The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the center of a storm of major trade rumors ahead of Thursday night's NBA Draft, but the first reported activity falls in the "minor trade" category.
According to multiple sources, the Cavaliers are acquiring veteran point guard Ricky Rubio from the Minnesota Timberwolves for forward Taurean Prince and a future second-round pick. Wojnarowski's initial report had the second-round pick going to the Cavaliers, though later reports said otherwise.
Prince joined the Cavaliers midway through the 2020-21 season as part of the four-team blockbuster that was centered around James Harden going to the Brooklyn Nets. He averaged 10.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists across 29 games with the Cavaliers, providing a handful of starts and some useful bench minutes. The 27-year-old will now join his fourth team in as many years.
After a strong 2019-20 campaign with the Suns, Rubio returned to Minnesota, where he began his career, but couldn't find the same success with last year's iteration of the Timberwolves, who finished with a 23-49 record. Now entering his age-31 season, Rubio can provide leadership and great passing abilities as evidenced by his career 7.6 assist per game average. He can also score fairly well with an average of 11.0 points per game throughout his career and some solid shooting abilities, including a career-best 36.1 percent clip from deep in 2019-20.
As ESPN's Bobby Marks noted, this move also helps Minnesota relieve them of some of their salary cap issues.
Don't be surprised if there's more to come from Cleveland on what should be an exciting Thursday night.
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