Cavaliers Rumors

Oladipo-LeVert Deal Complete; Pacers Get Additional Compensation

The Rockets and Pacers have officially completed their swap of high-scoring guards, with Caris LeVert going to Indiana and Victor Oladipo heading to Houston, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

It’s part of the four-team blockbuster that sent former Most Valuable Player James Harden to Brooklyn, even though all other aspects were officially announced earlier this week. LeVert was acquired by the Rockets in that trade.

The part of the deal flipping LeVert to Indiana initially looked like it would be completed as a separate transaction, which would’ve allowed the Rockets to maximize the value of a trade exception created in the original trade.

However, an additional second-round pick and cash are being sent to Indiana due to an issue discovered in LeVert’s physical, per Charania, requiring the trade to be formally completed as a four-teamer.

[UPDATE: LeVert Out Indefinitely Due To Small Mass On Left Kidney]

In addition to Oladipo and a 2023 second-round pick (from the Rockets), the Pacers are also receiving cash and a 2024 second-round pick, says Charania. That additional pick, which is coming from Cleveland, was originally supposed to land with the Nets.

Per RealGM’s list of traded picks, the two picks headed to Indiana will technically be the least favorable of Houston’s, Dallas’, and Miami’s 2023 second-rounders; and the least favorable of Cleveland’s and Utah’s 2024 second-rounders.

With all aspects of the deal now completed, Harden is available to play Saturday for the Nets. Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press tweets.

Oladipo will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and the Pacers feared they wouldn’t be able to re-sign him. In contrast, LeVert is in the first year of a three-year, $52.5MM contract. Both players have missed time in recent years due to injuries, but are healthy and playing well this season.

“We want to thank Victor for what he gave to the Pacers through his play, his diligence in rehab coming back from a serious injury, and his community efforts,” Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said in a statement confirming today’s deal. “These decisions are obviously never easy and this one in particular was hard because of our relationship.

“Caris is a high-quality person who will fit in with what we as an organization are doing, on and off the floor. He’s a versatile young talent who we think will be a great fit with the direction our team is taking. He can play multiple positions and affect the game at both ends of the floor.”

The Rockets, meanwhile, could retain Oladipo and attempt to re-sign him beyond 2021 or could explore flipping him at the March 25 trade deadline. Houston can trade him immediately but would have to wait until after March 7 to move him in a deal that aggregates his salary for matching purposes. For now, the Rockets will probably want to see how Oladipo looks in their revamped lineup.

Because of the amended structure of the trade, the trade exception generated by the Rockets will be worth approximately $10.65MM instead of $15.45MM.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Luke Adams contributed to this story.

Trading Drummond Might Be Bad Idea

  • Jarrett Allen appears to be the Cavaliers’ main man in the middle after they acquired the restricted free agent from the Nets this week, but they shouldn’t be so quick to give away Andre Drummond, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer opines. Drummond has been highly productive this season, as his 33-point, 23-rebound outing against the Knicks demonstrates. Trading Drummond, an unrestricted free agent after the season, could wind up making the team less competitive.

Cavaliers Notes: Allen, Prince, Drummond, McGee, Porter Jr.

The acquisitions of Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince from the Nets in the multi-trade trade that sent James Harden to Brooklyn accelerated the Cavaliers’ rebuild, Kelsey Russo of The Athletic writes. Acquiring Allen, a restricted free agency, gives the Cavs a long-term answer in the middle if they re-sign him. Prince provides the team with a 3-and-D wing who could also see minutes at power forward.

We have more on the Cavaliers:

  • Once Allen is in uniform, coach J.B. Bickerstaff will have a pleasant dilemma of finding time at center for him as well as Andre Drummond and JaVale McGee, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer notes. However, that dilemma may not stretch beyond March’s trade deadline. According to Fedor, shortly after the blockbuster trade, the team received calls on Drummond and McGee, both of whom will be unrestricted free agents after the season. Drummond erupted for 33 points and 23 rebounds against the Knicks on Friday.
  • Second-year swingman Kevin Porter Jr. rejoined his teammates on the bench for the first time this season on Friday, according to Fedor. Porter hasn’t played or practiced since the season started due to personal reasons. In November, he was arrested after flipping his Mercedes SUV. He was charged with improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, a felony, in addition to misdemeanors for driving without a license and marijuana possession. All charges were dropped in December by a grand jury.
  • After facing the Knicks on Friday, the Cavaliers don’t play again until they host the Nets on Wednesday. Their two games in-between against the Wizards were postponed due to COVID-19 issues within Washington’s team.

