As the entire NBA prepares for the trade deadline, the Cleveland Cavaliers are making themselves players in it as well. With the team struggling to find its way, and with many of their key players not producing, the Cavaliers need to do something to shake things up.
Now it appears that they are trying to do just that. The Cavaliers are looking to move J.R. Smith, per Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com.
I have heard J.R. Smith is being offered to various teams. Smith is paid $13.7 million this season, with $14.7 million in 2018-19. He has a $15.7 million salary ($3.9 million guaranteed) for 2019-20.
Smith used to be one of the Cavaliers’ most important players. He is a streaky shooter who can win games for a team when the offense is struggling, and he was also one of the team’s best defenders, believe it or not.
But this season, Smith is doing almost absolutely nothing fo the Cavaliers. He is averaging only 7.8 points this season in 29.8 minutes, and shooting below 40 percent from the field, per Basketball-Reference. Those numbers are also very similar to last season for Smith.
The season before last, however, Smith was producing much better. So this has been a two-year trend downward for Smith, which has adversely affected the entire Cavaliers team.
While there are plenty of players the Cavaliers can look to move — Isaiah Thomas or Kevin Love, for example — Smith seems like the easiest choice because the team isn’t losing much by giving him up. But that also means there may not be much trade value for him, hence the Cavaliers shopping him to multiple teams.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days with Smith.