Cavs projected lineup after stealing De'Andre Hunter from Hawks

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been an absolute juggernaut this season — off to a 41-10 start with the best offense in the league and ranking eighth in defensive efficiency. Their strength-of-schedule adjusted scoring differential (SRS) is head and shoulders above anyone else in the Eastern Conference, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder, with whom they've already earned a season split.

That is to say the Cavaliers were already inner circle contenders coming in to the NBA Trade Deadline, but somehow found a way to make this roster even better.

ESPN's Shams Charania has reported that the Cavs are trading Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, three second-round picks and two pick swaps to the Hawks for De'Andre Hunter. They're sacrificing some depth, trading two rotation players for one — but Hunter is a huge upgrade and makes this rotation even scarier.

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Cavaliers projected lineup after adding De'Andre Hunter

Sam Merrill may still see some run on the wing but this sets the Cavaliers up for an ideal nine-man rotation moving toward the playoffs, with Mobley's minutes staggered with Allen's and the former sliding up to center whenever the latter is on the bench.

Hunter has been plagued by injuries and never played more than 67 games in his career. He's missed 14 games already this season but 10 of those came in the first few weeks of the season when he was dealing with a knee injury. Since the beginning of December, he's played in 27 of a possible 30 games. And when he's on the court, he's a perfect fit for the Cavaliers combining much of what they got from LeVert, Niang, Okoro and Wade into one player.

A fantastic defender who has the size and skill to play both wings and forwards, Hunter should improve the defensive performance of the starting lineup right off the bat and gives them a lot more flexibility when they go to the bench. On offense, he's a terrific spot-up shooter, hitting 39.3 percent from beyond the arc this season.

But Hunter is a lot more than just a 3-and-D wing. He's adept at using his size against smaller wings and has become increasingly comfortable with the ball in his hands, attacking closeouts but also in the pick-and-roll. He's averaging a shade under six drives per game this season, shooting 51.1 percent — numbers that are roughly comparable to Pascal Siakam or Cam Johnson. He also ranks in the 85th percentile in scoring efficiency as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll. The Cavs won't need him to create his offense all that often but he's more than up to the challenge of doing that efficiently as a tertiary scorer with the starters or stepping up to a secondary or even primary role with bench units.

The Cavs already had one of the best starting units in the league this season with the Wade, Okoro and Strus platooning as the fifth man. Hunter is a big upgrade over all three at both ends of the floor and makes the bench that much better by moving everyone into more constrained roles. He's also just 27 and under contract for two more seasons at about $24 million per year.

The tl;dr version is that the Cavs have pulled off a steal here, landing a perfect fitting player on a reasonable contract, with two more years of team control, all without giving up a first-round pick or a longterm rotation piece. YIKES.