The Cleveland Cavaliers still have a massive void on the interior, and they can no longer use Dion Waiters' potential as a means to fill it on the trade market.
The team is not—or should not be, at least—done making moves, but a thin collection of assets won't make it easy to address the on-paper contender's biggest issue.
While the Cavs were establishing a new rock bottom with Monday's 95-92 loss to the lowly Philadelphia 76ers, their front office was busy making the first major move of the Big Three era. Cleveland acquired wings Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith plus a protected first-round pick as part of a six-player, three-team trade that sent Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder, as Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
"We're very excited to welcome Iman and J.R. to Cleveland," Cavs general manager David Griffin said, per Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. "With their size and versatility, we think both Iman and J.R. can help our team on both ends of the court and we look forward to them joining us."
The Cavs, who rank 23rd in defensive efficiency, needed a versatile defender to help ...
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Article written by Zach Buckley
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