Report: Cavs interested in Dorian Finney-Smith

A recent trade rumor has linked the Cleveland Cavaliers to two Brooklyn Nets players in Dorian Finney-Smith and Cameron Johnson.

“They’d have interest in one of Dorian Finney-Smith and Cameron Johnson in Brooklyn, sources said, but they have only one future first-round pick — their 2031 pick — available to trade,” Zach Lowe wrote.

Johnson is arguably the superior offensive player of the two. In the 2023-24 regular season, his first full season as a member of the Nets, he averaged 13.4 points on 44.6 percent accuracy from the field and 39.1 percent from 3-point range along with 2.4 assists per game.

The 28-year-old gave a Nets team that wasn’t exactly filled to the brim with great scorers a consistent scoring punch. He ranked fourth on Brooklyn in points per game behind just Cam Thomas, Mikal Bridges and Dennis Schroder.

But one area on the offensive side of the ball where Johnson has room for improvement is generating trips to the free-throw line. He averaged 10.7 shot attempts per game with Brooklyn yet took just 1.9 shots from the charity stripe on average, which ranked eighth on the Nets.

Conversely, while Johnson is arguably best known for his offensive skills, Finney-Smith has made a name for himself through his contributions on the less glamorous side of the ball. Standing at 6-foot-7 and weighing in at 220 pounds, Finney-Smith has the strength and length to consistently make life difficult for opposing players at the wing position.

In addition, on top of his defensive chops, Finney-Smith also brings solid 3-point shooting to the table. He has converted 35.5 percent of his 3-point attempts for his career and knocked down 34.8 percent of his looks from deep in 68 games (56 starts) with the Nets during the 2023-24 regular season.

Both Johnson’s and Finney-Smith’s skill sets would theoretically make them solid players to complement the likes of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen on the Cavaliers next season. Fans of the Cavaliers should hope that Koby Altman can figure out a way to deal for one of the two players sometime this summer using the team’s future first-round pick.

It will be interesting to find out if Johnson or Finney-Smith will be a member of the Cavaliers by the time the 2024-25 regular season begins later this year.