Frontcourt Moves: McGee, Hartenstein, Drummond

As anticipated, the NBA trade deadline saw the Cavs reconfiguring personnel at the center position. Cavs: the Blog staff will miss JaVale McGee’s flair and his anchoring of the second unit.

If you'd told me in December that Javale McGee would be the heart and soul of the Cavs' bench I'd have told you that you're nuts. Here we are though.

— HoopsDogg (@oldseaminer) March 22, 2021

In a season that started with Andre Drummond working his chaotic magic at center and the the Cavs giving Thon Maker run as his backup, it seems that Koby Altman has a vision of sort for stability at center in the coming year. Jarrett Allen is the (obvious) main man and newly-acquired Isaiah Hartenstein will try to fill the very large shoes left by his predecessors.

Here’s a nice mixtape of some of Hartenstein’s highlights on the year so far, which include dunking the ball off of Dylan Windler’s shoe.

According to Chris Fedor, “the Cavs expressed interest in Hartenstein this past offseason” and

J.B. had this to say:

J.B. Bickerstaff spoke about #Cavs new addition Isaiah Hartenstein at shootaround today.

“Right away he brings a physicality that helps.” pic.twitter.com/5w3hTucaP8

— Kelsey Russo (@kelseyyrusso) March 26, 2021

As commenter, Bacon noted on the comment board, Hart’s biggest problem is his absolutely prodigious foul rate. As other commenters noted, this is like fouling out twice a game. Still he brings a lot of good stuff to the table.

Hartenstein has a WEIRD statistical profile. I never remember seeing a bench big that had a positive +/- all of his first three years in the league without getting more PT- the reason is obvious he fouls 10 times per 100 possessions (averaging 2 a game this year in 9 mpg!). Guys who foul at those rates tend to be negatives simply because FTs are still the best shots in the game, and he also turns it over a lot- and you just expect guys who could and turn it over a lot to just bleed points. But his high Orebs rate/steal rate/block rate mean that even though he gives up these issues on net his team gains +4.2 possessions/100 (Orebs+steals-TOs) when he is on the court plus he blocks 2.8 per 100.

McGee will be missed, but the Cavs have again gone young — like Jarrett Allen, Hartenstein is 22; their birthdays are about two weeks apart. And the swap with Denver comes with two second-round picks, for what that is worth. Probably more importantly, the Cavs escaped getting saddled with someone like Aron Baynes (who might have arrived via a deal for Drummond, for example) to fill McGee’s minutes as a backup big and can get some stability and chemistry again in the second unit. He is on contract for about $1,763,000 next year, and then is a restricted free agent in 2022-23.

At the same time, there is no guarantee that youth itself will lead to achievement or a lasting role as the Cavs number 2 at the center position. For those readers who have managed to maintain something like a medium- to long-term memory capacity during the pandemic, it doesn’t take much to recall that the Cavs recently let go a somewhat similar prospect — Ante Zizic, who started 25 games for the Cavs in 2018-19 as a 22/23 year old. Zizic is now playing in Israel for Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Going further back, Tyler Zeller was the Cavs’ first-round pick in 2012, had three years with the Celtics after being moved there in 2014, and subsequently cycled through five different NBA franchises (including the Nuggets’ own 2019 training camp) before being cut by the Spurs earlier this year.

But that history is, hopefully, irrelevant. At the very least the Cavs have avoided a scenario whereby Larry Nance Jr. or  Kevin Love (who is probably watching Blake Griffin in envy) is forced into downstream minutes at center.

#Cavs were hoping to get a second-round pick for JaVale McGee. They got two of them, plus a young developmental big who fills backup center minutes and keeps Larry Nance Jr. and Kevin Love from having to reluctantly play that spot over the final month-plus.

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 25, 2021

Finally, although few details are available as yet on the Andre Drummond buyout, it has gone through. The press release contains some boilerplate from Koby Altman but no detail as to specifically what financial implications it will have on the Cavs salary outlook.

Andre Drummond update: ⤵️ https://t.co/E0wMuYmv0D

— Angel Gray (@Angel_Gray1) March 26, 2021

For Cavs fans inclined to grumble about the overall Drummond roller-coaster experience and what it says about the organization, it bears recalling that ‘Dre helped the Cavs notch more than a couple of wins this season and last, was wildly entertaining as well as infuriating, and in the broader context of the last decade of franchise history was a success story overall, given some of his competition in the “let’s give this guy a shot” big man category:

ROSTER UPDATE: #Cavs waive Larry Sanders.

DETAILS: https://t.co/1LYGqNosFC pic.twitter.com/gBFE97Yc7G

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 12, 2017

Never forget when Andrew Bynum shot the ball literally every time he touched it in his final practice with the Cavs💀💀 pic.twitter.com/Wp5r3eVDKB

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) July 14, 2019

Finally, rather than ending on a historical footnote which puts the agile and stats-stuffing Drummond unfairly in a category with a washed-up Larry Sanders and a fully-dysfunctional Andrew Bynum, perhaps it’s worth noting this: the trade deadline came and went, and Kevin Love is still a Cleveland Cavalier. Kev also has a new guy on the squad to bond with on the basis of shared experience in the Pacific Northwest: Isaiah Hartenstein, who grew up in Eugene Oregon and the Willamette Valley, before moving to Germany. Hartenstein has a really interesting life story which is worth reading and hopefully he brings something to the Cavs locker room culture as well.

And so long to JaVale McGee and Andre Drummond. Our best of luck to both of them — unless of course Drummond ends up on the ridiculously-stacked Brooklyn Nets and facing off against the surprisingly scrappy Cavs in the first round of the playoffs. Stranger things have happened.