Cavs Will Carry $309K Cap Hit For Maker

  • The Cavaliers will carry approximately $309K in dead money for Thon Maker after waiving his non-guaranteed contract to accommodate their Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince acquisitions, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. Maker was paid about $11.9K per day for 26 days of service.

NBA Postpones Two Wizards/Cavaliers Games

Two more upcoming Wizards games won’t be played as scheduled, according to the NBA. The league announced today in a press release that the Wizards/Cavaliers games on the schedule for Sunday (January 17) and Monday (January 18) have been postponed due to health and safety protocols.

The games are being pushed back because the Wizards don’t have the required minimum of eight players available. A report this morning indicated that the team has had five players test positive for COVID-19 this week. Others are believed to be self-isolating as well due to the league’s contact tracing protocols.

These are the third and fourth consecutive postponements for the Wizards, who didn’t have enough players available to face the Jazz on Wednesday night or the Pistons tonight.

The next game on the club’s schedule is next Wednesday at Charlotte. It’s possible some players currently in the contact tracing protocols could be cleared by then, giving Washington enough players to avoid a fifth straight postponement. We’ll have to wait to see how the next few days play out though.

The NBA has now had to postpone a dozen games this season, including 11 since Sunday. We’re keeping tabs on the full list of postponements right here.

Cavaliers Winning Recent Trades

  • Joe Vardon and Kelsey Russo of The Athletic posit that the Cavaliers have been winning their recent trades. They suggest that, following the acquisition of former Nets center Jarrett Allen yesterday, veteran center Andre Drummond, on an expiring deal, will now become a candidate for a trade or buyout. The team also added small forward Taurean Prince from Brooklyn. Russo and Vardon applaud the team’s various acquisitions of draft picks, young talent, and solid veterans.

Rockets Trade James Harden To Nets

JANUARY 16: The Pacers/Rockets part of the trade is now official and has been folded back into the initial deal, formally making it a four-team trade once again. Details can be found right here.


JANUARY 14: The trade is now official, the Nets announced in a press release.

“Adding an All-NBA player such as James to our roster better positions our team to compete against the league’s best,” Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks said. “James is one of the most prolific scorers and playmakers in our game, and we are thrilled to bring his special talents to Brooklyn.

“While we are excited to welcome James and his family to the Nets, we also want to thank the players who are departing. Caris, Jarrett, Rodions and Taurean were instrumental to the team’s success and have made an enormous impact on our organization. It has been a pleasure watching them grow both as players and as people and they will always be part of our Nets family. We wish each of them and their families all the best in the future.”

In their press release announcing the deal, the Cavs noted that they also acquired the draft rights to 2017 second-round pick Aleksandar Vezenkov from the Nets. Vezenkov has remained overseas since being drafted.

Interestingly, the Nets, Cavs, and Rockets opted to complete this trade as a three-team deal, meaning the trade sending LeVert and a second-round pick to Indiana for Oladipo will be a separate move.

Separating the two trades will allow the Rockets to generate a larger trade exception in this initial deal — that exception will be worth $15,451,216.


JANUARY 13: The Nets will acquire star guard James Harden in a trade with the Rockets, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne (Twitter link). Shams Charania of The Athletic confirms (via Twitter) that Harden will head to Brooklyn.

According to Wojnarowski and Shelburne (via Twitter) and Charania (Twitter link), it will be a multi-team trade that also involves the Cavaliers and Pacers, with the Rockets receiving Indiana guard Victor Oladipo in the deal.

The Rockets will acquire Oladipo from the Pacers; Rodions Kurucs, three first-round picks, and four pick swaps from the Nets; and Dante Exum and the Bucks’ unprotected 2022 first-round selection from the Cavs, per ESPN and The Athletic.

Cleveland will receive Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince from Brooklyn, while the Pacers acquire Caris LeVert.

Charania reports (via Twitter) that the Pacers will also receive a second-round pick in the trade. That second-rounder is a 2023 selection from the Rockets, tweets Wojnarowski.

In addition to Harden, the Nets will receive a 2024 second-round pick from Cleveland, says Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Cavaliers have traded away the more favorable of their own second-rounder and the Jazz’s second-rounder, so Brooklyn will presumably get the less favorable of those two picks.

