he had the attitude of Jordan Clarkson, who comes in and wants to be a scorer. But that kind of aggressiveness can’t be taught.

Burks was destined to be moved as soon as he arrived, because of his expiring contract. And really, he was part of the Hood deal, because the two players received for Hood (Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin) were sent to Houston in the deal that moved Burks to Sacramento.

In addition to the first round pick acquired in the deal, Altman did want we wanted him to do in picking up a young player who had been a disappointment to his current team in the deal.

He did that in getting Marquese Chriss, a 21 year old, who is 6’10”, something needed for the height challenged Cavaliers.

Chriss was the 8th overall pick in 2016 by Phoenix, and played every game as a rookie, starting 75 of them. He averaged 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds on 45% shooting.

Last year, he lost time due to the drafting of Josh Jackson, and started the year coming off the bench. When he did start (he started 49 games), he averaged 8.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game on 44% shooting. He was traded to Houston, with Brandon Knight (familiar?) for Ryan Anderson and De’Anthony Melton.

Is Chriss a future star? Who knows, but again, he’s only 21 years old. He should be a senior in college.

The Cavaliers have 28 games to evaluate him. And he did have 13 points and 8 rebounds in his debut.

Knight, who came to Cleveland in the deal, isn’t a bad get either, and he’s an expiring contract next season, which is a valuable trade piece at the very least.

He was the 8th overall pick the year the Cavs took Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, and averaged 18 points and five assists in his third year in the league with Milwaukee, who was being coached by Larry Drew.

He was traded three times in his first four years in the league, and we believe mostly because he’s more of a Mike Conley-style point guard than an Irving-style player.

He’s battled injuries throughout his career, but he’s only 27 years old. Perhaps if he gets healthy, he can carve out a niche in the NBA.

The rest of this season should be about auditions for Chriss, Ante Zizic, Knight, and others to see if they have a place in the Cavs’ future.

However, it is easier to accumulate assets than it is to cash them in. That’s the challenge for Altman going forward.

Cavs Making The Right Moves For A Bad Season.

The winds of change continue to blow through Cleveland Clinic Courts and Quicken Loans Arena, as the Cleveland Cavaliers made their second deal in two weeks, moving another veteran piece to a playoff contender.

Two weeks ago, it was Kyle Korver going to Utah for Alec Burks, who based on his week and a half with the wine and gold can play.

Friday night, it was George Hill who was moved to Milwaukee, in exchange for veteran big man John Henson, fan favorite Matthew Dellavedova, and most importantly, a first round pick, which based on the Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo, should be conveyed in 2021.

Hill missed a lot of time this season with a shoulder injury, and when he returned, he really didn’t seem very engaged. In his last game with the Cavs, he played 25 minutes, didn’t score and had three assists.

He may have helped rookie Collin Sexton in practice, but in games, it was clear that he wanted out, much like it was evident he wanted out in Sacramento a year ago before the Cavs traded for him.

Henson, 6’11”, will turn 28 before the end of the calendar year, and is currently out with after wrist surgery, with reports that he can return after the All Star Game. He averages 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds for his career, and is a solid defender.

He adds some needed size to the roster, a roster that has ignored size over the past few years. He can be a free agent after the ’19-’20 season, making him an expiring contract next year.

Dellavedova will, of course, bring grit and energy, and a good locker room presence. His game and shooting have declined since he left the Cavs after the championship season. Whether he can regain it will be something to watch.

Burks has been a great addition, averaging 14.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in his half dozen games with Cleveland. Don’t fall in love with him though, he has an expiring contract, and will likely be moved for more assets before the trading deadline.

That said, he may be playing his best basketball since the ’15-’16 campaign.

Cleveland also moved Sam Dekker in the deal. Dekker has decent analytical numbers, but in watching him play, we just couldn’t see him as a piece down the road.

GM Koby Altman is in what former GM Chris Grant called “asset acquisition mode”, dealing off veterans for younger players, some on expiring contracts, and draft picks.

It’s a no brainer, really, when your team in 6-20 and lost the best player in the game in the off-season, and you started the year 0-6, that’s what you should be doing.

