George Hill, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr, Jordan Clarkson All Cavaliers Now: What Just Happened?

George Hill, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr, Jordan Clarkson All Cavaliers Now: What Just Happened?

The Cavs really went for it on trade deadline day, just 12 hours after winning an exciting game against a good team for what felt like the first time in forever. What kinds of players did the Cavs get and was this series of trades actually worthwhile?

The Cavs really went for it on trade deadline day, just 12 hours after winning an exciting game against a good team for what felt like the first time in forever. What kinds of players did the Cavs get and was this series of trades actually worthwhile?

Whoa. Take a breath. Find your center. Go to your happy place. Figure out what is important to you in life. Now leave that place and try to wrap your head around what happened to the Cleveland Cavaliers between 8:00 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday and 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.

First was the Cavs playing a home game on the 2nd night of a back-to-back against a very talented Minnesota Timberwolves team. Most people figured the Cavs would get thumped again, as they have been making a habit of getting thumped. But they hung in there. Despite the remarkable info in this tweet, they won the game with Isaiah Thomas playing significant minutes on a team that seems to have had some personal issues with him. Thomas may have played one of his better nights, offensively at least, since coming to the Cavs - he registered 13 points and 7 assists while going 3-5 on three-pointers. However, he saw some of his late-game minutes go to Cedi Osman, who is decidedly not the worst defender in the NBA.

It all added up in such a way that we got to see the game end like this.

The celebration was awfully nice to see, even if the internet had a great time pointing out that James kind of ignored Isaiah Thomas's attempt to get in on the celebration. If that was a bad feeling, it was just the beginning of a rough 18 hours in Cleveland for Isaiah.

As the trade deadline approached, rumors swirled and Cavs fans talked. I had talked myself into either a DeAndre Jordan trade or a Kemba Walker deal, as each player would help the Cavs reach the Finals, even if I didn't feel like Jordan would help them win the Finals. Then part one came.

OK. This was weird. And not that good. When word came out that it was Frye, Thomas, and this year's 1st round pick, it was confusing. Frye is the 2nd best shooter on the team. Thomas has been a problem, but having shooters around LeBron has been the best thing the Cavs can do. This trade managed to make their shooting worse. Nance is going to be a solid off-ball guy who is super-athletic and can run around with guys on defense, but Clarkson is all-around a "meh" player.

Not a great move, probably not a terrible move. Moving Isaiah may have been addition by subtraction on its own though, as his tenure in Cleveland was already so contentious that the official Cavs Instagram account disabled comments when they posted a happy birthday message to Thomas. Overall though, it inspired a lot of "oh...OK" texts. Twenty minutes after this news broke, I took my dog for a walk.

What a mistake.

I came back and had a ton of texts. Apparently, there was a new trade.

WHAT?! HOW?! What is going on here?? Who did the Cavs give up? How are they getting Rodney Hood? He has a tiny contract, and I wrote previously about how it would be hard to get him without a third team involved unless Utah was tanking. But Utah has won 7 straight; they're not tanking. They just don't need him because Donovan Mitchell is so good already. What is going on here?? One minute later there was an answer. 

DOUBLE-WHAT?! The Cavs managed to get rid of Derrick Rose (nice spelling, Woj) and Jae Crowder in this deal, both of whom were underperforming (to put it nicely), and they got both George Hill and Rodney Hood? That's bananas. A subsequent tweet pointed out that Shumpert was in the deal as well, and he'd go to Sacramento.

Then we got another tweet saying that Dwyane Wade was going back to Miami. What a day.

Is this all good news?

Most of it, yeah. The biggest downside to all of this is that the Cavs lost Channing Frye, who is unquestionably one of the most likable guys the Cavaliers have had over the past few years. In addition to being super likable, Frye shot about 40% from deep in his tenure in Cleveland. He was a perfect floor-spacing big for a LeBron James led team, and it was absolutely baffling the way Ty Lue still didn't give him minutes. That's one of my biggest beefs with Lue - Frye should have played a ton more than he did. However, he now gets to go hang out in LA for a few months and see where he might want to sign this offseason.

The other potential downside is what I touched on after the first trade: Clarkson is OK and Nance didn't seem immediately like the type of player the Cavs should be trading for at this point. But then all the other trades happened.

The good parts: In the span of about 90 minutes the Cavs jettisoned three players who have been awful (Thomas, Rose, Crowder), one guy who didn't play (Shumpert), one solid piece (Frye), and one guy who would have no minutes available after the other trades (Wade). That's incredible. 

