Cavs: Asking for a pick in an Andre Drummond trade isn’t playing hardball

Briand Windhorst claims the Cavs are playing “hardball” while trying to trade away center Andre Drummond, but they’re really not.

Brian Windhorst is a credible journalist. When it comes to news, if he’s talking about it, it’s likely to be true. Windhorst, however, is not so great with his opinion. He has put his foot in his mouth more times than one can count. He predicted that Steph Curry would have a bad shooting night in the NBA finals once because he saw Curry have a bad shoot around the day of, he made a comment about sliding into Rachel Nichols DM’s and then claimed to not know what it means. Windhorst has been known to misspeak a time or two. So when he said the Cavs are playing “hardball” while talking trade deals with Drummond, he certainly misspoke again.

The Cavs are not asking for anything extraordinary, according to Windhorst himself, the Cavs are looking for a young player or a draft pick (most likely a second-rounder) in exchange for Drummond.

That’s not playing “hardball”. That’s simply looking to recoup losses. The Cavs gave up a second-round pick to get him. If he’s so valuable that teams would love to scoop him up in the free-agent market if he gets bought out, then he’s valuable enough for a second-rounder.

Why anyone would conflate holding out for a young bench player (at best) or a second-round pick to playing “hardball” is anyone’s guess. The Cavs are clearly interested in getting something, anything really, back for the two-time All-Star. The Cavs aren’t demanding assets akin to the James Harden trade back for the trade, they’re just looking for something.

That’s not something to denigrate by describing their negotiation as “hardball”. That implies the Cavaliers are being almost unreasonable to negotiations. They’re not, they’re clearly open to a deal, they’re just waiting on the one they like the most.

That’s not something to criticize.