BREAKING: Cleveland Cavaliers trade Isaac Okoro to Chicago Bulls for Lonzo Ball

BREAKING: Cleveland Cavaliers trade Isaac Okoro to Chicago Bulls for Lonzo Ball

[Music] ladies and gentlemen the Cleveland Cavaliers have made their first big offseason move trading Isaac Aoro to the Chicago Bulls in a one forone trade in return the Cleveland Cavaliers get Lonzo Ball back from Chicago initial thoughts i absolutely love this trade i love this trade on so many levels and let’s break them all down real quick we’re going to try keeping this quick but the Lonzo Ball acquisition for Isaac Aoro in my opinion is a major win for the Cleveland Cavaliers first and foremost from a financial standpoint the Cavs shed a tiny bit of salary lonzo makes 10 million aor was making 11 million so this deal was acceptable under the second apron terms the Cavs are still a second apron team but ever so slightly less a second apron team but a second apron team nevertheless aoro had two years left on his deal lonzo has this season at 10 million and then a team option for the following year at 10 million as well making him essentially an an expandable expiring contract in trade discussions that is a much easier contract to unload in any kind of deal than two years would be with Isaac Auror so from a purely financial standpoint first and foremost the Cavs sent out 11 million they got 10 million back so they shed $1 million which once again doesn’t change their Second Apron status but the closer you get to being under the Second Apron the easier it is to uh or not I take that back they’re still a Second Apron team they’re just $1 million less into the Second Apron so now they have to shed less money in other deals in the future to become a first apron or a just a luxury tax team second off Aoro’s deal was two years Lonzo’s deal this year and then a team option for next year so an easier contract to trade from an on the court standpoint i love this i love this i love this i love this now Lonzo Ball has played 35 games i believe that is correct 35 games in the last three seasons he’s played 70 games total in the last four seasons he’s played 125 games total in the last five seasons in the last five years he played 55 games with the Pelicans 35 games with Chicago did not play at all in the 22 23 series season the 23 24 season and played 35 games towards the end of the 2425 season so injuries are a 1,000% valid legitimate concern with Lonzo Ball 100% valid the injury issues are severe it was foot injuries those are all difficult to overcome they are hard to rehab and get back from he did make it back and play 35 games in this most recent season so hopefully he’ll be healthy heading into the off season healthy heading into the 25 20 uh 25 26 season with the Cavs but all the injury stuff everything I’m about to say if you want to counter with well he’s always hurt you’re right that is fair that is valid just want to get that on the table but from a basketball standpoint in today’s NBA in my opinion you cannot have and let me re-emphasize that you cannot have enough ball handlers and playmakers throughout your roster 1 through 15 the more ball handlers and playmakers you have the better positioned you are to not only compete in the regular season but to go on and win a championship when the Minnesota Timberwolves lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs their head coach Chris Finch was asked “Chris what kind of upgrades do you want to see to the roster next season?” And he said “Of course we need more shooting but we need guys who can generate good looks for those shooters we need ball handlers and creators to get our shooters open space.” Lonzo Ball when healthy and once again a gigantic if and when is one of the premier passers and one of the premier shot creators for others in the entire NBA if you go back and look when he was a full-time starter for his career he averages five and a half 5.8 is the exact number of assists per game as a rookie he averaged 7.2 in his third season he averaged seven he’s never averaged fewer than 5.1 assists per game in a season where he’s actually played significant minutes he averaged only 3.3 assists per game this most recent season in Chicago but he was playing just 22 minutes a game if you go to a per 36 which is on par with what he played throughout his career that was in that five assist per game range he’s also 6’5 with length meaning no more small guards right like you still have Darius and Donovan but Lonzo certainly does not qualify as a small guard at all but one of his strengths coming out of UCLA was the fact that he was a jumbosized point guard in the old kind of old school build a jumbosized point guard that I think can play alongside Darius can play alongside Donovan can play alongside both if you want to go super space and pace and tempo because he could be the facilitator lonzo’s a guy that connects everything on offense he very rarely dribbles the ball more than three four times he catches he processes he passes he’s a capable three-point shooter for his career he’s shooting 36% from beyond the arc he’s had his ups and downs he started his career as a subpar three-point shooter just 30% as a rookie that jumped to 33% 37% 38% 43% and then this season it dropped down to 34% but once again coming back from injury who knows what kind of shooter he’ll be moving forward but he has shown that progress in the early stages of his career that he had become a capable shooter if left open the Cavs aren’t going to need Lonzo to be a primary creator he could be a secondary creator he can allow Donovan to play more off ball he can spell Donovan and alongside Darius still gives the Cavs some decent size and length in the back court and can allow Darius to play off ball and if Darius is on ball Lonzo’s a good enough shooter to spot up in the corner and force defenses to respect that shot and keep the spacing equal across the court now I saw someone ask initially does this trade mean we’re not getting and we won’t bring back Ty Jerome i don’t think this has any impact on Ty Jerome a you lose a roster spot in Aoro and replace it with Lonzo the money’s exactly the same essentially the same so it’s not like he took a roster spot that wasn’t currently available and I’ll go back to what I said before the more playmakers shot creators and ball handlers you have the better so I think Kenny Atkinson is saying we just traded a guy in a Cororo who was a very good point of attack defender but never developed offensively to a point where any team in a playoff scenario was going to guard him and we turn that into a guy we think when healthy we can trust in a playoff scenario to dribble the ball and go back to that game two against Indiana during that historic collapse in the final 50 seconds the Cavs couldn’t get the ball over half court merrill Jerome Donovan Isaac those were the guys in the game and in those final 48 seconds Cleveland could not get the ball past half court and I’m not exaggerating they literally did not advance the ball past half court during that seven-point collapse in the final 50 seconds you have a guy like Lonzo if he’s healthy he’s a guy you can put the ball in his hands and say “Get out the way you bring the ball up court.” He’s a natural point guard five-star recruit at UCLA the number two overall pick he has the pedigree he’s just dealt with some unfortunate injuries and he’s a throwback kind of point guard for everyone who can’t stand the constant isolation of the NBA and the different ways that