The Cavs are Getting a Piece of Russia — Updated
2015-01-07
“Hello Cavs fans.”
ESPN reporters Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein said the Cavs were engaged in talks with the Denver Nuggets to aquire center Timofey Mozgov at 4:03 PM. The Cavs would supposedly be parting with two protected first round picks, one from Memphis and one from Oklahoma that was acquired just Monday night.
Fourteen minutes later Adrian Wojnarowski swooped in and confirmed the trade as originally stated by ESPN.
Yahoo Sources: Cleveland acquires Denver center Timofey Mozgov for two first-round picks. http://t.co/kuo7O9YDay
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 7, 2015
Fellow Cavs: the Blog blogger Tom Pestak summed the trade up best by simply saying, “Griff just emptied the magazine.”
Timmy is 7’1” and 250 pounds of rim protection. He’s blocking 1.6 shots per 36 minutes, and as long as his man doesn’t drag him away from the rim, he will make them shoot worse. When he’s just hanging around the rim opponents shoot 56.1%, which isn’t amazing, but he’s still seven feet tall. And, he probably won’t alligator arm it as much Kevin Love.
Finally, unlike the recently acquired J.R. Smith contract which has a player option for next year, the Russian man’s contract has a team option for next year. He better play well, or the Cavs might have money to sign someone……….Okay, the Cavs will probably pick up his team option for slight less than five million next year because they will be cash strapped. Still, it’s a nice option to have and may make him more tradable in the future.
What does everyone think about this trade?
— Update — The Cavs have waived guard, A.J. Price, whose contract was set to be guaranteed if he was on the roster after the 9th.
I think Griffin had to be bold at this point. When the deed to your home is sitting in the middle of the table, you don’t haggle over the evaluation of your watch just to call.
Griffin in panic mode, and he pulls off a panic move. Mozgov for 2 first rounders? Yes, they are protected first rounders, but 2 protected first rounders = 1 lottery pick. You are telling me that you would trade a lottery pick in 2015 for Tim Mozgov? Cavs get fleeced again for a slow-footed center who’s terrible defending the P&R. It would be one thing if he had some upside, but he is 28 years old and at his peak for his basketball career. There is a reason he only got a 3 yr $14M deal from Denver. He’s an… Read more »
When you say “2 firsts for Mozgov” you’re ignoring the whole Waiters-Knicks-OKC component. This was really a 4-team trade done in 2 stages, and from that perspective, Waiters and the Memphis pick for Shumpert, Mozgov, Smith and a second-rounder is solid given the Cavs’ weaknesses (front court, perimeter defense, bench depth). They didn’t exactly turn any of these weaknesses into strengths but they upgraded on all fronts while only sacrificing Waiters (a bad fit on this team and a potential bust) and a protected first rounder that probably won’t vest this season. The Cavs turned one flawed rotation guy into… Read more »
It was a desperation move but the Cavs are desperate. Let’s be honest here. They were a bad defensive team before AV got hurt. They are horrible without him. Were the going to let the losses pile up until the deadline? Think about all the drama and negativity that would have accompanied that outcome.
Well, they’re all in now, let’s see what happens.
I think the big question is how does this all affect Brian Windhorst? ‘League sources familiar with team circles’ — try defining that!
Actually would like to see more discussion of Mosgov and Haywood in terms of rotation; how much playing time is Haywood getting these days anyway? Maybe every third or fourth game he gets on the floor?
Ok, this is decent. And for next season, they still have Haywood’s non-guaranteed balloon contract as a trade chip to take on a big contract. Whatever they can do with that will probably be the last significant acquisition of the LeBron II era.
With all the luxury tax they’re going to be paying, it’s a good thing they’re owned by Dan Gilbert and not the Dolan family.
Really like the timings of these trades. They had a decent look at the start of season roster, saw the biggest weaknesses and reacted in good time before the always over-hyped, panic fueled trade deadline week which too many GMs think is the only time the CBA permits trading during the season.
Like someone else said they now have 4 months to work out rotations, how each other play, etc. Go Cavs!!!
Cavs waived A.J. Price. Should trade Joe Harris for Ellington and grab Jeff Adrien off waivers.
I thought that was in order to sign Ray Allen.
Are you the real Cols, or a parody? It’s impossible to tell anymore.
Oh come on, I thought that was pretty funny.
So did I! It’s why I asked.
Any hopes for getting Dalembert still? The Cavs still only have 3 above NBDL players at the 4/5 (Love, Mozgov, and Thompson). If one of those guys goes down, we’re still in a good deal of trouble. The 2/3 is just so crowded to be signing Adrien IMO.
Adrien is a 4.
But yeah, Dalembert… I’m not sure he’s any better than Haywood, frankly. Could see Price come back on 10 day contracts.
Really? Haywood’s a next level fossil who hasn’t been a factor in the league since 2011-2012. Dalembert averaged 6.8/6.6/1.2 in 20 MPG with 80 games played last year. I think he might have something left in the tank for a few months.
