Now that Timofey Mozgov has lost his starting role with the Cleveland Cavaliers, other NBA teams are starting to make trade calls about him.
Since December 28, the Cleveland Cavaliers have demoted their previous starting center, Timofey Mozgov, to the bench in exchange for Tristan Thompson. The latter should be over the moon that he at least has the kind of role and playing time to match his five-year, $82 million contract, whereas Mozgov is at the other end of the spectrum as a subject in trade rumors.
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports has reported that since Mozgov’s move to the bench, teams from around the league have started the initial steps of pursuing a trade by checking his availability:
"As center Timofey Mozgov recently has gone from a prominent starting role to a reserve with the Cleveland Cavaliers, several NBA teams are starting to inquire about his availability via trade, league sources told Yahoo Sports.While the Cavaliers have expressed no interest in moving Mozgov, the 7-foot-1 center’s loss of his starting job, the franchise’s NBA-high payroll and his looming free agency could ultimately persuade Cleveland to make a deal. The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 18."
As Spears suggested, the Cavaliers will most likely be more tempted to trade Mozgov when thinking about the team long-term. His $4.9 million salary is pretty hefty if he’s only going to be playing 13 minutes a night like he has been over the last five games, and they won’t want to lose him for nothing when his contract expires this summer. Alternatively, if they want to re-sign him when the salary cap increases after this season, they could wind up paying a lot in a new contract.
A big man with Mozgov’s defensive presence always has value in the NBA, though, and they may consider capitalizing on that if they want to further utilize a healthy Kevin Love and Thompson at starting center.
Unless another team is feeling generous and makes an offer that the Cavaliers can’t refuse, it would still be somewhat surprising to see them trade away their best interior defensive center when they’ve won 11 of their last 13 games anyway. He’s forcing opponents to shoot just 45 percent at the rim this season, and that’s a great attribute to have — even if it’s on the bench instead of your starting lineup.
Not to mention, the problems the Cavaliers will face if they experience injuries again like they did in the Finals are going to be far worse if they don’t have someone like Mozgov to protect the paint as their backup.
They have all the pieces to make a run towards a championship to try to get revenge on the Golden State Warriors, and they don’t need to mess with that right now. That being said, now that Love is healthy and Thompson is playing large minutes as a starter, they may change their minds about Mozgov’s salary if he’s on the bench and use it on someone else.