Cleveland Cavaliers to keep Nets' first-round pick?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to have no plans to trade the Brooklyn Nets' 2018 first-round pick, even as Brooklyn has exceeded expectations, thus dinging the value of the pick, according to Sean Deveney of SportingNews. The Cavaliers obtained this draft pick as part of the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston.

Following from Sporting News:

“They would be open to a deal by all indications,” one general manager told Sporting News. “But they’re not talking about that pick. That’s the Plan B for the LeBron stuff and from what I know, they don’t want to budge on it.”

“The LeBron stuff” is, of course, the decision star forward LeBron James will make this summer, when he hits free agency. Cleveland will be central to two enormous decisions in the offseason, beginning with what James decides to do, but including whether the Cavs agree to pay guard Isaiah Thomas, currently rehabbing a hip injury, the max salary he will seek.

As for the possibility of dealing the pick, one league executive raised the notion that the Cavaliers’ reticence is a smokescreen, hoping to drive up the value of the pick by declaring it untouchable and betting that, eventually, the Nets will slide back in the standings and the pick will land in the top five. But the trade deadline is just six weeks away.

“The only way they trade that would be a transformational player, someone who can help them win a championship,” one executive said. “I don’t think there is necessarily a player like that out there, at least not what’s been talked about so far. But you’re not going to deal away your chance at a top player in this draft for the right to lose to the Warriors again.”