The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers for the veteran center.
JaVale McGee is heading to Cleveland. The Cavaliers and Lakers agreed to a deal that sends McGee and a second round pick to Cleveland in exchange for Alfonzo McKinnie and Jordan Bell.
Adrian Wojnarowski would add that both McKinnie and Bell are on non-guaranteed deals that the Lakers can waive. Why is this important? The Lakers were exploring ways to sign Marc Gasol, something they also accomplished this evening. In order to sign Gasol, the Lakers had to find a way to move JaVale McGee and his $4.2 million salary for the upcoming season.
For the Cavs they get someone who can step into the role vacated by Tristan Thompson. Well that and the second round pick that came along with him. Thompson recently signed with the Celtics and Cleveland needs someone to back up Andre Drummond. This does not even need to be a deal which sees Cleveland hang on to McGee for the remainder of the year. The Cavs could very well flip McGee later this season in order to build for the future. Right now Cleveland is in the business of long term team building and they have players to trade to work towards that goal in JaVale McGee, Andre Drummond, and Kevin Love.
