Cavs trade aftermath: Cavaliers heading for tank yet again

Another Cavs trade serves as a reminder the team is headed for the tank yet again.

The most recent Cavs trade yielded Rayjon Tucker and a 2027 second-round pick in an exchange for cash. The deal comes a week after after the team picked up Javale McGee and a 2026 second rounder.

The two picks the Cavs have added are currently in fifth- and sixth-grade, respectively, signaling what the fan base already knows: The Cavs are still in asset collection mode and the team is going into the tank for 2020-2021 season.

Some background on Tucker: He was undrafted in 2019, went to the G-League and signed with the Jazz in December, appearing in 20 games. He’s never started a contest.

Having just lost Tristan Thompson to Detroit, the Cavs are worse off than they were at the end of the Covid shortened 2019-2020 campaign.

ESPN Cleveland’s Brian Windorst recently weighed in on how brutal the Cavs situation is when he was asked if Cleveland was destined to be one of the worst team in the league,” via TheLandonDemand.com.

"“They just don’t have that much talent. This is the route the Cavs have elected to go on. They’ve elected to build up through draft picks. They haven’t gotten lucky in the lottery in this rebuild…They just don’t have a ton of talent on the roster and this is where they’re at.”"

Windhorst said that prior to the start of offseason manuring, he viewed the Cavs and Pistons as being on the bottom of the food chain. However, he contended Detroit’s done enough to at least be a little interesting.

Meanwhile, the Cavs have made the aforementioned trades, lost Thompson and then drafted a defense-first small forward.

Windhorst added that Isaac Okoro fits the mold of what Cleveland is trying to build, but he’s not viewed across the league as a potential superstar.

As the Cavs dredge their way into the the third year of the second post-LeBron rebuild, Windhorst pointed out that the franchise just hasn’t been as lucky as they were back in 2011. In that draft, they got the first and fourth pick, turning them into Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, respectively.

They got two more No. 1 picks, which turned out to be Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins was the reason the Kevin Love deal went through.

This most recent go around has seen the “Brooklyn pick” turn into the eighth selection, while despite being one of the worst teams in the league the past two years, the Cavs have picked sixth and fifth (Darius Garland and now Okoro).

Pending a trade that nobody sees coming, the Cavs and Koby Altman will keep swinging for the fences come draft day, because as of right now, it’s about all the organization can do.