The Cleveland Cavaliers can only shake their heads in regret at the De'Andre Hunter trade from last year's trade deadline. Not only is Hunter disappointing them on the court right now, but the cost to trade for him will come around to bite them in the butt in June.
The deal for Hunter last season made a lot of sense. He was a 6'7" combo forward with the ability to take a high volume of 3-pointers, operating with a gravity that could open up the lane for the likes of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen to feast, and for Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell to attack. The Cavaliers flipped Caris LeVert and Georges Niang to the Atlanta Hawks for Hunter.
If that were all that they traded, perhaps the deal would be palatable. LeVert has been fine for the Detroit Pistons and signed a new contract in the offseason; Niang has been injured and riding the bench for the Utah Jazz. Yet included in the deal were a grab bag of lower-tier draft assets: three second-round picks and two first-round swaps.
The Cavaliers traded a lot for De'Andre Hunter
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The first of those swaps was for 2026, and that seemed like a meaningless asset to give up. The Cavaliers were on track to be one of the two or three best teams in terms of regular season record in the entire league. The odds of a pick swap mattering seemed slim to none.
Then this season hit, when the Cavaliers are wallowing jut above .500. The Hawks have been worse, so the pick swap would have been moot, except that the San Antonio Spurs' first-round pick is also a part of the swap. The Spurs are in line to swap their own pick for the Hawks, landing another lottery pick to add to the core around Victor Wembanyama.
Suddenly, the Hawks aren't trying to swap their own pick with the Cavs; they are swapping the Spurs' with Cleveland, a pick that currently lands at 28. The Cavaliers will be picking at the very end of the draft, but they will be doing so because of the ill-fated De'Andre Hunter trade, not because they were wildly successful.
If Hunter was balling out on the court, the cost would be manageable. The supposed high-volume shooter is hitting just 30.9 percent from deep, his turnovers are up and his defensive impact stats are down. In other words, the perfect 3-and-
When Hunter is on the court this season, the Cavaliers are essentially a break-even team. When he is off the court, they are a much stronger +8.5 points per 100 possessions. If the Cavs had another small forward to plug in, they would almost certainly be much better off.
Their best path to continue adding to their team, to retool and improve for the future, is likely through the draft. It provides inexpensive talent to flow into the roster. Yet now their pick could be a dozen slots worse because of the cost of the Hunter trade.
De'Andre Hunter has not been the answer to any of their questions, and he is costing them right now on the court as well as down the board when the draft swings around. The Cavaliers had better hope he turns things around, because if he doesn't, their playoff ceiling may be limited.
Hunter is a problem on and off the court. That is a remarkable place for him to be in, and a golden opportunity to step up and prove his worth before he is dumped somewhere.
And as the Cavaliers try to do that, they will be reminded of the cost coming now and later. Building a contender is not easy; maintaining it is even more difficult. Now the task on both sides is that much more difficult because of the De'Andre Hunter flop.