The Cleveland Cavaliers had sought to deal shooting guard Alec Burks before Thursday’s trade deadline and accomplished that task with one day to spare.
One report indicates that the team’s front office is quite happy with what it was able to get in return.
Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com also noted that the three-way deal, which involved the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings accomplished the team’s goal in trading Burks, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer:
“The Cavs are ‘thrilled’ about their haul for Burks, according to one member of the organization who spoke with cleveland.com about the deal.
“Internally, the Cavs were always hoping to net a first-rounder for Burks, whose expiring contract and recent play made him a valuable commodity on the trade market.”
The Cavaliers, who will almost assuredly keep their own first-round pick because of their 11-43 season record, now have two first-rounders for June’s draft. To make the deal happen, however, they also had to be willing to accept guard Brandon Knight and big man Marquese Chriss.
Knight has made slow progress from a severe 2017 knee injury that kept him out of action all last season and has limited him to 12 games this year. In those contests, he’s averaging just 9.8 minutes of action and averaging just 3.0 points per game.
The Rockets wanted to rid themselves of his burdensome contract that’s paying him $14.6 million this season and is set to pay him $15.6 million next year.
In the case of the 21-year-old Chriss, he had asked the Rockets for a trade and is making $3.2 million on an expiring deal this year. He’s only played 10 minutes or more in three games during this season and is averaging just 1.8 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