This is a massive trade with a ton of moving parts to break down. Let’s start with the Nets’ side of the deal.

Nets’ perspective:

The draft picks the Nets are sending to Houston are their unprotected first-rounders in 2022, 2024, and 2026, according to Wojnarowski, who tweets that the Rockets will have the ability to swap first-round picks with the Nets in 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027 (without protections, tweets Zach Lowe of ESPN).

That means the Nets won’t control any of their own first-round picks through 2027, making this a massive bet on the star trio of Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving. Irving is currently away from the team on personal leave and is something of a question mark for the time being, but with Durant and Harden leading the offense, the Nets should have more than enough offensive firepower to get by until he returns.

The move, which makes Brooklyn an immediate championship contender, reunites Harden with his former Thunder teammate and fellow former MVP Durant. Harden will also team up once again with ex-Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, who is now a Nets assistant.

As a result of trading four players for one, the Nets will have three open roster spots to fill, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Minimum-salary signings seem likely, since Brooklyn’s projected luxury tax bill will further increase as a result of taking on Harden’s $41MM+ salary.

However, the team also still has its $5.72MM taxpayer mid-level exception available and will likely be granted a disabled player exception worth about the same amount following Spencer Dinwiddie‘s ACL tear. As such, Brooklyn has the flexibility to sign players to deals worth more than the minimum.

Harden had a 15% trade kicker in his contract, but it will be voided since he’s already making the maximum salary.

While this blockbuster trade is probably a safe bet to work out better than the last time the Nets mortgaged their future by surrendering a series of first-round selections and pick swaps (for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce), it’s worth noting that Harden is 31 years old and Durant is 32 — the Nets’ picks for the next couple years figure to fall near the end of the first round, but there’s no guarantee that will still be the case by 2025, 2026, or 2027.

Rockets’ perspective:

The Rockets are clearly betting that some of those draft assets will become valuable, opting for a package heavy on picks rather than pushing to complete a trade with the Sixers for Ben Simmons, as was rumored earlier today. Although Simmons was said to be on the table in talks with Philadelphia, it’s not clear what the rest of that deal might have looked like.

By choosing to trade with the Nets and Pacers, the Rockets landed a two-time All-Star (Oladipo) in addition to four draft picks and four draft swaps. Oladipo will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, so there’s no guarantee he’ll be a long-term Rocket. Houston will hold his Bird rights and could re-sign him in the offseason, but acquiring him this early in the season also gives the club the option of extracting further value by flipping him at the March 25 trade deadline.

Today’s trade agreement marks the end of a saga that began in November, when word first broke that Harden had turned down a two-year, $103MM extension offer and had requested a trade out of Houston. The Rockets didn’t move him in the offseason, prompting the superstar guard to express his displeasure by reporting late to training camp.

On Tuesday night, he accelerated his departure by telling reporters after a blowout loss that the Rockets were “just not good enough” and that he didn’t believe the situation could be fixed. Houston decided to keep Harden away from the team until a trade agreement could be reached, and ultimately took less than 24 hours to finalize a deal.

[RELATED: Rockets’ Players, Silas Discuss Harden Situation]

Barring any additional imminent changes, the Rockets will have a fascinating roster in the short term, headlined by a trio of former stars who are coming back from major injuries. Oladipo, who missed a year from 2019-20 with a quad issue, joins John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, who have looked good this season after long-term injury absences of their own.

With Christian Wood and P.J. Tucker in the frontcourt, Houston should be a competitive team this season, albeit probably not a legit contender. Today’s trade is more about the future. Having previously traded away a handful of their own future first-round picks and given up a pair of pick swaps in 2021 and 2025, the Rockets have replenished their stash of draft picks in recent months, first by trading Robert Covington and Russell Westbrook and now by moving Harden.

Houston, which had one open roster spot entering the day, will have to waive a player to complete the trade. The club will also generate an eight-figure trade exception in the deal.

All three of the players acquired in today’s trade by the Rockets – Oladipo, Kurucs, and Exum – can become free agents at season’s end (Kurucs has a team option for 2021/22).

It also shouldn’t be overlooked that moving Harden for three less expensive players will take the Rockets $3.65MM below the luxury tax line and $9.95MM below their hard cap, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Entering the day, Houston was over the tax and only about $1MM from the hard cap — the club should now have added financial and cap flexibility for the rest of the season.

