The Denver Nuggets are acquiring center Cleveland Cavaliers center JaVale McGee for Isaiah Hartenstein and two future second-round picks, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
What can Denver expect from McGee? And what does this deal mean for Cleveland?
Kevin Pelton hands out trade grades for both teams.
The deal
Nuggets get: JaVale McGee
Cavaliers get: Isaiah Hartenstein, 2027 unprotected second-round pick and a protected 2023 second-round pick
Get more trade grades from Pelton here
Denver Nuggets: B-
It's a reunion for McGee with the Nuggets, who acquired him at the 2012 trade deadline and traded him at the deadline three years later. In the interim six years, McGee has gone from promising yet inconsistent young player to more reliable role player on championship teams for the Golden State Warriors in 2016-17 and 2017-18 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019-20.
Denver is certainly hoping to get that version of McGee rather than the less focused one we've seen with the Cavaliers this season. Long one of the league's most efficient scorers because of his ability to finish above the rim, McGee has seen his true shooting percentage tumble from .652 to .554 in 2020-21, which would be his lowest mark in a full season since 2011-12 -- back when the league's centers were not nearly as efficient as they are today.
In part, McGee hasn't gotten the same kind of opportunities to finish with Cleveland's young backcourt as he enjoyed playing alongside superstars in his past two stops. His dunks per minute are down by half from 3.6 per 36 in 2019-20 -- and better than 4 the previous four seasons -- to 2.4 this year. However, McGee bears part of the blame too. His shot selection has been tragicomic at times, including attempting a career-high 20 3-pointers (he has made five) and shooting 35% on post-ups, according to Second Spectrum tracking, fifth-lowest among the 50 players who have attempted at least 25 such shots.
Playing with Facundo Campazzo and Jamal Murray with the Nuggets' second units, McGee should get more lobs to finish. Denver will hope McGee can boost the efficiency of those lineups with MVP candidate Nikola Jokic. Even lineups with Murray but not Jokic have rated in just the 11th percentile leaguewide in terms of offensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass. Specifically, the Nuggets have struggled to get enough scoring at the rim without Jokic, something McGee is ideally suited to help.
The question is whether Denver would have been better off waiting for a buyout market that looks likely to be heavy on centers. At the same time, the Nuggets won't necessarily win those battles with warmer and bigger markets, so giving up a couple of distant second-round picks to lock in McGee wasn't a bad idea.
Cleveland Cavaliers: A
Last November, the Cavaliers got a second-round pick from the Lakers in order to take on McGee's contract, so adding two more second-rounders to trade him away is a nice piece of business for the Cleveland front office. The Cavaliers have Jarrett Allen in place as their starting center and can take a look at Hartenstein (who has a $1.8 million player option for 2021-22) or audition a backup using the roster spot they're expected to clear by buying out Andre Drummond.