Rich Paul says the Cavs ‘won the trade deadline’ by better positioning themselves to get past the 2nd round

Just before this season’s trade deadline, the Cleveland Cavaliers agreed to trade Caris LeVert, Georges Niang and draft capital to the Atlanta Hawks for De’Andre Hunter.

Niang and LeVert were valuable contributors to a Cavs team that is currently in a tie for the NBA’s best record this season, so the deal was initially a little bittersweet for fans.

But sports agent Rich Paul thinks the team “won the trade deadline” and may now be better positioned to advance past the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

“I think the Cavaliers really won the trade deadline in terms of where they’re at as a team and what they actually needed to put them in the best position to get past that second round-esque type of thing,” Paul said.

Hunter has gotten off to an incredibly promising start to his Cavaliers stint. He’s logged just two appearances with the team but is averaging 15.0 points per game while shooting an otherworldly 53.8 percent from 3-point range. In his most recent game played, he dropped 18 points and knocked down four 3s in Cleveland’s win over the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 12.

There’s a real argument to be made that Hunter is the team’s best option at the small forward position, though it’s unclear whether or not he will be a staple in the starting lineup moving forward.

Before the Cavaliers traded for Hunter, he was thriving with the Hawks. In his sixth and final season in Atlanta, he was averaging 19.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. Additionally, he was scoring the ball with really solid efficiency, shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from 3-point range.

It might be too early to judge Cleveland’s Hunter trade one way or the other, but it has aged well for the team to this point. Certainly, if the Cavaliers were the last team standing in June and he were productive during their title run, it would be safe to claim that the deal was a success for Cleveland. The Cavaliers are gunning for their second title in franchise history and first since 2016.

The chase will heat up in the coming weeks as the end of the regular season inches closer.