Ignoring the obvious queries of the Cav’s future roster plans, as previously covered on Roundtable, let’s look at the logistics of Houston acquiring Donovan Mitchell. A superstar guard who would no doubt excite the fans.
For starters, I don’t think a direct swap of Mitchell for Durant makes a ton of sense for either team. While the trade is a success on Spotrac, it seems easy enough to assume any team would prefer to have those guys join forces.
Advertisement
Both players seem like they might have too big of an offensive load, so simply changing the uniform they have to carry a team in wouldn’t be much improvement.
Moving down the Houston roster, a swap with Amen Thompson doesn’t make much sense either. One guy is slated to make $50.1 million next season, while the other will get just over $12.25 million. That’s obviously a lopsided and illegal trade.
On the basketball side, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen have little to no offensive game. They’re certainly not players you’d run your offense through, and the spacing would be atrocious with Thompson joining the mix. I don’t think the menacing defense could quite make up for that.
Fred VanVleet’s $25 million dollar player option does add some intrigue to this trade idea though. Combining that with Thompson’s $12.5 million gets them much closer to Mitchell’s salary, and Cleveland would be looking to drop out of the second apron anyways.
Advertisement
After just trading away Darius Garland and potentially losing Harden this summer, they can’t start next season with Dennis Schroeder and Keon Ellis being their main ball-handlers. The Sacramento Kings tried that and were rewarded with the worst record in the conference. FVV obviously helps them there.
This option would seem like a big hit to Houston, but let’s not forget Freddy was already out the whole season. It would essentially only mean letting go of Amen Thompson, but bringing in a proven All-Star in exchange . A multiple time All-Star who isn’t coming off an ACL injury.
It might be hard to imagine Rafael Stone and the Rockets front office trading away a guy who was instrumental in turning the franchise around, but it did just happen last summer. Dillon Brooks got the chance to rebuild himself after the Grizzlies gave up on him, then was quickly shipped out for KD.
It can be a cutthroat business for sure. Unfortunately the new CBA complicates things beyond belief, so it’s hard to tell what’s actually possible. There would definitely be more moving pieces than the three players I mentioned, as that’s just a rough outline. Either way, Cleveland is a team any Rockets fans should keep an eye on.
