Speculation and rumors are running rampant about the the Cleveland Cavaliers and a possible buyout.
Death, taxes, and people trying to get players out of Cleveland. This is something that always seems to happen with a player who plays for one of the teams in town and people having desires to see them elsewhere. This repetitive logic has reemerged in the form of Andre Drummond and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Zach Harper of The Athletic posted about potential buyout candidates and included Drummond on his list. Here is Harper’s reasoning.
Drummond is the most intriguing player on this list outside of maybe Derrick Rose. A couple of league sources mentioned after the Harden trade to Brooklyn that it’s a matter of time before he finds his way into a buyout and joins up to give them help with the interior. Drummond is a difficult player to figure out because of how he wants to fit. He’s obviously better than the Kendrick Perkins option the Thunder once had, but Drummond does require you to waste possessions throughout a game throwing it to him in the post. If you can get Drummond to run the floor, catch lobs, set screens, rebound the hell out of the ball and play defense, he’s a great option for someone like the Nets.
Harper would later add the fowling about a fit with Brooklyn.
However, if he wants to be hyper-involved as a scoring option on a team with KD, Kyrie and Harden, then that’s going to be a problem. He’s better than Jordan at this point, but how much better when you consider how he’ll want to be used? The idea of him in Boston is intriguing, but I’d be shocked if Danny Ainge decided to take that gamble. He doesn’t fit in Milwaukee. Maybe the Clippers would try him in the mix, but those seem like the only options.
At the end of the day it comes down to how does this type of move benefit Cleveland? It doesn’t. A better buyout candidate is JaVale McGee, which is a suggestion made later in Harper’s post. Once McGee is traded or bought out it would clear of the logjam for the Cavs. Well that and potentially moving Kevin Love at some point.
