The Cleveland Cavaliers shipped troubled sophomore Kevin Porter Jr. to the Houston Rockets on Thursday evening.
While the Cavs traded Porter for a protected future second-round pick, they once considered the promising youngster to be untouchable.
“Teammates considered Porter the most talented of the young core, the player with the likeliest path to stardom,” wrote Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “Members of the front office viewed him as untouchable when rival teams reached out in prior trade talks. Porter was supposed to be the one — the centerpiece of this rebuild with the capability of altering the trajectory, the phenom they stole at the end of the first round.”
Porter, 20, certainly possesses the skillset to balloon into a star.
As a matter of fact, he showed it last season. The swingman collected 10.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game last year.
However, Porter seemed to implode after the coronavirus pandemic struck the NBA and ceased the Cavs’ 2019-20 campaign.
The No. 30 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft ran into a bevy of problems off the court. In addition, he conveyed a suicidal message on his Instagram last year.
He then got into a heated exchange with Cavs officials earlier this week, which was the final straw for the team.
Now, they’ll have to move on without the player that was once considered a potential cornerstone of the franchise.
The Cavs hold a 7-7 record this season.
