The Cleveland Cavaliers continued their roster shakeup on Wednesday as they added a big man who will likely step into the starting for the injured Anderson Varejao.
Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Cavs have traded two first-round picks to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Russian center Timofey Mozgov. The Cavs control picks from the Memphis Grizzlies and the Oklahoma City Thunder and will be sending those to the Nuggets. Obviously they won’t be high selections, but Denver could use as many assets as it can get.
The 28-year-old Mozgov is 7-foot-1 and 250 pounds, and can be an imposing force in the middle at times. He is in his fifth NBA season and has started all 35 of Denver’s games. He is averaging 8.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 25.6 minutes per game. He’s also shooting 50.4 percent from the field.
The addition of Mozgov won’t put the Cavs into championship contention immediately, but he’s a nice piece that could improve thanks to playing with guys like LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. I’d expect Mozgov to continue to log about 24 minutes per game in Cleveland.
For the Nuggets, everyone should expect Jusuf Nurkic to see a big bump in playing time. The 20-year-old Nurkic has been very good in limited minutes as a rookie. He is averaging 6.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 13.4 minutes per game. He’ll likely step into a starting role with Mozgov gone.