The Cleveland Cavaliers are a very solid basketball team that has a very bright future, but by no means should they get complacent and simply settle for becoming a title contender within the next few years.
With one or two additions by the trade deadline, they could perhaps make a big push during the second half of the NBA season and challenge the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks for Eastern Conference supremacy.
Cleveland should look into finding a way to land these two players in order to plug some holes.
1. Alec Burks
The Cavs’ one positional weakness – and it’s a fairly big one – is the wing or small forward spot, and they mostly need effective defensive and accurate 3-point shooting there.
Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has tried several players there, including Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert, Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens, and Dean Wade, but none of them have stood out enough.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons may be willing to have a fire sale, presumably in order to win the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, and Alec Burks may be one man they make available.
He’s a 6-foot-6 wing who can comfortably play the 2 and 3 spots, and he is a solid defender who is hitting 40.2 percent from downtown this season.
Better yet, his $10 million salary may make him gettable for the Cavs.
2. Kendrick Nunn
In his first two seasons, Kendrick Nunn emerged as an efficient scorer from all three levels of the floor who could also handle the ball and attack in transition.
This season, he has been buried on the Los Angeles Lakers bench, but whenever he gets playing time, he has still shown his ability to score.
Perhaps he could address the Cavs’ lack of offensive production off the bench.
Kendrick Nunn caught a body pic.twitter.com/MAWjnGDTvK
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) December 31, 2020
Would they be willing to send out someone like Dean Wade, who could give L.A. some frontcourt defense and 3-point shooting, in order to land Nunn, who is in the final year of a two-year, $10 million contract?
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