Cavs receiving heavy volume of trade calls amid rough stretch

From the outside, the vibes around the Cavaliers are not great.

The losses are piling up, the consistency still isn’t there, and Cleveland is slipping down the East while dropping games it really should be winning.

This is year four of the Core Four experiment, and fair or not, the Cavs (15-13) are nowhere near looking like a true title threat right now.

Add in second-apron reality and a roster that’s expensive and inflexible, and it’s only natural that trade chatter is starting to bubble up around the league.

That said, if the Cavaliers do make moves, two names appear to be completely off the table.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that rival teams view Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley as Cleveland’s untouchables.

That tracks. Mitchell has been the engine keeping this thing from completely stalling out. Strip him away and it’s hard to imagine where this team would be.

Mobley, meanwhile, is 24, already a Defensive Player of the Year and still very much ascending offensively. You don’t trade players like that. You build around them.

Everyone else, though, is at least being discussed.

Charania noted that Cleveland has received a heavy volume of incoming calls, even if the organization has been resistant to making a major move.

The Cavs want to see this group with more time at full strength, something they really haven’t had all season with injuries to Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, Max Strus and Sam Merrill.

Garland, Allen and De’Andre Hunter are among the names opposing teams would naturally ask about. Whether Cleveland listens may depend on what the next month looks like.

If the Cavs stabilize, this noise likely fades. If not, they could quietly become one of the more interesting teams to watch as the deadline approaches.