Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 trade scenarios ahead of 2020 NBA Draft

2. Drummond and Cedi to OKC for Chris Paul

The next proposal comes from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who said the Cleveland Cavaliers have the assets to trade for Oklahoma City point guard Chris Paul.

“They could offer Cedi Osman, who the Thunder have liked for years. They’ve tried to trade for him several times” Windhorst said on WKNR’s Really Big Show Oct. 29 (subscription). 

Windhorst stressed the point that he hadn’t heard of any actual rumors involving this deal, but believes it’s there if Cleveland should want it. He seemed to base this off Paul’s salary, as he noted the Thunder probably don’t want to pay Paul $44 million in 2021-2022, the final year of his contract.

If the Cavs try and make a move to be relevant in the NBA playoff picture, the team could easily absorb Paul’s salary. It was recently revealed that Dan Gilbert is one of the richest people in the world and his ability to spend in uncertain economic times when other teams might not could make this a deal for the Cavs to look at.

While Paul is at the end of the line, he’d dramatically upgrade the point guard position for the next year or two, as Collin Sexton just hasn’t shown the ability to distribute the basketball.