{"id":579745,"date":"2026-02-03T15:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/579745\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:16:15","slug":"why-deandre-hunter-trade-could-have-been-first-domino-in-cavs-pursuit-for-giannis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/579745\/","title":{"rendered":"Why De\u2019Andre Hunter Trade Could Have Been First Domino in Cavs\u2019 Pursuit for Giannis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers have finally ended the De’Andre Hunter trial<\/a> where he spent his final days barely shooting 30% from long range.<\/p>\n

They acquired veteran point guard Dennis Schroder and young guard Keon Ellis in exchange for the former lottery pick, Hunter.<\/p>\n

This transaction also cleared $7 million in salary cap space for this season, as well as creating a traded player exception of the same value that the Cavaliers can actually use immediately(we will circle back to this later).<\/p>\n

Giannis wants out<\/p>\n

Giannis\u2019 representation informed the Milwaukee Bucks that they would prefer their client be traded before the February trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Bucks have publicly announced<\/a> that they are, for the first time, actually considering offers for the former back to back MVP.<\/p>\n

Where there\u2019s smoke there\u2019s fire<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers have the ability to move some of their larger struggling deals now in single transactions to make room for a potential \u201cbig swing\u201d player like Giannis.<\/p>\n

There was a plan<\/a> outlined to get the Cavs under the second apron, unfreeze their 2032 first round pick, and utilize it to trade for a win-now player.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers have suspiciously already checked the first requirement for such a plan to come into fruition, with the trading of Hunter\u2019s large cap number.<\/p>\n

Reservations<\/p>\n

While some may have reservations that the Cavaliers are actually pursuing a contract as big as Antetokounmpo\u2019s since they acquired Schroder, who makes $14 million himself.<\/p>\n

To those doubters, I would refer you back to the $7 million trade exception the Cavaliers created as part of that trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers, as a second apron team cannot use exceptions created in previous years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in the year they generate the exception they are eligible to utilize it. This essentially turns $7 million saved into $14 million saved if the Cavaliers utilize the exception to acquire a player like Giannis.<\/p>\n

Trades to watch out for<\/p>\n

In the meantime, if the Cavaliers move Lonzo Ball<\/a> in a cap dump transaction, Cavalier fans should brace for any possibility.<\/p>\n

Another name to watch out for is the still injured Max Strus. Recent reports suggest the Cavs are becoming impatient with Strus as he recovers from his Jones fracture. If an offer is made that provides the Cavaliers with cap relief, a Strus trade is very much on the table.<\/p>\n

Moves like these would put the Cavaliers in a direct position to make an offer for Giannis while obeying all of the apron requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers have finally ended the De’Andre Hunter trial where he spent his final days barely shooting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,102,121,3871,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-579745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-milwaukee","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-milwaukeebucks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116007363248063347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}