The Cavaliers are asking a lot of tough questions before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline. They have long said they don't want to move the Nets' first-round pick acquired in the Kyrie Irving trade, but according to ESPN, they're questioning whether they should even trade their own first-round pick.
"I think the Cavs are really weighing how much, if at all, do we give up, do we cut into our future assets, whether it's (the Nets) draft pick, even their own pick, which has been readily available, their own 2018 pick, not the Nets' pick, do they do that even?" Adrian Wojnarowski said Monday on the "The Lowe Post" podcast. "Anything that short circuits the rebuild that I think they feel pretty confident is going to coming here based on how this has gone, how much do they want to do to mortgage any of their future, I get not doing the Nets' pick but why even trade their own pick?"
The Cavs have lost six of their last 10 games, including their last two Saturday primetime games by an average of 28 points, and are now just 1/2 game up on the Wizards for third place in the Eastern Conference.
Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong over the last few weeks for the Cavaliers and they are understandably looking to the future. They would love to make a trade happen in the now, but it simply appears the assets they have beyond draft picks cannot get a game-changing move done.
"They just don't have players that interest people," Wojnarowski said. "Tristan Thompson's contract and J.R. Smith, and some of the guys with the big numbers on their team are just not movable, and if you're the Clippers, the idea of taking Tristan Thompson on just to get the Cavaliers' 2018 pick, let's say it's going to be 25, 26 wherever it falls, is it worth taking on that Thompson money moving forward? The answer is probably not."
ESPN reported earlier in the day the Cavaliers' organization is in a stalemate and don't want to trade a draft pick without assurance LeBron James is coming back. With the way the roster is currently situated, it is very unlikely Cleveland would win the NBA Finals, much less get to them, no matter who could be added in a trade.
The Cavs are in a precarious spot and they know it, which is why they are being very cautious with any moves they make at the deadline.
"I think the worse this team gets, the worse the environment, the relationships and the relationships are frayed at every level, player on player, coach on player, owner on player, front office, star player, there's no savior for them," Wojnarowski said. "There's no trade that's going to fix this, certainly not anybody who's available or they could get with what they have."
