One direction Cleveland could explore is to clean up its books for next season. The Cavaliers could have their first-round pick frozen for a second consecutive season if they remain over the second apron.

With the emergence of Jaylon Tyson, could Hunter be expendable to give Cleveland some salary relief? Hunter has been productive (15.9 points per game) but is owed $24.9 million next season.

As a starter, Tyson is averaging 14.4 points, and shooting 55.5% from the field and 47.7% from 3. He had a career-high 39 points in a win at Philadelphia.

The Cavaliers have an open roster spot to trade for a player on a minimum contract, sign a player bought out (his prior salary must be $14.1 million or less) or convert the two-way contract of Nae'Qwan Tomlin.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47735878/nba-trade-deadline-tiering-all-30-teams-ahead-feb-5

8 comments

  1. At this point I’d rather play Tyson and Tomlin over Hunter. And he gets pushed back even further assuming Strus comes back healthy.

    I never was a fan of his acquisition but I trust Koby to make the right decision

  2. It’s interesting to think about a Hunter trade, but at this point I think the Cavs are locked into this team. I don’t see us doing anything at the deadline.

  3. I’d rather keep Hunter and stay deep at the wings than trade him for nothing in the middle of the season. Why clean up our books in January? There’s no reason we can’t wait until the off-season.

  4. Height and length. We need that at the 3-4. Strus and Tyson don’t have it. If Dean Wade gets injured (again) our lineups are too short. We need to trade Darius Garland, I’m afraid. If we got a taller PG who can defend well and is a good distributor, we might be in a much better position. Look at the tops team in the league, in terms of lineup size. Who do we put on Cade, SGA, and other top big guards? If we can get 15/10 from a PG who is 6’5” and can defend at a high level, we’re awesome.

  5. I’m like almost positive this article has it wrong about future picks. the cavs went under the apron last season and didn’t have a pick frozen yet. it’s talking about a second straight pick frozen but we aren’t in the repeater tax yet. if we go under we will reset the clock again. someone correct me if I’m wrong but i’m pretty sure a big part of the hunter trade involved going under the tax line last year

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