Report: Cavs are calling teams about Timofey Mozgov

Timofey Mozgov has had a turbulent season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Hampered by a sore knee and a seeming lack of confidence and rhythm he has seen his role within the rotation reduced significantly. As a result of that, there have been reports that teams had called the Cavs interested in making a trade for the big man, but the Cavs were not interesting. According to Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski the Cavaliers are now looking to move the Russian seven footer.

Around the West, there hasn’t been so much instability in years. Sacramento and New Orleans have discussed a Rudy Gay trade, but the Kings are unwilling on a deal that would center on Eric Gordon and Alonzo Gee, league sources said. Phoenix has worked on multi-team trades that would unload Markieff Morris, including the Cavaliers as a facilitator in a deal, league sources said. Nevertheless, the Cavs have started to make calls on the market for Timofey Mozgov, who could appeal to Western Conference contenders.

I'm not sure what kind of trade market there would be for Mozgov. It would make sense for a contender to want to take a chance on him given his small contract and potential upside, but the Cavs are a contender. There are two scenarios I could see for a Mozgov trade. The first is that a team has a rim protecting center with term left on his contract, but they want to be a player in free agency this summer. So they unload that player for Mozgov who can fill in as a stopgap, but isn't signed beyond this year. The other scenario would be that the Cavs move Mozgov for a draft pick, while also having a second trade lined up for a rim protector that would be absorbed into their traded player exception in exchange for that draft pick.

The situation is simple. The Cavs need depth at center from a player that can provide rim protection. Either Mozgov returns to form and is that player, or the team needs to make a move for a player that provides them with that. Given the team's win-now mentality, it makes some sense that they aren't taking chances when we are halfway through January and the Mozgov problem isn't going away.