Pacers’ perspective:

Oladipo has been the subject of trade rumors for the last year, since he has at times seemed lukewarm about the idea of remaining in Indiana after his current contract expires in 2021. While the Pacers had insisted they were comfortable hanging onto him and addressing his contract situation when free agency arrived, moving him for LeVert makes sense for the franchise.

While Oladipo is a stronger defender, LeVert is a talented scorer who is two years younger than Oladipo and is on a more favorable contract. LeVert is earning $16.2MM this season and is under contract for two additional years beyond 2020/21, at an affordable rate of $18.1MM per year.

As Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report observes (via Twitter), re-signing Oladipo at the price he was seeking would’ve been a challenge for the Pacers, who are already on the hook for lucrative multiyear contracts for Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, and Myles Turner. Locking in LeVert through 2022/23 should be much more financially manageable for Indiana.

In the short term, the Pacers will also slip under the luxury tax line as a result of swapping Oladipo ($21MM) for LeVert, tweets Marks.

Cavaliers’ perspective:

The Cavs are acquiring Prince and will send out Exum and a future second-round pick, but this trade is mostly about sending out the Bucks’ 2022 first-rounder in exchange for Allen, a promising young center who will be a restricted free agent during the coming offseason.

Cleveland already has a number of veteran options at the four and five, including Andre Drummond, Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr., and JaVale McGee, so acquiring Allen will create more of a logjam in the short term.

In the long term though, you could make the case that none of the Cavs’ incumbent big men have more upside than Allen, who is averaging a double-double (11.2 PPG, 10.4 RPG) in a part-time role (26.7 MPG) so far this season.

If Allen starts at least five games for the Cavs during the rest of the 2020/21 season, he’ll meet the starter criteria and his qualifying offer in restricted free agency will be worth $7.7MM. He’d have the option of accepting that one-year offer, negotiating a longer-term deal with Cleveland, or signing an offer sheet with another team, which the Cavs could match.

In a pair of corresponding roster moves, the Cavs will waive Thon Maker and will end Yogi Ferrell‘s 10-day contract early, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cavaliers Jumped At Chance To Acquire Jarrett Allen

With an uncertain future at center beyond this season, the Cavaliers were thrilled when the Nets called to see if they were interested in Jarrett Allen, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Allen will be a restricted free agent this summer, and Brooklyn was looking for another team to get involved in the James Harden deal.

The Cavs acquired a promising 22-year-old big man, along with swingman Taurean Prince, for the bargain price of Dante Exum, the Bucks’ first-round pick in 2022, and a second-rounder in 2024. Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s decision to accept an extension in Milwaukee deflated the value of the Bucks’ pick, Fedor notes.

Cleveland was able to add Allen’s $3.9MM salary with the trade exception it had from the Jordan Clarkson deal last season, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).

A source close to the team told Fedor the Cavaliers were “delighted” to pick up Allen.

“You get a guy who is 22 years old and just about to go into the prime of his career with our growing young core,” the source said. “To acquire a player of that magnitude, of that age, that’s why we acquired those assets, to have these opportunities.”

Andre Drummond is the current starting center in Cleveland, but he’s headed for free agency and was already a candidate to be moved before the trade deadline. Backup JaVale McGee is also in the final year of his contract and isn’t a good long-term fit at age 32. Fedor states that teams have already contacted the Cavs to see if McGee is available.

Allen can be the type of rim protector that Cleveland was seeking when it tried to acquire Myles Turner from the Pacers last February, Fedor notes. Instead, the organization surrendered cap room in free agency to trade for Drummond with the understanding that he was likely to opt into his $28.75MM salary for this season.

The Cavaliers have been interested in Allen since the 2017 draft and talked to the Nets about a potential deal during the offseason, according to Fedor. Brooklyn didn’t want to part with Allen at the time because of his low salary and his exceptional performance at Disney World, but that changed with the opportunity to acquire Harden. Allen is off to another strong start, averaging 11.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks through 12 games while shooting 67.7% from the field.

Cleveland is optimistic about its chances of keeping Allen beyond this season, Fedor adds. The Cavs inherit his Bird rights, and because he’s restricted they can match any offer he gets on the open market.

