The Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers have been trade partners eight times.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers are currently connected (in a way) as LeBron James is a Laker and former Laker, Larry Nance Jr, is a Cavalier. Nance being in Cleveland stems from the most recent trade between the two teams, which ironically paved the way for the Lakers to sign LeBron away from Cleveland.
The Lakers freed up salary-cap space by trading Jordan Clarkson and Nance to the Cavs for Isaiah Thomas and Channing Frye. This gave LeBron some added help for that season in Cleveland and opened up the checkbooks for his eventual arrival in LA. It played out perfectly for LA.
But it is not the greatest trade for the Lakers between the two teams, even if it inadvertently led to LeBron signing.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ best ever trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers:
During the 1979-80 season, the Los Angeles Lakers traded serviceable depth player Don Ford and the 22nd pick in the draft to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a future first-round pick, in the 1982 NBA Draft, and another serviceable role player, Butch Lee.
Ford played 106 total games with the Cavs and Lee played 11 games with the Lakers. They were non-factors.
The Cavaliers were a middle-of-the-road team that floated around .500 that was looking to make moves to put them over the edge. At the time, it was not expected that the 1982 pick would have significant value, but it did.
The Cavaliers were the worst team in the league during the 1981-82 season and to this day it is still tied for the worst season in franchise history. The team did not get a chance to at least get something for it, though, as the Lakers owned their first-round pick and won the coin toss against the San Diego Clippers to have the first overall pick.
And with the pick, the Lakers selected James Worthy, who went on to be an integral part of the Showtime Lakers and eventually be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Chad Kinch, the player that the Cavaliers selected with the 22nd overall pick in the 1980 NBA Draft, played just 29 games for the Cavaliers and just 41 in his entire NBA career.
It is really a shame for the Cavaliers as well as this could have turned the tide for the franchise. The top three picks were Worthy, two-time all-star and two-time All-NBA Terry Cummings and Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins.
Cummings would not have been a franchise-altering selection but if the Cavs would have gotten Worthy or Wilkins then who knows the domino effect it would have had on the rest of the league.
Instead, the Los Angeles Lakers received yet another Hall of Famer to add to the Showtime era.