Drummond likely in final days with team

Andre Drummond grabbed his last rebound, slammed home his last dunk and block his last shot as a Cavalier.

Andre Drummond has grabbed his last rebound, slammed home his last dunk and blocked his last shot as a Cavalier.

According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Cavaliers, sliding like a boulder tumbling down the NBA East standings, are working on trading the 27-year-old dominant center and will not play him again before shipping him to another team. Drummond leads the Cavaliers with an average of 13.5 rebounds a game. He is second in scoring with 17.5 points a game.

Toronto, Charlotte and the Los Angeles Clippers are potential landing spots for Drummond, according to Sam Amico of 48minutes.com, although no trade is imminent.

“Sometimes you’re forced into difficult positions that’s not easy to navigate. But in respect to Dre and all that he’s done and accomplished and as much as he’s helped us, we thought this was the fairest thing to do for him,” Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the Cavs faced the Warriors on Feb. 15 in San Francisco.

“None of us wanted it to come to this. We had a good relationship. He liked it here in Cleveland. So, it’s not something that was easily decided upon and obviously we felt the same way about Dre. We have nothing but great things to say about him.”

The NBA trade deadline is March 25. It is unlikely talks will drag on for the full five-plus weeks — assuming general manager Koby Alrtman can find a trade partner — because the teams hoping to acquire Drummond would like to have him as long as possible to strengthen their playoff run and have him blend in with his new team.

Trading in the NBA, however, isn’t the same as trading in Major League Baseball, which makes peddling Drummond a little complicated.

The Indians made a major salary dump last month when they traded shortstop Francisco Lindor and pitcher Carlos Carrasco to the Mets for infielders Andrés Giménez andAmed Rosario plus outfield prospect Isaiah Greene and righthanded pitching prospect Josh Wolf. Salary dumps can’t happen in the NBA.

Drummond is making $28.7 million on an expiring contract. The Cavs would have to take back at least $23 million in contracts from one or from multiple players to make a trade work.

Drummond played and started 25 of the 28 games the Cavaliers played prior to facing the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco on Feb. 15. He did not play against the Clippers on Feb. 14 because of “rest,” the Cavaliers announced, even though Drummond played only 16 minutes in Denver on Feb. 10 and 17 minutes in Portland on Feb. 12. Drummond walked into Staples Center in Los Angeles for the game with the Clippers wearing a white hoodie with the word “Farewell” stitched across the left breast.

Jarrett Allen, acquired last month from the Brooklyn Nets in a trade that has turned into a steal for the Cavaliers, has taken over as the starting center for the Cavs. Allen, 22, will be a restricted free agent after this season. Drummond will be an unrestricted free agent unless he signs an extension with the team that acquires him if a trade is consummated.

The Cavaliers, meanwhile, went into the game with Golden State on a seven-game losing streak. The game with the Warriors completes a brutal fivegame road trip against playoff teams from the Western Conference.

The Cavs were 8-7 after beating the Brooklyn Nets, 125-113, on Jan. 22. They are 2-11 since then. Their only two victories in the stretch were 122-107 against the Pistons on Jan. 27 and 10098 over the Timberwolves on Feb. 1. The Wolves are last in the West at 7-20. The Pistons, 8-19, are 14th in the East, one slot below the 1018 Cavs.

The good news for the Cavaliers is forward Kevin Love is close to returning from a calf injury that has kept him out of all but the first two games of the season. Larry Nance Jr. is expected to miss four more weeks recovering from surgery to repair a broken finger on his left hand.