Updates on why the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t trade Jarrett Allen or for more draft picks

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t make any moves during the 2023 NBA Draft.

For weeks, the Cleveland Cavaliers were rumored to be moving Jarrett Allen or/and trying to jump back into the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft, after trading away their first-round pick in the Donovan Mitchell trade last season. Despite lots of hype around trading Allen or moving up in the 2023 NBA Draft, neither situation ended up happening.

Thankfully. But why didn’t the Cavs make those moves?

Well, on the Allen front, it was never the Cavs shopping Allen. Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com reported that other teams were calling Cleveland for Allen and that the Cavaliers were just not interested in moving him.

As for why the Cavaliers didn’t move back up into the 2023 NBA Draft, be it in the first round or another second-round pick, the reason is even more understandable. Apparently, according to Evan Dammarell of Right Down Euclid, the Cavs didn’t like any of the options. Any trade that would see the Cavs move up in the draft saw them not giving up anything, as much as them taking on something. Namely, bad contracts. The Cavaliers didn’t want to take on a massive contract of the guys being offered, so they stood pat.

What moves should the Cleveland Cavaliers look at going forward?

The Cavs still have their full mid-level exception, which will allow them to use that to sign a predominant free agent. That’s likely where the next book move is going to come. Right now the Cavs have 10 players under contract, but that could change really fast. Especially since they have the rights to Luke Travers and Khalifa Diop from last year’s draft class as well.

Considering they drafted Emoni Bates and signed rookie Craige Porter Jr. as an undrafted free agent, you already have 14 players right there. It would have been 13, but the Cavs recently picked up the option on Lamar Stevens. Now, the Cavs can still end up at 12 players, assuming they bring over Diop and Travers because they could opt to cut Cedi Osman and Sam Merrill.

Neither Osman nor Merrill has guaranteed contracts for this season. Though, unless a trade is made, it seems unlikely they’d cut both Osman and Merrill considering their general lack of options beyond using their full MLE.

• Published on 06/23/2023 at 21:45 PM
• Last updated at 06/23/2023 at 21:45 PM