CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Cavaliers, who strengthened their top rival in the NBA East this season by trading disgruntled Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas and more in the off season, gave up on Thomas and traded him to Los Angeles Lakers at the NBA trade deadline on Thursday.

An unqualified bust here, Thomas was unproductive on the court and a cancer in the locker room. He, along with valuable reserve big man Channing Frye, went to the Lakers in a trade deadline deal with vast implications for both franchises.

The stakes are very high in the deal, nothing less than the fate of the Cavs' franchise as it will be determined in LeBron James' upcoming free agency this summer.

Worst case

The worst case scenario is that the Cavs have given the Lakers the potential to become a great power quickly, while reducing themselves to irrelevance.

The Lakers' trade of Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., son of one of the greatest Cavs of the pre-LeBron era, let Los Angeles clear the salary cap space to pursue James in deadly earnest this summer. James owns a home in Los Angeles and has several business interests there.

But wait! There's more!

The Cavs almost completely remade their roster an hour or so later Thursday, acquiring George Hill and Rodney Hood, two teammates on a playoff team in Utah last season.

Hill is a 6-3 guard with overall Curry-like accuracy on the arc from 2015 through the current season of 38.8 percent, 40.3 percent and 45.3 percent.

Hill is 31, but Hood, Clarkson and Nance Jr. all bring youth to the Cavs' Codger Corps.

Clarkson and Nance Jr.



Clarkson is a 6-5 combo guard with a shooting guard's instincts even when he plays the point. He will try to fill the role Thomas failed in so miserably.

Nance Jr., at 6-9, 230, is a power forward, a banger and a willing defender with length.

Frye, Shumpert, Crowder, Rose, Wade



The Cavs dumped six players in all -- Thomas, Frye, Iman Shumpert, Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade.

Frye, 6-11 with shooting range and a high release point, lost his spot in the rotation when Thomas returned from injury. Frye's absence on the second unit let defenses overload on fellow sharpshooter Kyle Korver.

He was also a locker room "glue guy," a veteran whose professionalism made him respected and whose infectious humor made him everybody's friend.

Shumpert, injured much of the year, was a defensive stopper who was missed.

Rose and Wade were both old and fragile, particularly Rose. Wade was a model of professionalism in accepting coming off the bench. He had great chemistry with James, his friend and former Miami teammate, but both understand the game is also a business.

Crowder, who was part of the Thomas deal, was a dud despite a good game Wednesday.

Thomas

Thomas' impact, as Inspector Clouseau might have said, was more nearly that of a "beumb."

With Thomas, it was more addition by subtraction.

His last week here provided indelible memories.

James fired a crazy, wild cross-court pass about 15 feet over the 5-9 Thomas' head in Tuesday's nightmarish loss at Orlando. The Cavs would have needed an IT who was 2.6 times his actual 5-foot-9 size in order to catch the ball.

They needed much more than what they got from him in return for Kyrie Irving.

After James hit the game-winning fade-away jump shot against Minnesota on Wednesday, Thomas was pointedly excluded from the chest-bumping celebration. LeBron instead ducked IT as if he were TV investigator Carl Monday, demanding answers about wrongdoing in the family business.

(Somebody else made the first Carl Monday reference on Twitter. It's not mine. But I can't find it, so you know who you are, and props to you.)

IT's problem, in addition to a very slow recovery from his hip injury, was that he did some big-time chirping about player and coach shortcomings here. Of course, James has done that too over the years. James, however, definitely has the performance cred to do it.

Thomas never did. Not here. Not even close.