FanPost

Horford Trade

Hey y'all. I'm a Cleveland Cavs fan, and I was wondering about a trade proposal.

As you could imagine, this season for us has been rough. To get past it, we've been mostly looking to the future. The consensus for us seems to be that next year we should be competing for a playoff spot--to do this, we need to fill in our roster with quality players (or even players not from the D-League).

Because there's so much uncertainty for you next year, I'd imagine there's a high possibility for a rebuild. Smith is most likely leaving and a player of his caliber (though not max contract worthy) leaving could be enough to cause any team to start over, and that's not even considering the other players on expiring deals.

My interest in your situation is this: if your front office plans on rebuilding starting next year, I'd imagine you would like a high lottery pick. And, wouldn't you know, the Cavs happen to have one of those. We also are planning on hopefully becoming relevant again. Pending results of this year's playoffs, obviously, some of us commenters at Fear the Sword have thrown about a trade idea that I would like your opinion on.

Hawks get:

Andy Varejao (until he was hurt, averaging 14 PPG and 14 RPG with a PER of 21)

Tyler Zeller (averaging 8 PPG and 6 RPG as a rookie thrown into the starting lineup

Our entire draft this year - Without considering the lottery, it would be #3 and 19 in the first round, and #1 and #3 in the second round.

Cavs get:

Al Horford

I know that giving up Horford is a lot. I love him, and think that he would be a great player and locker room presence for the Cavs. However, if the team's direction for next year is toward bottoming out and starting over, this would be extremely beneficial. You would obtain a high lottery pick and several other good picks that could be used to draft rookies or combined with your first rounders to move up.

And, if you end up using several rookies to fill in the empty roster spots, you could "bottom out" and be in a position to draft one of the top players in next year's loaded draft (Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Andrew Harrison, Marcus Smart).

I don't really know how you would feel about this trade, but I know that we think its both fair and beneficial. I would love to get Hawks fans' feedback on it.

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