They also received a starting point guard who doesn't need to shoot a lot but when he does shoot, he makes shots (and also can defend players sometimes). In addition to that point guard, they got a 6'8 shooting guard on an expiring deal, who they can effectively give a tryout. Rodney Hood could be everything that JR Smith was two years ago. The Cavs also managed to keep their top-10 pick from Brooklyn, which was a big deal, even if we overvalue lottery picks

But there's more. By getting rid of Thomas and pulling in full-sized, capable defenders, the Cavs suddenly have a theoretical group of about 7-8 guys that are switchable defenders: Hill, Smith, Clarkson, Nance, James, Hood, Cedi Osman, and Jeff Green. Maybe Tristan Thompson is in the mix too, if you're optimistic about him. While a lineup of, say, Hill, Hood, Green, James, and Nance could theoretically defend a Warriors death lineup better than any fivesome the Cavs had last year, it's hard to imagine that group scoring enough points to get by.

In any case, the moves make sense for the Cavs. They now have a little more money tied up in the future, but in coming away with a bevy of younger guys (Hood, Nance, and Clarkson are all 25 years old), the future looks a little brighter than it did yesterday. Furthermore, their future asset of the Brooklyn pick is still intact.

If it doesn't work out, Hill has a weird contract that would make him a wonderful trade chip next year. Clarkson seems like he's overpaid, but to come out of these trades with one overpaid guy, two underpaid guys, and a could-go-either-way guy is pretty good, all things considered.

A more detailed look at a couple of the players will be coming in the next few weeks, but for now, this is a good series of moves. The Cavs dumped one good shooter and some broken parts for two good shooters...and some TBD parts. That seems like a series of good deals.

A few important things to leave on here. 1) While Isaiah Thomas was an objective disaster in his short stint with the Cavs, it's hard not to feel bad for the guy on a personal level. He was expecting to get a huge contract in his adoptive hometown of Boston, but then he got hurt, went through his sister's death, was possibly misdiagnosed for rehab vs. surgery, got traded, hasn't become himself yet, isn't going to get his huge payday, and now has gotten traded again, all while alienating at least one more fanbase in the process. Difficult time for him as a person. 2) Happy trails to Dwyane Wade. It was nice to have him here and you couldn't have asked for much more out of him. 3) Hearty thank you to Iman Shumpert for the four point play in game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The Cavaliers won that game by four points. In every conceivable way, they couldn't have won that title without him. 4) I'm really going to miss Channing Frye.

Whoa. Take a breath. Find your center. Go to your happy place. Figure out what is important to you in life. Now leave that place and try to wrap your head around what happened to the Cleveland Cavaliers between 8:00 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday and 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.

First was the Cavs playing a home game on the 2nd night of a back-to-back against a very talented Minnesota Timberwolves team. Most people figured the Cavs would get thumped again, as they have been making a habit of getting thumped. But they hung in there. Despite the remarkable info in this tweet, they won the game with Isaiah Thomas playing significant minutes on a team that seems to have had some personal issues with him. Thomas may have played one of his better nights, offensively at least, since coming to the Cavs - he registered 13 points and 7 assists while going 3-5 on three-pointers. However, he saw some of his late-game minutes go to Cedi Osman, who is decidedly not the worst defender in the NBA.

It all added up in such a way that we got to see the game end like this.

The celebration was awfully nice to see, even if the internet had a great time pointing out that James kind of ignored Isaiah Thomas's attempt to get in on the celebration. If that was a bad feeling, it was just the beginning of a rough 18 hours in Cleveland for Isaiah.

As the trade deadline approached, rumors swirled and Cavs fans talked. I had talked myself into either a DeAndre Jordan trade or a Kemba Walker deal, as each player would help the Cavs reach the Finals, even if I didn't feel like Jordan would help them win the Finals. Then part one came.

OK. This was weird. And not that good. When word came out that it was Frye, Thomas, and this year's 1st round pick, it was confusing. Frye is the 2nd best shooter on the team. Thomas has been a problem, but having shooters around LeBron has been the best thing the Cavs can do. This trade managed to make their shooting worse. Nance is going to be a solid off-ball guy who is super-athletic and can run around with guys on defense, but Clarkson is all-around a "meh" player.

Not a great move, probably not a terrible move. Moving Isaiah may have been addition by subtraction on its own though, as his tenure in Cleveland was already so contentious that the official Cavs Instagram account disabled comments when they posted a happy birthday message to Thomas. Overall though, it inspired a lot of "oh...OK" texts. Twenty minutes after this news broke, I took my dog for a walk.