There is no doubt, the next guy they are trying to move is JR Smith, which may be Altman’s biggest challenge. Korver can still shoot, and Hill was a starter in the second half of the season last year.

Smith’s game has been declining for the past two years, and currently, the team is paying him to stay home.

His contract is an asset though, but it has to be hard for Altman to find a taker for Smith. If he can get something useful in return, then you have to tip your hat to the GM.

Before going all crazy about the front office though, remember, it is easier to deconstruct a roster and collect assets than it is the build a contending team.

A lot of people can collect draft picks, it takes a keen eye to bring in talent. With every passing game, Sexton looks like he can play, be a contributing player for a contender.

That’s a feather in Altman’s cap. If the Cavs have a top three pick in next year’s draft, Altman must convert that into a franchise cornerstone.

Cavs Real Problem? Lack Of Communication Internally.

It was a week ago that the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to fire head coach Tyronn Lue, and the reaction nationally wasn’t favorable, particularly in regards to owner Dan Gilbert.

Gilbert is viewed by the media as the NBA’s version of Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, a man who makes moves like he knows the sport, but if really just a bit more than a fan. And a fan who acts impetuously, someone who is looking for a change after a couple of losses.

The movement away from Lue wasn’t a problem for us, but the lack of a plan from the top of the organization down to GM Koby Altman is.

Firing a coach six games into a season shows a lack of communication throughout the organization.

It is pretty apparent that the Cavs wanted to get younger after LeBron James announced he was signing with the Lakers.

Didn’t Lue and Altman (and we guess, Gilbert) sit down at that point and talk about the direction for the future? Maybe they did, and then Lue decided that winning games immediately was the way to go, so that’s when the wheels were put into motion to make a change on the bench.

If Lue wasn’t going to make a commitment to playing guys like David Nwaba, Ante Zizic, and Sam Dekker, then couldn’t a joint decision have been made at that time for Lue to walk away?

Put out a statement thanking the coach for guiding a championship team, taking the franchise to two other Finals, and saying there is a change in direction for the squad.

That’s how it should have been handled.

Then, you have the whole Larry Drew as the new head coach, or interim head coach, or “new voice”, or whatever the heck he is right now.

When Altman and Gilbert decided Lue was out, didn’t they reach out to Drew to see if he wanted the full time gig, and negotiate a contract at that time?

It seems like there was no communication at all. It seems like they fired Lue, and called Drew and said, by the way, you are the new head coach.

And Drew said not so fast.

Look, we get why Drew wants security. He is 60 years old and was basically screwed out of his last two jobs because a new management team came in.

And we get why the Cavaliers wouldn’t want to be tied in with Drew through the 2019-20 season. They want the opportunity to go out and find their version of Brad Stevens in the off-season.

To fans and media alike, the whole thing looks like it was not very well thought out. A well run organization would have thought these things out ahead of time and saved themselves the embarrassment.

A new coach could’ve came in during the summer, put together their plan, especially from a defensive standpoint, and started the season developing rookie Collin Sexton, and getting the most out of the younger players on the roster.

Instead, we have one of the worst teams in the NBA playing a style to which it is poorly suited.

All because it doesn’t look like the front office (including the owner) and the head coach didn’t communicate very well over the summer.

Cavs Focusing On Youth and Athleticism

The rebuild of the Cleveland Cavaliers continued in the past week with the acquisition of two more young players. And they also continue to add wing players, which should make for great competition during training camp.

Last week, they signed David Nwaba, who played for the Chicago Bulls a year ago, as a free agent.

Nwaba is 6’4″ and will start the season at 25 years old. He averaged 7.9 points per game playing 23.5 minutes a night, including 21 starts. He also gathered almost five rebounds per game, and was one of the Bulls’ better defenders.

On Sunday, GM Koby Altman traded a trade exemption to the Los Angeles Clippers for former first round draft pick Sam Dekker, who is 6’9″ and just 24 years old.

Dekker, who played the first two years of his career in Houston, saw a loss of playing time with LA, dropping from 18 minutes per game with the Rockets, to just 12 with the Clips.

