Image courtesy of cavaliersnation.com
On Monday, the Los Angeles Clippers shipped Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for role players Avery Bradley, Bogan Marjanovic, Tobias Harris, and a first and second round pick, signaling the Clippers are going into rebuild mode.
Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN senior NBA insider, has reported the Clippers are also intending to trade star center DeAndre Jordan and point guard Lou Williams.
Jordan would be a great fit for a Cavs team in need of a big man. The tallest player on the Cavs is Channing Frye, standing at 6’11, and he barely sees the floor since he is not a great paint protector. The Cavs’ best rim protection comes from 6’9 Tristan Thompson, who does a decent job holding down the paint, but he struggles against tall big men and guarding stretch 4’s which is what most NBA teams have nowadays.
Jordan is 6’11 also, but he plays like he is 7’3, using his athleticism to his advantage. For his career, the big guy has averaged 10.5 boards and 1.7 blocks a contest. He had a career year back when the Clippers were title contenders in the 2014-2015 season, averaging 15 rebounds and over two blocks a game, according to basketball reference.
Parting ways with Thompson and star defender Iman Shumpert is not a problem for the Wine and Golders. The only thing preventing the Cavs from pulling the trigger on this trade is that they do not want to relinquish the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick the Clippers would want as well, since the Nets are projected to be picking within the top 10. The Cavs want to hold on to that pick, received in the Kyrie Irving trade, in case superstar Lebron James leaves in free agency this summer. If they part ways with the pick, and Lebron leaves, the Cavs will be stuck in the same situation they were in 2010 when James took his talents to South Beach.
Personality, if I was the Cavs, I would do the deal with the Clippers. In my estimation, Lebron does not want to wait for a 20-year-old to develop and getting a superstar like Jordan helps the Cavs’ chances of not only knocking off the Warriors, but their chances of having Lebron around for the long haul. Life is about risk taking, and this is for sure a risk the Cavs must take. It is their only chance at both short term and long term success.