{"id":160560,"date":"2025-09-27T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=160560"},"modified":"2025-09-26T22:34:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:34:38","slug":"the-cleveland-cavaliers-are-poised-for-a-trade-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/27\/the-cleveland-cavaliers-are-poised-for-a-trade-this-season\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers Are Poised for a Trade This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. They were heavy favorites to contend for a title, and even traded for De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a> at the deadline, hoping to push their title chances. However, they fell to the Indiana Pacers, and now, they find themselves with an expensive roster and more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

According to the latest reports, the Cavaliers are a prime candidate to make a trade this season. Whether that will be for salary purposes or to improve their team, we will have to wait and see.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers Are Poised for a Trade This Season<\/h2>\n

In his latest column, Brett Siegel<\/a> suggested that Dean Wade<\/a> will be a player many teams around the league will monitor. Last season, he got more playing time than their precious reserve Ty Jerome<\/a>. Considered to be a versatile defender, at 6’9″, he can guard forwards and big men. Despite not being a traditional rim protector, Wade is good at contesting shots, navigating screens, and deterring shots. He is also a career 36.8% shooter from three-point range, making him an effective stretch forward.<\/p>\n

Reports say multiple teams called about Wade this offseason. The Rockets, for example, were willing to offer him a similar deal that they gave Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His stats might not wow you, but Wade makes winning plays that do not show on the scoreboard. For the Cavaliers, he is their best trade asset. But will they trade him for salary relief or for more help?<\/p>\n

What Should the Cavaliers Do with Wade?<\/h3>\n

Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers won 64 games on the strength of their depth. They played 10 to 11 guys throughout the regular season. The goal was to reduce minutes for their main guys, namely Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and Darius Garland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This season, they cannot afford to lose depth at the beginning of the year. Max Strus<\/a> and Garland are injured, and there is no timetable for when they will return. Garland had surgery on his toe<\/a>, while Strus suffered a Jones fracture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With such limited depth, the Cavs cannot afford to trade Wade for salary relief, despite how much they need it. Right now, the Cavaliers are a second apron team<\/a>, which was the reason they couldn\u2019t afford to retain Jerome. If they trade Wade without taking back salary, they can get under the second apron. But that would require trading him to a team with cap space that can absorb the contract. For example, a trade with the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> can achieve that, but it is unclear why the Spurs would do it. They have enough forwards.<\/p>\n

In any case, Wade is a solid forward who can help a team. The Cavs would love to have him. But their payroll is skyrocketing in the upcoming years, and any relief they can get will help.<\/p>\n

The Importance of the 2025-26 Season<\/h3>\n

For the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 2025-26 season is one of the most important in recent franchise history. This might be the make-or-break season for their core.<\/a> Last summer, they fired J.B. Bickerstaff and hired Kenny Atkinson, a move that helped them rack up more wins in the regular season. Yet, they failed to win in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

With the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers out of the championship contention due to injuries, the Cavs have few excuses. They have the second-best championship odds<\/a> in the league, and the best in the Eastern Conference. If they fail to win again, it might be time to break up their core of Mitchell, Evan Mobley<\/a>, Garland, and Jarrett Allen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Peter Creveling-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. They were heavy favorites to contend for a title, and even traded for De\u2019Andre Hunter at the deadline, hoping to push their title chances. However, they fell to the Indiana Pacers, and now, they find themselves with an expensive roster and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":160622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,9,62],"tags":[1937,1804,900,1877],"class_list":["post-160560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-nba","tag-darius-garland","tag-dean-wade","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-ty-jerome"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160560"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160623,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160560\/revisions\/160623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}