His three point percentage also dropped from 32% in 2016-17, to just 16% last season.

He is certainly worth a gamble, especially because the Cavs gave up nothing to take a look at him.

These pick ups are just an example of the wine and gold collecting a bunch of young players and hoping at least a few of them will become the core of the next playoff team in Cleveland.

They have surrounded Kevin Love with a bunch of athletic players in their mid-twenties. In addition to Nwaba and Dekker, you also have rookie first round pick Collin Sexton (19), Larry Nance Jr (25), Cedi Osman (23), Ante Zizic (21), Rodney Hood (26 at the start of the season), and Jordan Clarkson (26).

And don’t forget another rookie in Billy Preston (21 shortly after the season starts).

Coach Tyronn Lue has always talked about playing faster, but the Cavaliers ranked 12th in pace this past season and they were 15th the previous season. When your roster is headed by a superstar in his early 30’s, and he is surrounded by veterans, it is tough to play fast.

That will no longer be a factor in this season. Our guess is that this season’s edition of the Cavs will feature pushing the ball at all times, looking for easy baskets.

It will be a season of learning and judgment for the coach and GM, trying to figure out who has a future with the Cavs and who won’t be able to fit in with Lue and Altman’s vision.

Make no mistake, there are more roster moves coming. There are rumors that Altman is shopping two more veterans. Kyle Korver, still a threat from long distance, but now 37 years old, is rumored to be heading to Philadelphia, and JR Smith, who will turned 33 years old next month, has been talked about in a deal with Houston.

We also would not be surprised if Tristan Thompson is elsewhere when the season opens in mid October, but only if another big man comes in return.

Don’t forget, they have Love, Frye, Nance, and Preston who can play the four, and we are sure they want to get Zizic more time at the five.

On the other hand, they may pair Thompson with Love/Frye, and team up Zizic with Nance. Our guess is Preston plays a lot in Canton.

If nothing else, this year’s Cavs will be interesting to watch at the start of the season. The question is, will they win enough early on to stay interesting.

Building Around Love…Kevin, That Is

Most basketball observers figured that after LeBron James departed the Cavaliers for the Lakers, the next logical move for the wine and gold would be trading Kevin Love for young players and/or draft picks.

So, it was a surprise Tuesday that Love was offered and accepted a four year extension with the team, making him the centerpiece of the retooling of the franchise.

Love is surrounded by a group of young players, notably rookie first round pick Collin Sexton, Larry Nance Jr., Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic.

While it is not the direction we would have went in, we wouldn’t rebuild around a 30 year old player, we can understand GM Koby Altman and coach Tyronn Lue wanting to see what the 2018-19 edition of the Cavs would look like with a five time all-star as the cornerstone.

We do feel that Love will put up better numbers as the primary scoring option, getting back to the 20-24 points per game level in addition to his usual outstanding rebounding total.

Remember, no player sacrificed more of their game with James on the roster than Love. That’s not a criticism, it’s a compliment. And Love has a championship ring for being a great teammate.

It made more sense to strip the franchise down when James left following the 2010 season, because of who remained on the roster. The best players remaining then were Anderson Varejao, Mo Williams, and an aging Antawn Jamison.

The only young players who people thought had potential were J.J. Hickson, Danny Green, and Boobie Gibson. And the team cut Green prior to the next season.

We have said it before and nothing has changed our opinion, this team is set up far better to deal with the loss of James than they were in 2010, because of the young talent currently on the roster.

Will all of those players become all stars? Of course not. Could they become serviceable NBA players? We see the potential in most of them that they could be, and they can be more than good players on a bad team.

And why not give them an opportunity to find out while playing with an all star player. Remember, Love was second team All-NBA twice in his career with Minnesota.

As for criticism of those Timberwolves teams not being very good, that’s not entirely fair.

In Love’s first breakout season with Minnesota, the second best player on the team were either Luke Ridnour or Anthony Tolliver. Not a surprise the Wolves were not a very good basketball team.

The following season was the strike shortened season, and Minnesota’s winning percentage would have equated to 32 wins (+15) in an 82 game schedule.

