After narrowly missing out on the championship in the 2014-2015 season to the Golden State Warriors, the Cavs are now looking at trades that can improve their team. These trades may involve having to ship out starters such as Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov.
There is no question that the Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the best teams in the NBA. In fact, they are one of only three teams to be in the top 5 both in terms of their offense and defense this season. A lot of analysts say that because they share this statistic with the San Antonio Spurs and reigning champions the Golden State Warriors, they only lost out of last year's championship because they were unlucky with injuries.
However, because of the Cavs' latest showing against the Warriors a lot of people are saying that the latter were more than just lucky and that the Cavs would have to make big moves if they want to compete for the NBA championship this season. GSW beat the Cavaliers by 34 points even though LeBron and his teammates had home court advantage.
According to NBC Sports, the Cavs have shopped around and have held trade talks for the 7-foot center Mozgov. "While he did help improve the team's low-post defense, Mozgov has struggled against smaller lineups," says Nathan Francis for the Inquistr. Mozgov has spent less time on the court as his minutes per game have dropped by an average of 8. His shooting and rebounding have also noticeably gotten worse.
The return of prospect Kyrie Irving to the starting lineup at Cleveland can spell bad news for Kevin Love. "He's simply too much of a defensive liability who no longer brings enough offense to the table to counterbalance it," says Gerald Bourguet of Fansided.
Like Mozgov, Love's numbers have also been dropping. He has now averaged 13 points and 11.9 rebounds a game at 37.8 shooting since Irving's return, considerably worse than his 17.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game at 43.4% shooting prior to Irving's return.
