With the trade deadline looming on February 18th, there’s buzz throughout the league about who might be dealt. The Cavs have been linked to Omer Asik, Tyreke Evans, Jared Dudley, Kyle Korver, and Trevor Ariza, but most if not all of those potential deals appear unlikely.
Add another name to that list: Ben McLemore, of the Sacramento Kings.
McLemore has been underwhelming in his three seasons in Sacramento. The seventh overall pick from the 2013 NBA Draft just turned 23 years old and is averaging 7.7 points per game, playing an average of 21 minutes on a dysfunctional Kings’ team.
The Cavs were first linked to McLemore by Chris B. Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group, who says the wing-player could be a “security-blanket” if J.R. Smith decides to opt out of his contract and leave town this summer.
Smith has been having one of the best seasons of his career and the salary cap will go up heading into next season, so it’s possible he would opt out again to at least test the waters of free-agency, like he did in 2015, and he would have a bit more of an impressive resume going for him than last summer.
If the Cavs were to make a move for McLemore, it wouldn’t cost anything close to what they would have to offer for Ariza or Korver, but it’s still difficult to see whose minutes he would take.
The Cavs have at least five players at the PG/SG position who are capable of playing a significant amount of minutes, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense what McLemore would bring to the team.
The Kings are 22-31, and he can’t even find significant playing time there.
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