The string of trades pulled off by the Cleveland Cavaliers front office looked like a marvelous attempt to rejuvenate a roster that was by far the oldest in the league, walking back an offseason trade and bringing in the likes of George Hill, Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr.
But those return products have proved to have a counter-intuitive effect on the team — hurting, rather than helping the Cavs throughout this postseason.
Hood is perhaps the worst culprit of them all, with a staggering minus-82 in his 12 games this postseason, the worst plus-minus of any player in this 2018 playoffs, according to Jason Lloyd of The Athletic.
Cavs opponents have managed to outscore Cleveland by 82 points while Hood was on the floor, despite him playing just a combined 200 minutes. The next-closest player is Utah’ Jazz forward Royce O’Neal, who logged a minus-67 in 59 more minutes than Hood played through this playoff run.
Clarkson and Nance are ranking second- and third-worst in plus-minus for the team — ranging between healthy DNPs and flat out non-impactful performance, as they have taken a back seat to the core of Tyronn Lue’s 2017 roster.
Hood played 11 minutes in Game 2 against the Boston Celtics, but has posted an average of 16.7 minutes per game through this postseason, almost inexplicable for an average of 4.9 points in 40 percent shooting throughout this playoffs — which would qualify as massively inefficient for a player whose only calling card was supposed to be instant offense.
Clarkson is arriving on the same boat, shooting a dismal 32.3 percent through his last five games, which begs to think was what warranted a healthy scratch on Tuesday.
Nance’s performance has been a matter of poor fit with this roster, one that could cost this team dearly along with all the other traded contracts once LeBron James makes his decision at some point in the offseason.
