Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 trades the Cavs should make

By Ryan Landolph | Jan 11, 2018

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Option 1: Tyreke Evans lands in Cleveland

It is not very often that a 20/5/5 guy becomes available on the open market, but that is exactly the case with G/F Tyreke Evans. The Grizzlies are having an abysmal year. Memphis has just 13 wins, while point guard Mike Conley has played in just 12 games.

In a lost season, the Grizzlies seem poised to build for the future.

Evans is currently under contract just through this season. He is a bargain at $3.3M, considering he is averaging 19.9 points, 4.6 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game according to basketball-reference.com. His size allows him to defend multiple positions (1-3), and he offers excellent playmaking ability off the bench.

Most importantly for the Cavs, he is shooting over 40 percent from three for the second year in a row. In fact, he has already made the most three-pointers in a single season in his career. Even on a bad Memphis team, his plus-minus of negative-two is the best amongst players averaging at least 22 minutes per game.

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With Memphis going nowhere, maxing out Evans’ value makes a lot of sense.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Grizzlies want to get a first-round pick out of Evans in a trade. Though he mentions this may be tough for Memphis to accomplish, the Cavs’ own first-round pick will fall in the late 20s. Cleveland should be able to stomach giving up the pick, considering Brooklyn’s first-round pick is lottery bound.

The Cavs would have to move both guards Derrick Rose and Jose Calderon to make the salaries work. Still, Evans is adept to running the point guard position and has come off the bench frequently late in his career. He would control the ball a lot, taking some responsibilities away from the aging Dwyane Wade.

In Evans, Cleveland gets a significantly-improved three-point shooter and a versatile play-maker and defender. He can create his own shots off the bench, while also getting others involved. Giving up just a late first-round pick – perhaps a foreign player who will not even come over to the NBA yet – for a guy like Evans seems like a no-brainer.

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