Cavaliers Trade Star Player To Lakers In Wild Idea

Could the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers hook up on this blockbuster trade?

Nov 25, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Caris LeVert (3) drives to the basket against Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) during the second half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten off to an impressive 2-0 start this season, and their roster looks mighty fine in spite of the team not making any major additions over the summer.

But could the Cavaliers still opt to make a significant trade before the February deadline?

It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility, especially if things don't exactly go according to plan in Cleveland.

Michael Pina of The Ringer has offered a very intriguing trade proposal involving the Los Angeles Lakers, where the Cavs would send Jarrett Allen to the Lakers in exchange for D'Angelo Russell, Christian Wood, two first-round draft picks, a pick swap or Rui Hachimura and Dalton Knecht.

That would be quite a haul for the Cavaliers, and it's actually one that makes sense from stylistic perspective.

Remember: there was rampant speculation during the offseason that Cleveland could—or should—trade Allen in order to open things up for Evan Mobley and to help space the floor.

Here, the Cavs would land a good outside shooter in Russell, a capable bench big man in Wood and some very nice draft capital (plus decent young talent to boot).

Let's say the Cavaliers are kind of plodding through the regular season come the winter, and the Lakers place a call and offer this trade package in exchange for Allen.

Would Cleveland really say no?

The major downside is that the Cavs would take a pretty significant hit defensively, but the good news is that Mobley is a top-tier defender himself.

If the Cavaliers do decide to move Allen at some point this season, this is as good of a return as they are probably going to get.