The irony was more than evident Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were a disappointing 19-15 when they acquired guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks, who were embarrassed by the Cavs on Sunday and have the league’s worst record.
Additionally, Cleveland acquired former Knicks center Timofey Mozgov from Denver later that week. Since trading for Smith and Shumpert, Cleveland is a robust 17-7, has won 17 of 19 and is now a legitimate threat to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.
If not for three former Knicks, who knows what Cleveland’s record would be right now despite boasting the trio of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
“The three of them obviously have really changed the fortune of this team,” said Cleveland first-year coach David Blatt, who faced heavy criticism when the Cavs languished under .500 earlier in the season. “Because of their particular skill set and, more importantly, because of the attitudes that they brought and the way they fit right in with our guys. They are all good players and very good people and they all gelled with their teammates quickly, easily and naturally. We know the three of them can play, and they’ve shown that since they’ve come here.”
Mozgov has been a particular revelation for Cleveland, who desperately needed a center after Anderson Varejao was lost for the season with a torn left Achilles. Taking a look at his improvement from the Nuggets to the Cavs and you could almost imagine that Mozgov may have actually been worth the pair of first-round picks Cleveland had to surrender for his services.
| Mozgov 14-15 | Games | Minutes | FG % | Points | Rebounds | Blocks | PER | O Rtg | D Rtg | WS/48 |
| Nuggets | 35 | 25.6 | 50.4 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 1.2 | 13.8 | 108 | 106 | 0.097 |
| Cavaliers | 22 | 26.7 | 60.1 | 10.5 | 8.1 | 1.7 | 19.2 | 120 | 104 | 0.174 |
Having more talented teammates likely helped Mozgov get better shots and play better defense, leading to a 12-point spike in offensive rating and a markedly improved win share rate per 48 minutes.
“Timofey is a mature and solid NBA center,” said Blatt, who also coached Mozgov on the Russian national team at the 2012 Olympics. “He’s given us a great deal at both ends of the court and has fit in very well with the way we play offensively and defensively. And obviously with Andy Varejao going down, us being able to bring in a player with the caliber of Timofey has just helped us immeasurably.”
In fewer minutes and with better players around him, a healthy Shumpert has shown over his first 15 games in Cleveland that he can be a solid two-way role player, evidenced by his improvement as a Cavalier:
| Shumpert | Games | Minutes | FG % | 3FG % | Points | Steals | PER | O Rtg | D Rtg | WS/48 |
| Knicks | 24 | 26 | 40.9 | 34.8 | 9.3 | 1.3 | 12 | 97 | 110 | 0.022 |
| Cavaliers | 15 | 21.9 | 46.1 | 40.7 | 7.3 | 1.3 | 13 | 107 | 105 | 0.094 |
By taking 2.7 fewer shots per game, Shumpert has seen his field goal percentage improve by more than five percentage points. He has improved dramatically from three, in 2.1 more attempts per game, with better looks from his teammates. His defensive rating improved by five points per 100 possessions.
“Iman brings a guy who can score but also is a really good defender on the wing,” said Cleveland reserve Mike Miller, who was also encouraged by Smith’s play on the team.
“J.R. brings lightning in a bottle, a guy who can get a shot whenever he wants,” Miller said. “Something every team needs.”
Smith’s shooting numbers aren’t much better than they were in New York, but his offensive rating is 16 points higher per 100 possessions with Cleveland.
Blatt said he is extremely happy with how the three former Knicks bolstered the team’s chemistry, which is not easy to do when you change the dynamic of the team with a pair of in-season trades.
How were the Cavs able to do it?
“We’ve learned how to play with each other,” star forward Kevin Love told SheridanHoops. “They just give us a new dynamic, different looks, so we’ve been able to put the pieces together.”
“The players we brought in, Shump and J.R., have high basketball IQs and they know what their strengths are,” said big man Tristan Thompson. “So for them joining our team, it wasn’t that hard.”
Mozgov said that his new Cavs teammates treated him well from the second he joined the team, possibly in part because they knew how important he would be for them.
“They supported me and said you’re welcome and you’re part of the family,” Mozgov told SheridanHoops. “I just felt so good from the first day I got traded.”
Shumpert said it hurt to leave the Knicks when they were going through such a rough stretch, but playing winning basketball quickly helped him get over that.
“It hurt to leave in the middle of losing, but I’m never going to argue about winning,” Shumpert said. “That’s the goal at all times, so it’s nice knowing that we’re developing a chemistry that’ll push us through the playoffs.”
Blatt and numerous Cavs players were really pleased with the way the midseason additions brought energy and enthusiasm to the team, and how well the new arrivals have fit in is a credit to general manager David Griffin.
“All three are very smart players and they just put in the time to learn the system and they’ve done a great job of making it work,” said reserve guard Matthew Dellavedova. “It must be tough to change teams, change cities in the middle of a season, but they’ve done really well.”
It may have been hard for Cavs players like Miller, who has only played in four games in February, to adjust to different or diminished roles after the trades. But Miller said that the impacted players have taken everything in stride.
“We’ve got a great group of guys in here that accepted it, because every time you add new pieces, that means other people’s roles and responsibilities are going to go down,” Miller said. “Sometimes the new guys’ roles and responsibilities are different from what they’re used to, so everyone’s gotta buy in. In order to win, everybody’s gotta buy in.”
It probably wasn’t easy for the team to admit it needed help after losing eight of its nine games without James, but Miller said that the team’s expectations never changed.
“That’s a big reason,” Miller said, referring to James’ absence, “but at the same time we were man enough to understand what we needed to do to help this team. The organization was and the coaching staff was and they’ve done a great job.”
It almost seems laughable now that people were calling for Blatt to lose his job, much like it now seems absurd that people wanted the Heat to fire Erik Spoelstra in James’ first season in Miami.
With the added help of three former Knicks, the Cavaliers are well positioned to be right there in the running to finally bring a world championship back to the city of Cleveland.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for SheridanHoops who focuses on analytics, profiles and features. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. You should follow him on Twitter.