Report: Cavs struggling to find team with ‘legitimate interest’ in Isaac Okoro, have had talks about Dean Wade

The Cleveland Cavaliers already project to have a large payroll in the 2025-26 campaign, and they haven’t even re-signed guards Sam Merrill and Ty Jerome, both of whom were valuable pieces off the pine for them this season.

As such, the Cavs have some options they need to explore this offseason, and it appears that some trade action could be on the table.

Cleveland wing Isaac Okoro could be a trade candidate. However, one of the NBA’s other 29 teams needs to be interested in acquiring Okoro in order for the Cavaliers to make a trade happen, and according to Cavaliers insider Chris Fedor, they’re struggling to find anyone with “legitimate interest” in Okoro.

Fedor also said that the Cavaliers have had discussions about forward Dean Wade. Wade wasn’t a huge factor during Cleveland’s playoff run this year after he started 30 games over 59 total appearances in the regular season. He averaged just 1.7 points per game in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

“From everything that I’m told, they’re having a hard time finding anybody that has legitimate interest in Isaac Okoro unless Isaac also comes with some kind of sweetener from the Cavs,” Fedor said.

Fedor continued.

“From everything that I’ve heard, the Cavs have had discussions about Dean Wade,” Fedor said. “And do they want to see if they can use him and something else to see if they can get assets back, different kinds of assets back, or different kinds of players back in return.

“So I think they’re trying to figure out what is possible for us. And if we move off of Isaac Okoro’s money, if we move off Dean Wade’s money, does that make it easier to justify a Ty Jerome contract? Does that make it easier to justify a Sam Merrill contract?”

The Cavaliers are the only NBA team Okoro has played for since he was drafted by the squad with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. He averaged career-lows in points, rebounds and minutes per game in the 2024-25 regular season before having a slightly reduced role in the playoffs.

Okoro might not be the most indispensable player Cleveland has, but his skill set should still be appealing to some teams. For one, he’s a very talented defensive player who hangs his hat and busts his tail on that end. He has also improved his 3-point shot since coming into the NBA and is now a respectable threat from deep.

Wade, for his part, has also spent his entire career with the Cavs, experiencing many of the highs and lows of the post-LeBron James era. He has been trusted to start and come off the bench at times throughout his Cleveland tenure.

Hopefully, the Cavaliers will find a suitor for Okoro if that’s the outcome they want, and maybe a rebuilding team will take a flier on the 24-year-old in the hope that he still has some untapped potential. As for Wade, it will be worth monitoring whether Cleveland’s discussions about him evolve into a possible trade as well.