teams like to pick out mismatches and just attack that time and time and time again well then you’re going to love Lonzo because when he’s healthy he’s the opposite of that he is a get the ball kick it out get the ball two dribbles read the defense find the open guy one of the better passers some of the best vision in the entire NBA throughout his career when he’s been healthy that was his calling card coming out of UCLA and he likes to play uptempo he likes to play with some pace and that was something I had an issue with Cleveland in the playoffs i thought against that Indiana defense especially when other guys got hurt they tended to slow the ball down too much they tried to play a slower style to counteract Indiana’s hectic frantic pace and I’m not saying they should turn into Indiana even though that would be fun to cover uh Lonzo can play a style that would generate at least in theory some open transition opportunities for not just himself and others i looked at the Tyresese Proctor pick as basically Sam Merrill insurance i don’t anticipate Sam Merrill returning i think he’s going to generate too much interest from other teams so Proctor was a guy that you bring in so he could basically at some point you hope fill that Sam Merrill role i don’t see Lonzo in that trade as a Tai Jerome insurance it’s too much of an injury risk to count on him to fill that entire Tai Jerome role i still think the Cavs will go on an all-out push to bring back Ty Jerome on top of this move because I’ll say it till I’m blue in the face the more ball handlers and playmakers you have the better positioned you are to win at the highest of high levels this doesn’t I don’t think change the ceiling for Cleveland it doesn’t change the basement but I think the Cavs right now with Lonzo Ball on the roster are better equipped to play the OKC’s the Indiana the Bostons the top teams in the NBA than they were with Isaac Aoro and it’s nothing against Isaac great guy liked him in the locker room but at the end of the day they couldn’t play him in a playoff series because teams just wouldn’t guard him he proved over three different playoff runs that he was an unplayable playoff player it’s nothing personal just look how teams guarded him or more better accurately more accurately how they didn’t guard him and he was I believe before this postseason three of 25 from three in his first two playoff runs and I’m not quite sure what the numbers are off the top of my head this year actually you know I I have it I have it open give me one second I’ll pull up his exact playoff numbers and then I think we’ll all understand why uh they made this deal in the playoffs Isaac was just a 29% three-point shooter on way too many and I and I mean that and I’m I’m not trying to be disrespectful or disingenuous to Isaac Aoro but for his playoff career he was 19 of 64 from beyond the ark and I would guess 55 of those 64 were wide open uncontested threes you just need something better than that in a playoff player and Isaac was fine who’s a good defensive player good locker room guy but I think the upside of Lonzo is just significantly higher so all in all we’ll wrap up here and I’ll look at some comments in a sec it’s a good move financially for the Cavs it is easier to get off of Lonzo’s expiring contract than it would have been to move Isaac Aoro’s contract because he has this year and next year at 11 million from a basketball standpoint I love what Lonzo brings to this team playing on ball playing off ball at 66 with length he’s an above average defender when healthy as well which means you can play him with Donovan you can play him with Darius you can play him with both i actually think that three guard lineup would be a lot of fun to watch and I’m curious to see when we talk to Kenny Atinson if he has any plans to utilize those three together he gives you another playoff ball handler he gives you an improved three-point shooter over Isaac Aoro and yeah defensively you probably take a slight step back it is what it is but the Cavs defense wasn’t their main issue in the playoffs it hasn’t been the last three years the issue is they can’t score and teams have put their offense in a complete sty three different playoff runs in a row lonzo is not an offensive scorer he’s an offensive playmaker and an offensive connector and I just don’t think you could have enough of those in today’s NBA let’s see if we got any comments real quick salen Soul says “Excited to see Lonzo in Kenny’s system.” I totally agree i 1,000% agree if anyone who’s shown the ability to get the best out of point guards over their coaching tenure it’s been Kenny Atkinson it just comes down to health with Lonzo is he going to stay healthy and will he be healthy for a playoff run i’ll close with this the Cavs were most likely and they still may i would say it’s unlikely but certainly possible they weren’t going to make some gigantic splash move i think Kobe Alman believes in this core four so much that he wanted to run it back in an Eastern Conference without Tatum without Hallebert and and see what can happen if the guys can stay healthy in the playoffs we can argue back and forth whether or not that that’s the right move i just get the sense that that is what Kobe wanted just like it’s exactly what OKC did last year when they were the number one seed in the West and got upset by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs just like Cleveland okc the one seed had lost to the four seed in their conference there were talks in Oklahoma City is Chad Homegrren and is Jaylen Williams is that a good enough two and three for SGA and instead of making some sort of gigantic move Sam Prey called the Chicago Bulls and said “Hey uh could we get Alex Caruso can we interest you in Josh Giddy?” And their big move last season was signing Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency who obviously played a big role in a championship team and then trading Josh Giddy part of their young core for Alex Caruso a guy that they hoped could help them more in the playoffs than he would in the regular season that move panned out perfectly caruso was a gigantic part of the Thunder playoff and championship run and Giddy flourished over in Chicago and he’s up in pace to probably get a hundred million dollar contract based on the way he played this season he just didn’t fit what the Thunder needed and Aoro may turn out to be very good but just like Prey and OKC Kobe said “I’m going to give Chicago a call i’m going to identify a player I think it help us in a playoff series more than a guy currently on my roster even if he’s a little older and isn’t perfect and executed a Lonzo ball for Isaac Aoro trade will it result in a championship just like it did for OKC who knows we’ll find out but the Cavs are better today than they were yesterday i am a huge fan of this deal for Lonzo Ball i think Kobe Alman hit it out the park and didn’t have to give up any picks to improve their roster and improve their playoff rotation appreciate you guys tuning in leave a comment grade the Lonzo Ball for Isaac Auroro trade a B C D or F if anyone gives it an F I think they’re crazy but leave it in the comments we’ll take a look at some of those on Monday on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show we’ll get Jason G and Jay’s reaction to the Lonzo Ball trade but for me for Mikey McNuggets I give it a nine out of 10 i absolutely love the deal for the Cavs and think Kobe hit a home run on this one see you next week peace [Music]

