The Cleveland Cavaliers continued the torpedoing of their roster on Thursday by acquiring guards Rodney Hood and George Hill in a three-team trade involving the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings.
Utah will receive point guard Derrick Rose and forward Jae Crowder from the Cavaliers in this trade, while Sacramento will acquire guard Iman Shumpert from Cleveland, and forward Joe Johnson from Utah in this deal. Utah is expected to waive Rose to allow Rose to be free to sign a playoff team, and Sacremento is expected to do the same with Johnson. The lead front-runners for Johnson’s services right now are the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, per Yahoo’s Chris Mannix.
This trade also included draft rights to players being swapped, with the draft rights to Arturas Gudaitis being sent to Cleveland via Sacramento, and Cleveland sending the rights to Dimitrios Agravanis to the Kings. Sacramento will also acquire a 2020 second-round pick in this trade, which is from the Miami Heat.
One could connect the dots and say this trade is very similar to the one the Cavaliers made earlier today when they acquired Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. from the Cavaliers. That’s because Cleveland acquired Hood in this trade, and while injuries have limited his availability, he is averaging a career-high in points per game this season at a 16.8 average.
Dealing away Shumpert to the Kings also means that Cleveland frees themselves of another bad contract, which will help shed away their luxury tax penalty this summer. Hill’s contract is also a benefit for Cleveland, as only $1 million of his $19 million base salary in 2019-2020 will be guaranteed after he makes that salary figure in 2018-2019.
Whenever Hill, Hood, Clarkson, and Nance Jr. are all available to play to play for Cleveland, it should be interesting to see what lineup head coach Tyronn Lue decides to role with. One of his starters will be a placeholder until Kevin Love is healthy to play again, so it’s very possible Nance Jr. could slide into the role. Hood could be lethal in a bench role, and point guard could simply come down to whether or not the Cavaliers would prefer youth or veteran presence there.
We shall also see if the Cavaliers improve on their issues, or if they still exist after these trades. If the issues are still prevalent, that could tell about much deeper issues.
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