The deal
Trail Blazers get: Rodney Hood
Cavaliers get: Nik Stauskas, Wade Baldwin IV, second-round picks in 2021 and 2023
Get more trade grades for every deal here
Portland Trail Blazers: B-minus
The Blazers came into this season with a plan: Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum would play together nearly all the time rather than staggering minutes as they had in the past, turning over the second-unit offense to Evan Turner as point forward. For one glorious month, it worked. During October, Portland outscored opponents by 9.7 points per 100 possessions in the 85 minutes Turner played with both Lillard and McCollum on the bench, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
Stauskas' strong start was a key part of that success. Starting with a 24-point Blazers debut in a home win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Stauskas averaged 10.1 PPG on 46.4 percent 3-point shooting in October. During November, he was decent, making 36 percent of his 3s. But since then, Stauskas has hit just 26 percent from beyond the arc, losing his rotation spot to the surging Jake Layman. And with Stauskas struggling, so too have Portland's lineups with neither starting guard.
Understandably, the Blazers don't want to cut bait on the idea of playing Lillard and McCollum together, which has yielded dividends. Lillard/McCollum lineups are naturally Portland's best, and not only are they playing more minutes (30.7 per game in the 50 both have played, up from 26.3 in 2017-18), their net rating together has predictably improved with more action against reserves (plus-5.8 per 100 possessions, their best since 2014-15).
So instead, the Blazers will try to upgrade their second-unit scoring punch with the addition of Hood, whose 16.0 points per 36 minutes this season would rank fourth on Portland's roster behind Lillard, McCollum and starting center Jusuf Nurkic.
Hood has never been the plus scorer he was once believed to be with the Utah Jazz. Because he rarely gets to the free throw line, Hood has never scored with above-average efficiency in his career, and only in the first half of the 2017-18 season before being traded to Cleveland was Hood really a go-to option. Nonetheless, he's a substantial upgrade over Stauskas, giving Terry Stotts more options with the second unit. Hood could replace Seth Curry, giving Portland a giant perimeter trio with Layman and Turner, or replace Layman if he's needed in the starting lineup because of Maurice Harkless' ongoing battle with knee soreness.
I might have preferred more of a two-way option on the wing, someone better suited to finishing games alongside Lillard and McCollum if Harkless continues to be limited by his knee. Justin Holiday might have fit that bill ideally. However, if the Blazers wanted to make their current plan of playing Lillard and McCollum together as much as possible work, Hood is a solid addition.
By including Baldwin in the trade, Portland ensured that the team's luxury-tax bill won't increase much with Hood's addition. It also clears a roster spot, likely at some point to be used to add another emergency point guard.
Cleveland Cavaliers: B-plus
Getting a pair of second-round picks for Hood salvages one of last year's deadline mistakes by the Cavaliers. Hood struggled badly in the postseason, posting a .468 true shooting percentage -- actually better than he managed in the 2017 playoffs in Utah, which should temper the Blazers' expectations to some extent -- and ended up taking a one-year qualifying offer as a restricted free agent.
Though Hood is just 26 and started all 45 games he played this season, he never seemed to fit into Cleveland's long-term plans. That's typically the case with players who take the qualifying offer; Spencer Hawes remains the only player coming off a rookie contract to do so and then re-sign with the same team the following summer. So getting anything for Hood, even second-round picks that won't convey for a few seasons, was a win at this point.
Because he's on a one-year contract that would have yielded Bird rights at its conclusion, Hood had to consent to losing those rights to facilitate this trade. (This works as a de facto no-trade clause for such players.) If the Cavaliers weren't interested in re-signing Hood, a likely option with their 2019-20 payroll nearing the luxury-tax line due to dead money, those rights had no value to Hood. Therefore, it's not surprising he signed off.
Acquiring two players for one will force Cleveland to waive guard Kobi Simmons before the conclusion of his 10-day contract. The Cavaliers can always re-sign Simmons after the deadline if they decide to move on from one or both of Baldwin and Stauskas.
In a bit of cap minutiae, ESPN's Bobby Marks notes that Cleveland can use trade exceptions to acquire both Baldwin and Stauskas, allowing it to create a larger exception for the value of Hood's $3.5 million salary.