Latest On The James Harden Trade

The Rockets were in “deep conversations” with both the Nets and Sixers today regarding a James Harden deal before deciding to accept Brooklyn’s offer, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (video link). He adds that both teams made “very strong offers,” with Philadelphia willing to give up Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle, along with draft compensation.

However, the opportunity to pair Harden with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving prompted the Nets to agree to a package loaded with future draft picks. Houston will receive three first-round selections and four pick swaps from Brooklyn over the next seven years (plus a Bucks first-rounder via Cleveland), with all the picks being unprotected. The deal also cost the Nets Caris LeVert, who was subsequently shipped to Indiana, and Jarrett Allen, who went to Cleveland.

The new Big Three in Brooklyn has been brewing for a while, Charania adds. He says Harden, Irving and Durant met in Los Angeles about a month and a half ago and discussed the possibility of teaming up.

There’s more on today’s blockbuster deal:

  • Simmons was “pretty ecstatic” that he wasn’t traded to Houston, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Simmons thinks the Sixers are capable of winning a title, and coach Doc Rivers is a huge believer in Simmons’ talent.
  • Harden knew that trade talks had escalated when he made post-game comments Tuesday night indicating that the situation in Houston couldn’t be fixed, states ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link). Woj adds that the uncertainty surrounding Irving contributed to the Nets’ urgency to get a deal done, and the trade was made with an eye on convincing Durant to re-sign after his current contract expires.
  • The Celtics weren’t willing to part with Jaylen Brown to obtain Harden, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated (video link from NBC Sports Boston). With young stars in Brown and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics are on a different timetable than the Nets, Mannix adds.
  • Because the trade hasn’t been finalized, Nets coach Steve Nash couldn’t comment on it in his pre-game session with reporters, tweets Malika Andrews of ESPN. However, Nash did discuss the challenge of trying to blend multiple star players. “It’s about trying to be greater than the sum of your parts,” he said. “That doesn’t change, no matter what your team looks like.”
  • Handing out grades on the deal, Kevin Pelton of ESPN gives the Nets a D, noting that Brooklyn paid a steep price to get Harden and will regress defensively with the loss of Allen. Pelton gives the Rockets an A-minus for finding their way out of a difficult situation and loading up on draft picks, while the Pacers get a B-plus. The Cavaliers get a C, with Pelton questioning the cost (a first-round pick and future salary) for Allen, who will require a significant raise later this year.

Pacific Notes: Clippers, Horton-Tucker, Williams, Wiggins

The Clippers have seen their bench production nosedive during the 2020/21 season thus far, according to Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register. Los Angeles is averaging a league-low -5.3 plus-minus through its first 10 games, according to Swanson. This is a marked drop-off from years past, as former Clipper Montrezl Harrell was the Sixth Man of the Year for the 2019/20 season and longtime Clipper Lou Williams won that honor in ’18/19.

“We are going to figure that out,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said of the Clippers’ bench’s struggles. “It is a good problem to have, especially when you can get Marcus (Morris) back, who has been a starter and now is coming off the bench. You have that kind of talent coming off the bench, it adds a different dynamic to your team.”

There’s more out of California:

  • Lakers reserve shooting guard Talen Horton-Tucker, a restricted free agent in 2021, is expected to draw interest from several squads during the offseason, including possibly the Knicks, Cavaliers, and Mavericks, according to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. Los Angeles possesses Horton-Tucker’s Early Bird rights. While the Lakers could technically match any offer for Horton-Tucker, an opposing team’s GM speculates that a rival club could outbid make it hard on L.A. “Teams that have a lot of cap space and are looking to gamble on a young guy, why not put your money into him?” the GM wonders. “The upside is obvious.”
  • A rotation tweak by the Clippers has freed up backup guard Lou Williams, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times reports. L.A. coach Tyronn Lue and his staff have opted to surround Williams with four solid defenders on the floor.
  • The 2020 trade deadline deal wherein the Warriors sent D’Angelo Russell to the Timberwolves in a package for swingman Andrew Wiggins and a top-three protected 2021 first-round draft pick continues to pay off for Golden State, according to Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Bay Area. After a rocky start, Wiggins has transformed into a solid two-way option on the wing to help fill the void left by injured Warriors star Klay Thompson. Through 10 games this season, Wiggins is currently averaging 17.5 PPG on 43.3% shooting from the floor and 38.5% shooting from deep, on 5.2 attempts. The 6-4 Warriors are the No. 4 seed in the West.