Washington Wizards Receive: C Andre Drummond, SAS 2022 2nd Round Pick (via CLE)
Cleveland Cavaliers Receive*: C Robin Lopez, G Ish Smith, C Thomas Bryant, F Rui Hachimura, WAS 2022 1st Round Pick, CHI/DET/LAL 2022 2nd Round Pick (Most Favorable), WAS 2025 1st Round Pick
*Note: This trade would be a multi-team deal as the Cavs cannot absorb four different contracts and would not want to acquire more centers.
If the Washington Wizards are unwilling to trade Davis Bertans, then they would have to trade away a bunch of role players in order to equal out Andre Drummond’s $28.7M contract they would be absorbing. With Bradley Beal and Westbrook combining to take up about $70M in cap space, Washington does not have much room at all to acquire a third max-contract without trading away a significant portion of their team.
With Washington having a terrible team already though and currently close to being in last place, what do they have to lose? Robin Lopez and Ish Smith are in the final years of their contracts, Thomas Bryant would no longer be needed if they have Andre Drummond long-term and the only significant losses would be Rui Hachimura and the draft picks they trade away.
Andre Drummond is not going to join this team and instantly make them a championship contender, which is one of the reasons why trading away all of these draft picks could be costly. Washington is a team that does not have a lot of talent as it is and trading away futur, young talents may not be that good of an idea.
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Rui Hachmiura is a very valuable asset that the Cavaliers could actually be interested in. The 22-year old forward is in his second season in the NBA and is putting together quite a nice season. He is currently averaging 13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and is shooting 45.4% from the floor.
With the Cavaliers expected to part ways with both Drummond and Kevin Love soon, it would make sense for them to want to acquire a younger, more dynamic forward that they can pair with Larry Nance Jr. at the power-forward position.
A third or maybe even a fourth team could be involved in this trade that would send Andre Drummond to the Wizards because of all the players that would be on the move. Washington would be trading four players in this deal and there is no way that the Cavaliers would be interested in keeping all of them.
With that being said, let’s take a closer look as to why this trade makes sense for both the Washington Wizards and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
