Why This Trade Makes Sense For The Cleveland Cavaliers
After starting the year 3-0, the Cavaliers have been a very streaky team and have now lost 8 straight games, as well as 14 of their last 16 games. This team just really struggles to score and overall, they just do not have as much talent as some of the other teams in this league. What they do have though is potential and youth.
The Cavaliers are one of the younger teams in the NBA and while they may not be in contention to make the playoffs this year, moving forward, they have a lot of potential to be a higher seed in the Eastern Conference. Their young backcourt duo of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland look like one of the better youthful duos in the entire NBA and are both high-level scorers.
Jarrett Allen is also starting to come into his own and looks to be the future of the center position for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not only has Allen scored in double-figures in 13 of the 16 games he has played in with the Cavs, but he has also recorded four double-doubles while averaging under 30 minutes per game.
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The way Allen has played for the Cavaliers since joining the team is one of the main reasons Andre Drummond will be traded sooner than later, not because he is a bad player, but because getting Jarrett Allen more playing time with the young core of the Cavs makes more sense long-term.
In this trade, Cleveland would probably end up keeping Rui Hachimura and Ish Smith, giving them another young player to utilize moving forward and a player on an expiring contract to free up cap space. Both Thomas Bryant and Robin Lopez would probably be on the move somewhere else, but the Cavs also get two first-round picks in 2022 and 2025, as well as a second-round pick in 2022.
With a young core stable and intact, as well as draft assets for the future, the Cavaliers would be set up for plenty of success moving forward and could potentially gain more future assets by trading away Kevin Love. For the first time without LeBron James, this franchise is actually trending in the right direction and trading away Andre Drummond will be the best move this organization could make this season.
