Report: Cavs ‘insisted’ on keeping Jaylon Tyson and Craig Porter Jr. despite Hawks pushing ‘hard’

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Craig Porter Jr. and shooting guard Jaylon Tyson haven’t been fixtures in head coach Kenny Atkinson’s rotation this season. Porter has played in just 31 of the team’s 52 games to this point, while Tyson has logged 33 appearances.

However, both of the youngsters have had promising performances with the Cavaliers lately and could be big parts of the team’s future. Tyson showed off his scoring chops with a 15-point showing against the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 30. Fast forward to Cleveland’s Feb. 5 win over the Detroit Pistons, and Porter totaled 16 points and three made 3s.

The Hawks were reportedly interested in Tyson and Porter in the trade that saw forward De’Andre Hunter get moved to Cleveland, but the Cavaliers were adamant about keeping them in the fold.

“This wasn’t discussed at the press conference, but I heard Atlanta pushed hard for Jaylon Tyson and/or Craig Porter Jr. to be part of the deal,” Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto wrote. “The Cavs insisted they keep their young players, knowing they also need to build a roster for the future. Tyson and Porter also have shown they can help the team right now.”

Instead of parting ways with one or both of Tyson and Porter, Cleveland traded three future second-round picks, two future pick swaps and a pair of productive veterans in forwards Georges Niang and Caris LeVert. Niang played in every one of Cleveland’s first 51 games of the campaign and shot 40.0 percent from 3-point range. As for LeVert, he shot a career-high 40.5 percent from 3 with the squad this season before the trade.

Hunter is the newest member of the Cavaliers after he was on a scoring tear with the Hawks this season. He averaged a career-high 19.0 points per game while shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from deep across 37 games played. Hunter capped off his Hawks tenure with a 22-point showing against big man Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Feb. 5.

There has been no official word from the team about when Hunter will make his debut with the Cavaliers and try to help the team continue its winning ways. But since there’s nothing to suggest he was dealing with an injury at the time of the trade, there seems to be a really solid chance that he will suit up with the rest of the squad when Cleveland plays the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 10.

A lot of time has to pass before one can gauge whether the Cavaliers made a smart move by trading away the likes of Niang and LeVert as opposed to Tyson and/or Porter, but the move could pay dividends for Cleveland if the latter two live up to their potential.