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When the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for Caris LeVert on Feb. 7, they were sitting snugly in a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference with the Chicago Bulls.
With a young and hungry roster, and with emerging stars in Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley leading the way, the honus was on Cavaliers GM Koby Altman to make some trade acquisitions to bolster this young roster to be able to compete against the East's best teams in the playoffs.
The needs were obvious – the Cavs were in desperate need of a wing player who could alleviate the scoring weight Garland carried that neither Cedi Osman nor Isaac Okoro was able to fill.
Just three days prior, the Los Angeles Clippers acquired Norman Powell from the Portland Trail Blazers for a cavalcade of trinkets that you might believe originated from the Island of Misfit Toys itself. The return for the Blazers in the trade consisted of Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, Eric Bledsoe, and a 2025 second-round draft pick.
A trade to acquire Powell would've made a ton of sense for the Cavaliers. And in a lot of ways was what Cavs fans thought they would be getting from LeVert.
Powell's EFG% this year in 40 games with the Blazers (54.6%) ranks in the 62nd percentile in the NBA per Cleaning The Glass. Examining the numbers further, Powell shot 41% from three (87th percentile), 46% from the mid-range (82nd percentile), and averaged 118.8 points per 100 shot attempts (79th percentile).
The one drawback of Powell is that his contract consists of another four years and $104 million. However, given that Powell is not even 30-years-old yet, it would be hard to believe that Powell would regress to a point that his contract will become a negative asset.
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On Feb. 7, with Powell gone and the Cavs in need of a wing, the Cavs traded a lottery-protected first-round draft pick along with the expiring contract of Ricky Rubio to the Indiana Pacers for LeVert.
It is hard to believe that Altman believed that LeVert, despite having just one season left on his current contract, would be able to solve the Cavs offense scoring issues.
For the Pacers, LeVert shot just 32% from three (32nd percentile), 43% from the mid-range (65th percentile), and had a 49.6% EFG% (41st percentile). Those numbers have not improved at all since arriving in Cleveland.
Add in the lack of playmaking/extreme tunnel vision, and an inability to stay in front of guys on defense and one could question exactly what the Cavaliers saw in LeVert in the first place.
With Collin Sexton a resricted free agent this summer, one has to wonder if the Cavs would not be better off trying to trade LeVert and try to once again find wing help in either the draft (they retain their lottery-protected first since they did not make the playoffs), or maybe re-signing Sexton and looking for role players in free agency who can stretch the floor on offense (which Sexton, to this point, has not shown he can do on a consistent basis).
One thing is certain though, and that is that Koby Altman's trade to add LeVert ended up being a bitter failure for the Clevelend Cavaliers this season.