What a mistake.

I came back and had a ton of texts. Apparently, there was a new trade.

WHAT?! HOW?! What is going on here?? Who did the Cavs give up? How are they getting Rodney Hood? He has a tiny contract, and I wrote previously about how it would be hard to get him without a third team involved unless Utah was tanking. But Utah has won 7 straight; they're not tanking. They just don't need him because Donovan Mitchell is so good already. What is going on here?? One minute later there was an answer. 

DOUBLE-WHAT?! The Cavs managed to get rid of Derrick Rose (nice spelling, Woj) and Jae Crowder in this deal, both of whom were underperforming (to put it nicely), and they got both George Hill and Rodney Hood? That's bananas. A subsequent tweet pointed out that Shumpert was in the deal as well, and he'd go to Sacramento.

Then we got another tweet saying that Dwyane Wade was going back to Miami. What a day.

Is this all good news?

Most of it, yeah. The biggest downside to all of this is that the Cavs lost Channing Frye, who is unquestionably one of the most likable guys the Cavaliers have had over the past few years. In addition to being super likable, Frye shot about 40% from deep in his tenure in Cleveland. He was a perfect floor-spacing big for a LeBron James led team, and it was absolutely baffling the way Ty Lue still didn't give him minutes. That's one of my biggest beefs with Lue - Frye should have played a ton more than he did. However, he now gets to go hang out in LA for a few months and see where he might want to sign this offseason.

The other potential downside is what I touched on after the first trade: Clarkson is OK and Nance didn't seem immediately like the type of player the Cavs should be trading for at this point. But then all the other trades happened.

The good parts: In the span of about 90 minutes the Cavs jettisoned three players who have been awful (Thomas, Rose, Crowder), one guy who didn't play (Shumpert), one solid piece (Frye), and one guy who would have no minutes available after the other trades (Wade). That's incredible. 

They also received a starting point guard who doesn't need to shoot a lot but when he does shoot, he makes shots (and also can defend players sometimes). In addition to that point guard, they got a 6'8 shooting guard on an expiring deal, who they can effectively give a tryout. Rodney Hood could be everything that JR Smith was two years ago. The Cavs also managed to keep their top-10 pick from Brooklyn, which was a big deal, even if we overvalue lottery picks

But there's more. By getting rid of Thomas and pulling in full-sized, capable defenders, the Cavs suddenly have a theoretical group of about 7-8 guys that are switchable defenders: Hill, Smith, Clarkson, Nance, James, Hood, Cedi Osman, and Jeff Green. Maybe Tristan Thompson is in the mix too, if you're optimistic about him. While a lineup of, say, Hill, Hood, Green, James, and Nance could theoretically defend a Warriors death lineup better than any fivesome the Cavs had last year, it's hard to imagine that group scoring enough points to get by.

In any case, the moves make sense for the Cavs. They now have a little more money tied up in the future, but in coming away with a bevy of younger guys (Hood, Nance, and Clarkson are all 25 years old), the future looks a little brighter than it did yesterday. Furthermore, their future asset of the Brooklyn pick is still intact.

If it doesn't work out, Hill has a weird contract that would make him a wonderful trade chip next year. Clarkson seems like he's overpaid, but to come out of these trades with one overpaid guy, two underpaid guys, and a could-go-either-way guy is pretty good, all things considered.

A more detailed look at a couple of the players will be coming in the next few weeks, but for now, this is a good series of moves. The Cavs dumped one good shooter and some broken parts for two good shooters...and some TBD parts. That seems like a series of good deals.

A few important things to leave on here. 1) While Isaiah Thomas was an objective disaster in his short stint with the Cavs, it's hard not to feel bad for the guy on a personal level. He was expecting to get a huge contract in his adoptive hometown of Boston, but then he got hurt, went through his sister's death, was possibly misdiagnosed for rehab vs. surgery, got traded, hasn't become himself yet, isn't going to get his huge payday, and now has gotten traded again, all while alienating at least one more fanbase in the process. Difficult time for him as a person. 2) Happy trails to Dwyane Wade. It was nice to have him here and you couldn't have asked for much more out of him. 3) Hearty thank you to Iman Shumpert for the four point play in game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The Cavaliers won that game by four points. In every conceivable way, they couldn't have won that title without him. 4) I'm really going to miss Channing Frye.

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