Amid the potential interest in Cleveland Cavaliers franchise player Kevin Love and leading rebounder Tristan Thompson, the most likely Cavs player to be moved before the Feb. 7 trade deadline is the recently acquired Alec Burks, according to Chris Fedor of cleveland.com.
The move is very much viewed as inevitable, as teams started inquiring about the Colorado standout right after he was traded to Cleveland for veteran marksman Kyle Korver, hoping to give this Cavs team an infusion of youth — but the experiment hasn’t fully worked to expectations.
Burks has proved a decent scorer and a potent 3-point shooter during his 22 games with Cleveland — posting 11.6 points per game and shooting 39.6 percent from the field and 39.7 percent on long-range shots. Yet his lacking defense and all-around poor shot selection efficiency along with the $11.3 million remaining on his contract make him a surefire candidate to be a goner by February.
The Cavs already have a potent bench scorer in Jordan Clarkson, who does basically a mirror of Burks’ body of work, but slightly younger and less injury-prone.
Cleveland can cash in with a potential future second-rounder in addition to its return for a team who is willing to bank on Burks’ potential.
One thing is sure, the 8-34 Cavs will be wheeling and dealing before the deadline comes knocking, hoping to amass as many draft picks as possible to help rebuild this team from the ground up — most importantly keeping their eyes on drafting Zion Williamson out of Duke if they continue in the NBA’s cellar by season’s end.