Report: Rodney Hood, Derrick Rose, George Hill, More Involved in 3-Team Trade

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a busy Thursday afternoon.

After Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer reported they traded Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and a first-round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the team was involved in a head-turning three-way deal with the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings:

To recap, Cleveland gets Rodney Hood and George Hill, Utah gets Derrick Rose and Jae Crowder, and Sacramento gets Iman Shumpert and Joe Johnson in the trade.

Rose will likely be released after the trade, per Shams Charania of The Vertical. Rose was slated to be an unrestricted free agent after the season.

Hood is an intriguing talent for the Cavaliers' championship aspirations. The 25-year-old is a solid wing player who's averaging a career-high 16.8 points per game and shooting a career-best 38.9 percent from three-point range.

Now was the perfect time to see what Hood can do since he's in the final year of his contract before hitting restricted free agency this summer. Being able to play a prominent scoring role for the Cavaliers down the stretch gives him a bigger spotlight than the Jazz could offer. 

Durability has been a problem for Hood throughout his career, though. He's played more than 60 games just once in the previous three seasons, so a strong finish to the year will help him cash in on a contract this offseason.

The only way the Cavaliers are going to make it back to the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year is by improving a defense that is 29th in the league in defensive rating, per NBA.com. The additions of Hood and Hill may not help much in that respect, though, considering they have each struggled on that side of the floor.

Opponents shoot 5.1 percent better than their normal averages when Hood guards them this season, per NBA.com. As for Hill, Sacramento's defensive rating was 112.9 when he was on the floor and improved to 107.3 when he was off it, per NBA.com.

For Sacramento, Hill had already lost his starting job to De'Aaron Fox this season. His departure figures to open up even more playing time for the rookie, which could prove critical for a Kings team in rebuilding mode looking for young talent to blossom.

Even with significant changes to the rosters of the Jazz and Kings, Cleveland's continued movement is the primary storyline of Thursday's trade deadline as it looks to turn things around before the stretch run after going 7-13 in the last 20 games.