Martin’s Moment: Cavaliers, Knicks, Thunder Three-Team Trade
Cleveland pulled Dion Waiters out of the game tonight and have a deal to trade him, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 5, 2015
And that’s how my top moment for this week jumped off.
The Cavaliers were playing against the 76ers on Monday night. Waiters was playing in his hometown. On that same Monday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder took a 117-91 beating at Golden State.
By the end of the night, these teams would decide on a three-way trade with the New York Knicks: Dion Waiters from Cleveland to Oklahoma City (Cavaliers got a protected future first-rounder from OKC) and J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert went to Cleveland. The Knicks got Lance Thomas from Oklahoma City, and New York got rookie Alex Kirk, Lou Amundson and a 2019 second-round pick from the Cavaliers.
For the Cavaliers:
A move was bound to be made by Cleveland approaching the trade deadline, expectedly involving Dion Waiters. Bringing on J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert addresses the Cavs’ direct need and preference of a little more size and athleticism on the wing. With Smith, you have a streak-shooter that can space the floor and match up more reasonably with opposing two-guards. With Shumpert, who is still out with a shoulder injury, you have a much-needed wing defender and effort guy.
J.R. went 0-for in his debut as a Cavalier, but had a much stronger showing against the Warriors on Friday night with 27 points. Smith is widely considered a risk factor, but it’ll be interesting to see how LeBron James can put his services to use when he returns from his rest hiatus. The Cavaliers made this move with the mindset that LeBron perhaps would have liked to see in his first go-round. Clearly they’re focused on providing him with the best possible chance to compete for a title right away. They also addressed a need on the interior, due to an injury to their big man Anderson Varejao, and finally scored Timofey Mozgov from Denver. When LeBron returns and Shumpert is healthy, we’ll have a different-look Cavalier team to evaluate going into this next portion of the season.
For the Thunder:
This trade almost sent Reggie Jackson to the Knicks, but for now he remains in Oklahoma City. Popular speculation is that bringing in Dion Waiters serves as insurance in case Jackson decides to sign elsewhere as a free agent this summer. As it stands for this season, similarly to Cleveland, this comes across as a desperation move for OKC.
At 18-19, still playing catch-up from being without Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant in the first stretch of the season, Oklahoma City will be fighting for playoff contention for the rest of the way. Adding a scoring combo guard like Waiters is targeting a need that’s been emphasized since the loss of James Harden – supplementary scoring and playmaking outside of Durant and Westbrook. Waiters has a chance to fill that need now as extra fire power for Scott Brooks off the bench.
In his debut with the Thunder against the Kings on Wednesday, Waiters finished with just 4 points in 22 minutes on 1-for-9 shooting. On Friday against the Jazz, a much better showing of 15 points in 26 minutes, including this big three-pointer to clinch the win:
Waiters said that he’s been held back in the past without a real chance to prove himself. That chance now presents itself.
For the Knicks:
Salary cap space for the upcoming summer in free agency. That’s about it. By trading Smith’s $6.4 million owed next season, combined with additional waivers and Carmelo Anthony’s knee issues, the Knicks are decimated and fully eligible to potentially “tank” it for the season. Carmelo’s trust in Phil Jackson’s process now reaches it’s pinnacle, but whether or not the Knicks could be the winner of this trade remains to be seen. One thing the trade does say specifically is that the Knicks decided on going forward with Tim Hardaway, Jr. as their shooting guard for the future. Phil bringing the triangle offense to the Big Apple was harsh on those who didn’t possess the kind of style of play to thrive in the system and J.R. Smith frequently expressed his confusion. Hardaway Jr. still has a high ceiling for development and the position should now be his to lose. New York is linked to free agents like Reggie Jackson, Goran Dragic, and Marc Gasol as targets this summer. The remnants of this season are mounting up to a lottery pick for the Knicks, and ideally this money will be thrown at assets who’d be willing to join Phil Jackson and Melo in New York. That’s my reflection on this week’s big moment in the NBA. Who’ll end up the true winner of this trade in the long run?
