SACRAMENTO, CALIF.: LeBron James will have to be patient. Despite James’ calls for the Cavaliers to add a point guard, General Manager David Griffin said Friday the market is thin because so many teams still believe they’re playoff contenders.
“It’s very difficult right now to make trades,” Griffin said Friday in his first public comments since the Cavs obtained Kyle Korver from the Atlanta Hawks. “There’s so many teams that are still in it in both conferences in terms of those final playoff spots, that they’re really aren’t teams that identify themselves as sellers right now.
“And the teams that are identified as sellers probably didn’t have what fit us real well, so I think there are far fewer opportunities right now to make trades than there have been in the past for our team, just in terms of fit. So hopefully that picture clears itself up a little bit by the trade deadline.”
There were seven teams entering the weekend fighting for the last four playoff spots in the East. All seven are separated by just three games.
There are four teams in the West fighting for the last spot separated by 1½ games. Add it all together and there are only eight teams — the Magic, 76ers, Heat, Nets, Lakers, Timberwolves, Mavericks and Suns — who today are out of playoff contention. And with the season reaching the halfway point, there is still time for even some of them to climb back in the race.
Griffin left open the possibility of waiting until after the trade deadline, when the buyout market begins, to add a veteran piece. The trade he executed with Portland last week in flipping draft picks opened up his 2021 first-round pick to use in a trade if the market clears.
“Maybe some teams that are still playing for right now may end up being in a situation where they start to set the deck for the future,” Griffin said. “We need more teams to be out of the playoff picture to really be able to get business done.”
Griffin said he doesn’t mind James’ public demands to add a point guard, but hedged what he might be able to do in case the Cavs can’t land a deal for the type of point guard they desire by March 1.
While James has made it clear he wants a point guard — he’s averaging a career high in turnovers with as much as he’s been forced to handle the ball — Griffin said he’s looking for a playmaker rather than just a point guard.
“It really doesn’t even have to be a point guard, it’s just we need playmaking,” Griffin said. “The hope is that Kyle gives us the opportunity to create some offense another way, and make us less dependent on those two play creators [Irving and James].
“Obviously [coach Tyronn Lue] has done some creative things with Kevin Love to make offense run through him as well. But all season long, we’ve known we need more playmaking, and just more intelligence at times on the floor in terms of the decision making.”
The Cavs and Hawks had discussed Korver since the start of the season before things finally came together late last week. The Hawks are fourth in the East and have won their last seven — including the last two without Korver. The fact they remain in the midst of playoff contention made the trade with the Cavs unique.
Griffin didn’t need to use a trade exception to acquire Korver, but he still chose to use a chunk of the one the Cavs created last year when they traded Anderson Varejao to Portland. With the league’s highest payroll and an exorbitant tax bill looming again this season, Griffin didn’t believe the Cavs had the capability of adding a player who would’ve filled the nearly $10 million exception in full — not to mention the players available in that salary range did not fit what the Cavs were seeking.
The Cavs still have about $4.4 million remaining from the Varejao exception, which will expire around this year’s trade deadline. Griffin created two more trade exceptions worth $4.8 million and $2.2 million — the salaries of Mike Dunleavy and Mo Williams — that he can keep for another year.
He essentially restarted the clock on half of the Varejao trade exception for another year.
“We wanted to do something where we reset the deck with a couple [exceptions] that were going to be usable for another year,” Griffin said. “It gives us the most flexibility that we can have moving forward into the summer.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.
