NBA Rumors: Cavs Considering Making Pitch for Aldridge

Cleveland Cavaliers' news is flying around left and right in the national media this week. In a largely narrative-based column that served no purpose this morning, Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski did drop this interesting piece of information about the Cavaliers' plans for the summer:

Privately, the Cleveland front office has pitched a fantasy of trading young players and picks to Portland for All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge, sources said. Only, that's never going to happen. Cleveland is far higher on its two top-five picks, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters, than the rest of the NBA.

This strategy, actually echoed by Fear The Sword's own David Zavac earlier in March, is something interesting to consider, even if Aldridge isn't the eventual target. It seems the Cavaliers' front office may actually be considering accelerating the rebuild process and making a deal for a veteran all-star. This makes me think that the front office thinks they are closer to competing for the playoffs than meets the eye.

Considering Aldridge particularly, he has two seasons and $29.3 million dollars left on his deal. I think he'd be a great fit next to Tristan Thompson or Anderson Varejao, who could do the dirty work for his smooth midrange game. Watching him run the pick-and-pop with Kyrie Irving is making me swoon as we speak.

As far as what an offer could look like, I imagine it would have to include one of Waiters or Thompson along with their first rounder this year, which will end up somewhere between 1-6, most likely in the 2-4 range. Whether or not that's something either team would accept, who knows. But one thing that is certain is that this is going to be an exciting and important offseason for the Cavaliers.