Sports

Cavaliers can copy Thunder with cost-cutting win-win Schroder trade

King James Gospel · Jul 20, 2026 16:09 · 5 min read

Cavaliers can copy Thunder with cost-cutting win-win Schroder trade — May 21, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dennis Schroder (8) dribbles against the New York Knicks during the second quarter of the eastern conference finals of the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Heading into next season, it would make perfect sense for Cleveland to move on from Schroder, for both financial and on-court reasons.

It is far from a secret in sports that one extremely prevalent route to success is to followed the tried-and-true methods of teams that have been successful.

But, as it stands, despite an Eastern Conference Finals appearance this past season, the current iteration of the Cleveland Cavaliers have not been successful. And they have a problem. A big problem, one with the potential to derail their championship aspirations altogether.

The Cavaliers are too expensive

The Cavaliers are severely over budget. Not just that, but they’re over budget with a group that, as currently constructed, ismaybeone of the six best teams in the East. As of now, consensus, would certainly place them behind the reigning champion New York Knicks, as well as the newly constructed versions of the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors (if the Kawhi Leonard trade goes through).

That list also doesn’t even include the reigning No. 1 seed, the Detroit Pistons, nor arguably the most successful team this decade, the Boston Celtics, nor the team that made the NBA Finals two seasons ago and is getting its best player back, the Indiana Pacers.

So, while Cleveland’s place in the Eastern Conference hierarchy is a story for another day, the front office’s hesitations to break up an expensive team that just isn’t good enough is concerning, to say the least.

As of now, the Cavaliers’ financial situation does not look altogether too terrible, at 22nd most expensive in the league. But, the key is that James Harden’s eventual salary is not yet factored in. His annual range is debatable, but somewhere between $30-40 million seems reasonable.

Once Harden comes off the board, Cleveland will likely rank somewhere between second and seventh-most expensive, a worrying prospect. It is even more worrisome considering the increasing likelihood of a reunion with LeBron James. Should that happen, there is hardly any doubt that some significant piece of the current roster would be dumped.

Given Koby Altman’s reservations about breaking up the core, he, as previously referenced, should look towards the recipe of perhaps the most ascending and successful team in the league, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Cavaliers’ version of Aaron Wiggins is sitting in plain sight

While the Thunder have far exceeded the current version of the Cavaliers, they recently faced a similar predicament. With a roster quickly increasing in wages and the intent to bring back the core of the group, Sam Presti and his staff made some cuts in the margins to both get less expensive and keep the makeup of the team the same.

One of these was the trading of Aaron Wiggins to the Atlanta Hawks. Wiggins was a key part of the 2025 championship team, ranking 8th on the team in minutes per game during that run. While he had a relatively down year this past season, he still was a key role player with real value.

However, just a few weeks ago, Oklahoma City shipped him to the Atlanta Hawks for nothing more than two second round picks. Clearly, Wiggins has more value than that, but the Thunder’s goal was clear: they were going to do whatever they could to get cheaper, a vote of confidence in the both the core and the ability to draft and develop younger players.

Back to Cleveland, again, the Cavaliers do in fact have an outlet to make a similar deal and accomplish a variety of goals. Dennis Schroder may not have as much time on his side as Wiggins, but, he is probably a better player and could land Cleveland a nice sum of draft capital.

Schroder is due to make over $30 million the next two years including over $14.8 in 2026-27. Subtracting that from the roster would all of a sudden make the team much more flexible to get both Harden and James into the roster. They would probably want to make another move if that reality came to fruition, but they wouldn’t necessarily have to if they dealt Schroder.

The Cavaliers have other options behind Schroder

While Schroder did not have the strongest playoffs this past season and shot poor percentages from the field in that run (38.1 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3), he is a key piece of the team as the backup point guard who can take some of the on-ball pressure and responsibility off of Harden and Donovan Mitchell.

However, Schroder’s potential loss can be replaced or at least mitigated by players on significantly cheaper contracts. Firstly, the Cavaliers made the decision to exercise Craig Porter Jr.’s $2.4 million option for next season. At the very least, Cleveland has a guy who has been in the system, knows how the team wants to play and is cheap.

There are also avenues for youth development at the point guard position. When the team drafted Meleek Thomas with the 34th pick in this year’s draft, many thought he would just add to the Cavaliers’ wing depth. But, there are some who believe thathe may develop as a lead guard, as evidenced by his 13 assists through three Summer League games despite having a questionable playmaking record coming out of Arkansas.

Tyrese Proctor, going into his second year, also could have a future as a point guard and while it may be unlikely, he did spend some time in that role at Duke. He also ranked fifth on the team last year in assist rate, behind only Harden, Mitchell, Schroder and Porter Jr., despite a limited sample size.

Plus, the wild card is, once again, James, who could occupy the role of a lead guard as he has done so many times in his career.

So, when it comes down to it, a Schroder dump seems at the same time both obvious and inevitable, while being the clearest route to a sustainable future of competing for championships.