Love missed most of the year the following season, but Ricky Rubio was developing and the Timberwolves won 31 games, and the next year finished just short of .500 at 40-42. That squad had Love, Rubio, Corey Brewer, and bruising big man Nikola Pekovic.

They were showing steady improvement, but Love came to the Cavs after the season.

So, when they had some talent, Love and the Wolves weren’t a terrible basketball team.

As for trading Love and bottoming out? That doesn’t always work either. Look at franchises like Sacramento, Orlando, and the Knicks.

Why not try to see how good you can be and reassess things? As for being “stuck in the middle?”, it’s only a bad thing if you stay in that spot for a few years. Making the playoffs and being ousted in the first round three straight seasons is bad, doing it once isn’t.

We still think the Cavs are trying to move veterans like Kyle Korver, JR Smith, and perhaps Tristan Thompson and George Hill too. They will continue to try and bring in younger, more athletic players.

It’s tough to argue with the cornerstone being a five time all star.

Sexton Is A Solid Pick For Wine and Gold.

In today’s NBA, what happens on draft night could be totally different two weeks or two months from now.

As it stands right now, the Cavaliers drafted a point guard with the eighth overall pick in the draft last night, grabbing Alabama’s Collin Sexton, a pick that received mixed reviews.

We believe the reason was the expectation that GM Koby Altman was going to swing a deal to bring in a veteran star player in an effort to keep LeBron James with the team, but James is said to like Sexton too.

Of course, there is still time for Altman to swing a deal before the end of the month when the free agency period begins in earnest.

In our opinion, Sexton is a very good pick.

There is no question that he needs to work on his shot. He shot just 44.7% from the floor and just 33.6% from behind the arc. However, he demonstrated a tremendous ability to get to the basket.

He did shoot 78% from the line which shows he can shoot a bit, and remember, he’s just 19 years old, and although a player can’t improve his lateral quickness, they can work on their shooting, and get better through spending time in the gym.

One thing that was evident watching the Cavs in the playoffs, was they needed players who can create offense by attacking the basket. Too often, the only guy doing that was James.

Let’s face it, after the Kyrie Irving deal last summer, the Cavs needed a penetrating guard who can finish around the basket, although that could be a problem without a reliable jump shot to keep defenders honest.

Sexton will need to improve his playmaking ability to be successful in the NBA, because he was more of a combo guard in college, but again, he’s just a year out of high school, and we have seen a lot of scorers in college become playmakers in the pros.

His reputation is that he is a hard worker and plays well in big games. We love that. Players can improve by working hard, and when players don’t pan out in the NBA, many times it is because they don’t put the time in during the off-season.

And as a bonus, Sexton is considered a solid defender, something that outside of George Hill has been missing from the games of Cavs’ point guards for awhile.

Another reason for disappointment with the choice of Sexton is that the wine and gold passed on Michael Porter Jr., considered one of the most talented players available.

However, Porter’s back problems (also at age 19!) were simply too much of a red flag. Everyone seems to look at his upside, but what if he’s this decade’s Greg Oden, a player who simply can’t either get on the floor or stay on it.

As for the big picture, keeping the pick and taking Sexton doesn’t mean James is leaving Cleveland, nor does it mean he is staying.

We said it before the Cavs have another week to make moves in an attempt to make James see this is a good place for him to try to win another title.

It could be the most important week this franchise has had off the court in a long time.

Is Lue The Right Man For This Cavs’ Team?

As the Cleveland Cavaliers head into another “must win” game tonight against the Indiana Pacers, down 2-1 in the best of seven series, the heat is getting turned up on coach Tyronn Lue.

Many people, including us, have been critical of Lue’s substitution patterns and the wine and gold’s defensive scheme, which centers on having players who can defend multiple positions.

He has had problems incorporating the four players GM Koby Altman acquired at the trade deadline into the mix. Outside of Larry Nance Jr., and we are stretching it with that, none of the new guys appear to know what they are supposed to do on a night in, night out basis.

However, when Lue took over the head coaching reins midway through the 2015-16 campaign, he took over a pretty much a veteran unit.

The only younger guy he inherited was Matthew Dellavedova, who was in his third NBA season, and was a backup point guard and defensive specialist.

Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and Iman Shumpert were in the fifth NBA seasons, and they all understood what their roles were. Irving was the second option offensively, capable of explosive performances.

Thompson and Shumpert were defensive players based on hustle and grit.

The primary bench options on that team were veterans like Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Mo Williams.

Lue’s biggest move upon taking over the team was to get them to play at a faster pace. He famously said the Cavs were not in shape to play the up tempo game he wanted.

Now, switch to 2017-18, and the Cavaliers are a much different team.

Yes, there still is experience with James and Kyle Korver (15th season), JR Smith (14th), Jose Calderon (13th), and Jeff Green and George Hill (10th), but after the deadline moves, there are also a lot of younger players in the rotation.

Nance is in his third year, while Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson are both in their fourth seasons, and of that trio, only Hood has been on a winning team prior to coming to Cleveland.

Cedi Osman is a rookie, and although he has shown promise that he can contribute to this team, the coaching staff seemed bothered by his presence, giving him real minutes only after the trade, and many times that was due to necessity.

What we are trying to say is Lue didn’t have experience as a head coach in developing young players, and that’s what was needed after Altman turned over the roster.

The coaching staff appears to be throwing these young players out there and seeing if they can figure it out, that doesn’t always work.

At least one media member has pointed out that the four new guys played better before the coaching staff started giving them instructions and direction.

Remember the two games right after the deals? The road wins over Boston and Oklahoma City might have been the two best wins of the season for Cleveland. The newcomers just went out and played basketball.

Even the veterans who started the season, save for Dwyane Wade, looked lost at times, not sure of what they were supposed to do. Jae Crowder didn’t look remotely like the player he was in Boston, but he’s contributing for Utah right now.

NBA head coaches are used to change a team’s culture, which Lue was brought in to do in 2016. Other times, they are needed to coach, to develop younger talent. That’s wasn’t Tyronn Lue’s job when he took over.

But that’s what is needed now.

Will A Rookie Help the ’18-’19 Cavs?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are heading to the NBA playoffs, but some fans are obsessed with the draft pick which the Cavs acquired in the Kyrie Irving trade.

That pick, of course, originally belonged to the Brooklyn Nets, who fans of the wine and gold have been following all season long.

We even heard some fans saying that LeBron James should sit out Sunday’s game against Dallas because a Mavericks victory could help the Nets sink in the standings, thus giving the Cavs a better chance to obtain the first pick in the NBA draft.

The most attractive thing about the pick, which currently sits in the 7th position if the season ended today, giving Cleveland a 4.3% chance at the first overall selection and a 15% opportunity to pick in the top three, is what it is worth to other teams.

We say that because of today’s nature of the draft, which because of the “one and done” rule, means many of the lottery picks are based on potential, not the ability to help a good NBA team right now.

Note that we said a good NBA team, meaning one that makes the playoffs. Let’s examine last June’s draft, for example.

Of the rookies getting more than 20 minutes of playing time per game, only four are doing so on teams that will probably make the post-season. That quartet would be Jayson Tatum (Boston), Donovan Mitchell (Utah), Bam Adebayo (Miami), and OG Anunoby (Toronto).

Of those four, only Tatum was picked in the top ten. Granted, most good teams don’t get an opportunity to pick in the top ten, however, think about it. None of the rookies taken in the top ten have been impactful enough to lift their teams out of the lottery.

Looking at the year before, the only player who was a rotation players with a playoff teams was Jaylen Brown (3rd overall pick with Boston).

Now in their second year, Ben Simmons (Philadelphia-1st overall), Jamal Murray (Denver-7th pick), Jakob Poeltl (Toronto 9th), and Thon Maker (Milwaukee-10th) are contributing to playoff teams, but the other players who were selected in the top of the draft are still on bad teams.

Going back to 2015, first overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns will likely help Minnesota make the playoffs, but the rest of the players picked in the top ten are still on also-rans.

Beyond that group, Myles Turner Kelly Oubre, and Terry Rozier and solid contributors on playoff squads.

