The Cleveland Cavaliers were not content with staying pat at the NBA trade deadline Thursday. In fact, they weren’t content with making just one trade, either.
Not long after the Cavaliers traded Isaiah Thomas to the Los Angeles Lakers, they continued to overhaul their roster with trades which shipped out some other big names: Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose.
Wade was traded to the Miami Heat, where he and Cleveland star LeBron James won two NBA titles together, for a protected 2020 second-round pick. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Cavaliers worked out the deal to let Wade return to the place where he started his career.
But the pick the Cavaliers received was sent to the Kings in a three-team trade that also included Utah, Wojnarowski reported. Cleveland acquired guard George Hill from Sacramento and guard Rodney Hood from Utah.
With the trade deadline passing at 3 p.m. Thursday, Cleveland’s roster looks almost nothing like it did when the day began. Deals moved so quickly that one player who’s staying on the Cavaliers asked a reporter for help sorting out who his new teammates were:
Text just now from a Cavs player who remains on the roster after the upheaval: “WHAT JUST HAPPENED”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 8, 2018
Before the trades, here was the Cavaliers’ full roster, with the since-traded players italicized:
Jose Calderon
Jae Crowder
Channing Frye
Jeff Green
John Holland
LeBron James
Kyle Korver
Kevin Love
Cedi Osman
London Perrantes
Derrick Rose
Iman Shumpert
JR Smith
Isaiah Thomas
Tristan Thompson
Dwyane Wade
Ante Zizic
And after the trades (new players in bold):
Jose Calderon
Jordan Clarkson
Jeff Green
George Hill
John Holland
Rodney Hood
LeBron James
Kyle Korver
Kevin Love
Larry Nance
Cedi Osman
London Perrantes
JR Smith
Tristan Thompson
Ante Zizic
Wade and Frye were two of the oldest players on the team, while three of the team’s four acquisitions are in their mid-20s.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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