Report: Cavs finalizing trade to send Kevin Porter Jr. to Rockets

The Cleveland Cavaliers are finalizing a trade to send former first-round pick Kevin Porter Jr. to the Houston Rockets, per Shams Charania of The Athletic. The Cavaliers are acquiring a future protected second-round pick in exchange for Porter, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Shams had reported last week that there was a locker room incident involving Porter and the Cavaliers, and the team was going to either waive the young wing or find a trade spot for him.

Porter hasn’t played in a game all season, sitting out early on due to personal reasons. This may be related to why Porter was traded. The USC product had a decent rookie campaign for Cleveland, averaging 10 points and 3.2 rebounds in 50 games in 2019-20. Porter was the No. 30 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft using a pick acquired from the Milwaukee Bucks.

Porter will now join a rebuilding Rockets squad that just traded James Harden for a King’s Ransom of draft picks and Victor Oladipo. With John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins also on the roster, Houston is expected to try and tank the next few seasons to build up assets for the future. Porter isn’t a bad reclamation project after a strong rookie year. If Stephen Silas can get the youngster on track, he could end up being a key rotation player down the road.