Credit: Yahoo sports
For those that don't know, 3:00PM EST was the NBA trade deadline, meaning no players could be traded until after the season was over. The Cleveland Cavaliers, losers of 9 of their last 15 games, have been in a considerable funk since Isaiah Thomas had come back from injury. Thomas was traded for last offseason, but has been injured until recently. Between playing poorly, and calling out established teammates like Kevin Love, Thomas has quickly become persona non grata in Cleveland. Today, the Cavs did something about it, and then some.
Credit cavs.com
Trade #1
The Cavaliers traded Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and their 2018 1st round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. From a distance, this trade doesn't look great, and if this was the only move they made today, it would have been disappointing. What it did do was get Isaiah out of Cleveland, where he wasn't fitting in, and brought in two young, athletic, versatile players. With any luck, the Cavs' first rounder that they parted with shouldn't be worth much anyways. The only sad part about this is losing Frye, who was a great teammate and all around good guy. Clarkson is a quality scorer, and should pair well with LeBron. Nance is one of the best running big men in the league, and loves the highlight reel dunks off of pick-and-roll.
Credit cavs.com
Trade #2
After the initial shock of getting rid of IT, they sent Iman Shumpert, Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose and a 2020 second-round pick from the Miami Heat in a three-team deal with the Jazz and Kings to acquire George Hill and Rodney Hood. Hill will most likely be playing quality minutes at guard, where is solid all-around game will be helpful come playoff time. Hood is a long wing player that is having the best season of his career scoring-wise.
Credit Yahoo Sports
Trade #3
With backcourt minutes being thin with the newly acquired pieces, and the emergence of Cedi Osman, Dwyane Wade was going to be left on the bench quite a bit. That is why the Cavalier's front office granted his request to be traded back to the Miami Heat, acquiring a heavily protected 2nd round pick in the exchange. The moved was best for both teams, and although I know LeBron loved having Wade around, it didn't matter if they weren't winning.
Overall, I think it was a really good day for the Cavs, they got quite a bit younger and longer, something that will help them if they get to match up against the Warriors at the end of the season. We have the All-Star break coming up, so hopefully some of the guys, minus LeBron and Nance(Dunk Contest) will be able to get familiar with each other in time for a good postseason run.