RealGM

Cavaliers get: Jock Landale
Rockets get: Georges Niang, '25 and '26 seconds via Cavs

Why?
Cleveland gets a back-up big.
Rockets get some assets.

I don't think Houston wants the money on the books in 25. They have not extended Green or Sengun yet so they have a window next year to explore FA if they want.

Is Landale a playoff rotation player? If not, I'll just stick with Niang.

Yeah, Landale sucks, we're still in the tax, and Niang probably provides more useful regular season minutes. No idea why you have the Cavs adding draft capital to this.

Rockets are not taking on salary in 2025.

It would have to be for a much better player or much better picks.

jbk1234 wrote:Yeah, Landale sucks, we're still in the tax, and Niang probably provides more useful regular season minutes. No idea why you have the Cavs adding draft capital to this.

niang is owed an extra year

Godaddycurse wrote:

jbk1234 wrote:Yeah, Landale sucks, we're still in the tax, and Niang probably provides more useful regular season minutes. No idea why you have the Cavs adding draft capital to this.

niang is owed an extra year

Yeah, but Landale really sucks and this does nothing for the Cavs in terms of payroll for the next two seasons.

Landale doesn't really suck. He's a decent backup big. He averaged 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assist in 23 minutes per game during the last stretch of the season where Sengun went out. He was +6.1 as well. He's not off the charts, but he'll get another NBA contract after his deal is up.

I'd take Niang back in Utah for some seconds.

Niang into Utah's MLE, Cleveland sends their 2025 & 2026 2nds + MIL's 2025 2nd and DEN's 2027 2nd? Basically, Niang + 4 2nds to have the salary go away completely.

Yea, I wouldn't do this.

Landale is really solid.

I think something like this is actually somewhat reasonable, the downside for Houston is losing flexibility of Jock's contract, but they actually do need future seconds more than some think given that they burned through all of them often for dubious reasons in recent seasons.

I get that Houston is doing the cap space plan but 1. trading Niang on an expiring probably won't cost more than this (especially there's the non-zero chance of an expansion draft in the next year or two.) and 2. If you actually see who's available next year and consider the trend in extension right now, it's probably not a plan you should expect will 100% work, hedging a tiny bit like this is fine.

They do need to see that Adams is really truly healthy though.