Cleveland Cavaliers trade couple of draft picks for Denver Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov
The Cleveland Cavaliers were part of a three team trade involving Dion Waiters that was announced on Monday night, which included teams like the New York Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. However that trade didn’t solve their biggest problem for the team.
With the star power at their disposal in their roster, offense was never an issue or a concern. The story is very different on the other end of the court. The Cavaliers have struggled at defense and the lack of a legitmate shot blocker hasn’t helped their cause.
On Wednesday night, only a couple of days after the earlier trade, the Cavs traded a couple of first round draft picks to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov averages 8.5 points and 7.8 rebounds and will receive a lot of minutes with the team’s earlier center Anderson Varejao was ruled out for the season with a torn Achilles.
Team general manager David Griffin expressed the importance of the addition of Mozgov:
''His numbers didn't need to be flashy. We've got three guys that are top 20 players in the NBA. Those guys can be flashy. We need guys that do the dirt work. ... It fits our needs.''-David Griffin.
Cleveland superstar LeBron James who is currently resting with back and left knee soreness also expressed how Mozgov was something the team needed:
''It's something that we need. It's something that once Andy went down, it was something obviously we needed to get bigger in the interior and adding a guy like that who can protect the rim, it will help our team as well.''-LeBron James
Mozgov might take some time to get familiar with Head Coach David Blatt’s offense but defense and interaction with Blatt should not be a problem. Mozgov was on the Russian National Team that Blatt coached a couple of years back.