jbk1234 wrote:toooskies wrote:JonFromVA wrote:
Mobley is soaking up the backup C minutes, there's literally 0 available for IH unless Allen/Mobley get in foul trouble or get hurt.
With the current lineup I'd take 5 minutes from Love and 5 from Allen.
The best I can do with IH is that if the Cavs re-signed him to the type of deal he'd want to play in Cleveland, that they felt they would've been further leveraging themselves with the Love situation. Love getting 10-20 minutes a game, depending on play and lineup, seems like a situation that's making everyone relatively happy. We weren't sure whether Mobley would be able to play PF or even that he'd be willing to play meaningful minutes at all. We were sure that if Love wasn't getting any PT, the rest of the league would assume he was worthless and evaluate him accordingly. The proposals for roster balancing trades on the T&T board no longer start out with "Love and two unprotected first for...* X. Getting production and spacing from him off the bench helps.
Eh, pretty much everyone on the T&T board starts out from a position where Love's salary is dead or close-to-dead money. They're just sure to to hit a Cavs fan now who will say he's engaged and playing well off the bench in a key role for our lineups. And then they get to "so is Hield" or "so is Eric Gordon" and, well, it's apparently a good early season for overpaid veterans taking on smaller roles.
The last two prominent Cavs trades on T&T I believe were Love and 5 2nds for Gordon, Theis, House (treating Love and Gordon as equally dead-ish money) and Love + Allen + Rubio + 1st + HOU 2nd for THT and expirings, where Love is not only dead money there but the crux of why the Cavs can't compete next year. T&T has not adjusted their values for the Cavs' early season success and what that means for team direction and player evaluation.
That said-- I'd have loved IH as a spare big right now while Love and Markkanen are out with COVID instead of needing to play Allen and Mobley 40 minutes each.