So, looking at the players projected to be selected in the top ten in the 2018 draft, how many could get significant playing time on the Cavs next fall, if James remains with the team?

Certainly Arizona’s DeAndre Ayton and Duke’s Marvin Bagley would be rotation players, but they are projected to go with the first two selections.

Most of the other players thought to be top ten picks probably don’t have NBA ready bodies.

Other players we think could play right away are Collin Sexton, a freshman point guard out of Alabama, Duke C Wendell Carter, and Villanova swingman Mikel Bridges, who is a junior, not a one year college player.

This isn’t to say the other top selections won’t be solid NBA players in time, or that they won’t put up good numbers for bad teams.

The point is there aren’t many players ready to come into the league and be solid contributors for a team with aspirations of making a deep playoff run, and history shows this is the norm.

So, the best plan for GM Koby Altman is a draft day trade to bring in a young veteran who will fit in and be able to help now. We aren’t talking about a guy who is on the wrong side of 30, but a player in his mid-20’s who might be heading toward the free agent market, like Kevin Love was when the Cavs traded for him.

That’s the best bet for the Cavaliers, not someone who played just one year of college basketball.

Cavs’ Roster Make Over…Wow!

Wow! That is our first reaction to the wheeling and dealing done by Cleveland Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman on the day of the NBA trade deadline, in which he turned over 40% of his team’s roster.

The Cavs were the NBA’s oldest roster and they were showing it over the last six weeks, losing 12 of their last 19 games and getting boat raced by every good team they played, and some average teams as well.

In three big moves, the wine and gold got younger, more athletic, and in our opinion, more likely to retain LeBron James when he becomes a free agent after the season.

Of the six players moved, the biggest impact looking to be the departure of Channing Frye, a veteran glue guy who provided leadership in the locker room.

Dwyane Wade, who went back home to Miami for a second round pick, will also be missed. Wade, no longer with the athleticism he had in his prime, still made the correct play, and tried to impart that to his teammates.

The other four were disappointments. Isaiah Thomas didn’t seem to fit in with the Cavs, and neither did the guy who came over from Boston with him, Jae Crowder.

Thomas is a good player, but was not 100% after the hip injury, and since he was a free agent to be at the end of the season, the Cavs couldn’t afford to see how that story ended.

Crowder scored more than five points per game less than he did a year ago, and was shooting five percentage points less in 2017-18.

Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert have been injured much of the season.

In return, Cleveland got three players in their mid-twenties in Rodney Hood (25), Larry Nance Jr. (25), and Jordan Clarkson (25) and George Hill, who will turn 32 in May.

Hood, coming from Utah, is enjoying his best season as a pro, averaging 16.8 points per game, shooting 38.9% from three point range. He’s long too at 6’8″, and a good free throw shooter at 87.6%.

Nance Jr. is coming home, where his father’s number hangs in the rafters. He’s a solid defender, can jump through the ceiling, and is scoring 8.6 points and grabbing 6.8 board per contest.

Clarkson is a combo guard, with a career scoring average of 14.5 points per night. He can knock down threes, although he’s kind of a streaky shooter. He is getting 3.3 assists per game in an average of just under 24 minutes.

Hill is the veteran and will likely take over starting duties. He’s 6’3″, and currently leads the league in three point shooting at 45.3%. He is scoring at 10.3 points per game with Sacramento this season, after getting 16.9 a night last season.

This quartet makes the wine and gold longer and that should help the defense. Hill keeps his man in front of him, something not seen much in Cleveland this season.

We have begged coach Tyronn Lue to slow down the pace because of the age of the team, but with the younger legs, he should be able to get the ball up the floor quickly going forward.

But now the Cavs have some young players who can get better going forward to go with James, and that may be enough, along with a draft pick that could be in the top five by the time the season is over, to entice him to re-sign in northeast Ohio.

That pick could be used on draft night to bring in another star player in a trade.

The biggest thing for the fans is hope that the Cavaliers, who looked very little like a team that can make deep playoff run over the last few weeks, now can do just that.

It may take some time for the new pieces to gel, but if and when they do, there is no question the Cavs are in a better place than they were two days ago.

And that’s a good thing.