Cleveland Cavs Make Big Move

The Cleveland Cavaliers certainly made a splash on the day of the NBA's trading deadline. As the reigning Eastern Conference Champions, the Cavs refused to be left out of the NBA Finals discussion. So they shoved their way into the mix with one of the biggest trades in NBA history.

In a trade that included 11 players between three teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers brought the Chicago Bulls' Joe Smith and Ben Wallace, and the Seattle Sonics' Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West.

The only members of their team that they gave up were Larry Hughes, Shannon Brown, Donyell Marshall, and Drew Gooden. While those four players certainly are talented, they never reached their expected level of performance while in Cleveland uniforms.

So at the end of the day, the players coming to Cleveland are far more important than the players that went to the Bulls and Sonics. Now you have a Cleveland Cavaliers team that is possibly built to make a run at not just the NBA Finals, but at an NBA Finals championship.

It is less than a year ago that the Cavs were in the NBA Finals. They were swept by the San Antonio Spurs, the best team in the West. If the Spurs are considered to be the best team in the West again this year (and they probably should be after committing highway robbery by stealing Kurt Thomas from the Sonics), then it is not absurd to suggest that the Cavs have caught up to them with this trade.

Delonte West certainly is an upgrade over Shannon Brown. West has a PER of 10.1 and Brown only had a PER of 8.5. Szczerbiak has been much better than Hughes has this season with a PER of 16.0 versus Hughes' PER of only 12.0. And Ben Wallace (PER of 12.1) and Joe Smith (PER of 17.4) are far better than anything Drew Gooden and Donyell Marshall can give you in terms of efficiency.

Leaving the stats out of it, those players are just better at face value. The Cavs now have a true point guard in West. He averages 6.3 assists per 40 minutes and he shoots a decent percentage from the field for his career (44.4%) and even shoots at a decent rate from three-point land 37%. Moreover, Ben Wallace is far better than anything they were getting from Gooden on the defensive end. He is an energizer who you can put on any player in the league on the defensive end, and you know that he is going to clean up on the boards when motivated to do so. Wally and Joe Smith are two capable veterans who are going to do what is required of them. Wally can hit from the perimeter and he can create his on shot. In addition, Joe Smith, although overlooked in all of this, is really going to hurt opposing defenses if they guard him one-on-one.

Oh yeah... and they have LeBron James!

So are the Cavs the favorite in the Eastern Conference?

Not quite yet. They have to prove they can gel as a team before the playoffs, but if they do, I certainly move them ahead of the Orlando Magic and even the Boston Celtics. And while they beat the Detroit Pistons with far less last season, I still think that will be a competitive matchup that they could fall short in. Nonetheless, they certainly are a contender, and if they were to make the Finals to face the Spurs once again, I will say this... the world should get ready to crown the King.

Disclaimer: I did not just pick the Cavs. I only said that if they face the Spurs in the Finals, and they have to make it their first, then I pick them to pull off the upset in that specific circumstance.