Will the Cleveland Cavaliers make a trade this season?
The Cleveland Cavaliers may need to make some trades this season because the Wine and Gold don't look like a title contender.
After having the best record in the Eastern Conference last season, the Cavaliers are only 15-12. They are in seventh place in the East.
To upgrade the roster around Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, NBA analyst Dan Favale of Bleacher Report thinks Cleveland has three assets at its disposal: 2031 first-round pick, 2033 first-round pick and Jaylon Tyson.
"For now, no team is more all-in on this season than the Cavs—financially speaking, anyway. They are the league's lone second-apron squad," Favale wrote. "That inherently inflates the value of an already-valuable 2031 and 2033 first-round picks. Cleveland cannot aggregate salaries, but it can attach these selections to a single contract.
"Tyson has immense value if you buy into his becoming the Jimmy Butler of Caris LeVert-Caleb Martin hybrids. His $3.5 million salary is infinitesimal, making any deal somewhat complicated. The Cavs can't take back more money than they send out, so they'd either be acquiring someone uber cheap or using Tyson to net first-round equity to facilitate a bigger-salaried move."
The Cavaliers are under immense pressure to go on a deep playoff run this season. They haven't advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 2018 and they were the preseason pick to win the East because the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers are missing their top players (Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton).
As currently constructed, Cleveland doesn't look like a championship contender, so Koby Altman may need to make a trade or two. At the start of December, Favale wrote that the Cavaliers should target New Orleans Pelicans forward Herb Jones, Washington Wizards forward Justin Champagnie and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kenrich Williams.
Only time will tell if the Cavaliers make a trade this season. The trade deadline is in February.