Lonzo Ball, welcome to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cavs had been trying to trade Isaac Okoro for weeks now and finally found a trade partner in the Chicago Bulls.

What does this move mean for the Cavs moving forward?

We will learn how much impact the CBA has in Cleveland, especially in light of Darius Garland’s toe injury. Garland is probably out for the early part of the next season and his replacement, Ty Jerome, is an unrestricted free agent. Cleveland is allowed to sign Jerome to a contract up to four years and $63 million.

By doing so, the Cavaliers would not only increase their luxury tax penalty but bury themselves further over the second apron. If Jerome and Sam Merrill are not brought back, Cleveland has only the veteran minimum exception to replace them.

Team needs: Backcourt and frontcourt depth

Free agents who fit: Jerome, Merrill, Chris Paul, Al Horford, Mason Plumlee, Bol Bol, Paul Reed, Jericho Sims, Thomas Bryant, Collin Gillespie, Keaton Wallace, Reece Beekman, Branden Carlson, Oscar Tshiebwe, PJ Hall

Moves I would make: The Garland injury prioritizes Cleveland to sign Jerome to a three-year, $33 million contract. To shore up frontcourt depth, sign Horford to a one-year, $3.6 million contract.

Under contract: Donovan Mitchell, Garland, Evan Mobley, De’Andre Hunter, Jarrett Allen, Max Strus, Isaac Okoro, Jaylon Tyson, Dean Wade, Chuma Okeke (T) and Craig Porter Jr.

Key free agents: Jerome and Merrill

Other free agents: Okeke, Javonte Green and Tristan Thompson