What does Adrien have that we want? (sincere question)
not a bad pick up and good work by Griffin….now is time for coaches and players to execute and win some games…basically we got rid of waiters alex kirk and amundson for jr smith shumpert and mozgov…i think anyone here would say we improve the team…potential starting lineup is
kyrie
shumpert
lebron
love
mozgov
bench is more solidified and deeper now like we expected at beginning of season
also don’t understand hype on wayne ellington…as casual nba fan i have no idea where that guy plays and if he is even in the league anymore
Wayne’s in L.A., shooting over 40% from three, so better than anyone on Cleveland right now ‘cept for James Jones.
That’s just Nate. he loves guys who suck or are marginal players.
As opposed to you who loved it when the Cavs traded for two guys who are hurt.
Aren’t you the one always talking about how good Mike Miller is? Doesn’t get much suckier or marginal than Mike Miller circa 2014.
What’s the 2nd unit lineup?
Is it:
Delly
Thompson
JR
Marion
Then pick from the rest based on need?
Now I like the Waiters trade much better. In exchange for Waiters we got a decent rim protector, a decent wing defender, and an older, taller, crazier version of Dion himself, without serious cap damage. I especially like that Blatt now has a player on the roster that will always be in his corner (Mozgov on Russian national team), advocating the Blatt way. As good as we could have done under the circumstances, if you ask me. Nicely done Mr. Griffin. So, this is the team. All talent chips and draft picks have been traded away. We’re all in. They’ve… Read more »
Good point on the timing. They’ll have almost twice as long before the playoffs to get familiar with each other (and with Blatt) as the 2008 Cavs did after acquiring Joe Smith/Ben Wallace/Delonte West/Wally Szczerbiak. In the ‘what if’ world that we inhabit as Cleveland sports fans, I’ve always thought that team could have beaten the Celtics if they’d played together for another month or two.
Cavs have now pushed all the chips to the middle of the table to try to win the title this year. Good for them. It’s going to be a fun ride.
I’d be seriously seriously tempted to see if Boston would go for Tristan for Brandan Wright. My heart is yelling at my head though.
Yeah. Wright would be ideal.
Mozgov on a much better contract than Kuofos who is a UFA this offseason. Mozgov is a team option for $5 mil next year. That’s a great piece for the summer.
That is an underrated part of this deal. Mozgov is ridiculously cheap for a big man for his skill-set. Having him under contract next season is huge.
Yay!
This team is locked in for the next new years with a young in their prime starting 5 and they can mix and match veteran bench pieces as needed.
This is a nicely constructed team.
No *glaring* weaknesses, on paper. We’ll see how Mozgov fits. He’s not exactly a world burner in terms of defense. I’m interested to see an article on some of the advanced statistics. One plus is that he has experience playing for Blatt, so he might be able to help out some of the other guys figure out the defensive “scheme.”
the wayne ellington reference just gave me real pangs of missing livingston and speights.
Two firsts. That’s steep for Mozgov. Feel like these moves are ok, but not great. A much better move would have been to just not do the waiters deal with new york, and do the same deal with Waiters and Denver and L.A. and OKC to get players who are actually healthy and have never killed anyone. Ellington/Davis, Chandler/Woods, and Mozgov would have been a 100x better deal for Waiters, but who knows. LA probably wasn’t offering first rounders. It’s never easy when dealing from a position of weakness. Now the Cavs need to move A.J. Price, and a second… Read more »
yes. A better move would’ve been to get these players and not give up anything. But that’s not how trades work.
A lot of hypotheticals in your post.
Agreed.
Cavs pick up a second rounder in deal according to Lloyd.
@tomhaberstroh: Rim protection rankings per @SethPartnow’s metric:
Koufos 6th
Mozgov 34th
T. Thompson 51st
Varejao 56th
Kevin Love 119th
We knew Koufos was the better prize but too hard to get. Mozgov will be a solid addition to the front court and and relieve the pressure on perimeter defenders to some extent. Nice get.
But Kevin love at 119th? Hahahaha! At what point is it called “rim invitation”?
I assume Mozgov’s ranking will increase moving from an awful Denver team to Cleveland.
Also, I highly doubt Memphis would be looking to deal Koufos for picks, considering they are 25-9 and legitimate contenders.
Seriously, though, as others have noted, Dion and one heavily-protected first-rounder for Mozgov, Shump and JR is a pretty nice haul.
Yeah. It’s tough to do better than that. All our starters are now 29 or younger. Our bench is filled out quite a bit. Fantastic job by Griffin.
You guys are going to need to do another podcast.
Can’t wait to have a rim-protector… and love that he has experience playing with Blatt for Russian team.
The only thing that makes me nervous about him… his middle name is Pavlovic(h).
I wish the team had Pavlovic (at his best) right now. Remember his chase down block in a playoff game? He would easily be the starter at the 2 on the current team.