Does this trade make sense for Cleveland Cavaliers?
Giving up Collin Sexton may not seem like a smart move for the Cleveland Cavaliers to make, but they have to understand that keeping all of their young talents probably is not something that is going to occur.
They cannot afford to pay everybody and with Sexton being in the final year of his rookie contract, now makes the most sense for them to deal him, especially if they can get an All-Star on a long-term contract like Ben Simmons.
He may not be the best player in the NBA and Simmons definitely comes with some liability attached to his offensive game, but he is just 25-years-old and will continue to develop, should the Cavaliers devote time to helping him out instead of trying to fit him in a certain mold/box like the Sixers have the last few years.
Plus, the biggest win of this trade for the Cavaliers is that they would be able to move Kevin Love. This is something the Cavs really want to do, as they do not want to be tied down to paying him $60.2M over the next two seasons.
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Paying Ben Simmons $145M+ over the next four seasons does not sound much better in terms of financials for the Cavaliers, but Simmons has a ton of upside and can be the face of the franchise in Cleveland.
Giving up two first-round picks and a first-round pick swap may not seem that advantageous for the Cavaliers to do, especially since they are still considered a rebuilding franchise.
With Ben Simmons, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, the Cavaliers would easily be able to turn themselves into a force in the Eastern Conference with the addition of other secondary talents and veteran players over the next year or so.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers definitely have a lot of potential as a franchise right now, but the two biggest question marks for them lie with Kevin Love and Collin Sexton.
They need to move Love’s contract and make a decision about Sexton’s long-term future, so they could do both by just leveraging them and draft picks for Ben Simmons right now.
