NBA Trade: Timofey Mozgov To Cleveland: LeBron James's Cavaliers Land Terrifying Denver Nuggets Russian Center

Denver Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov has been traded to LeBron James's Cleveland Cavaliers for two first round draft picks (from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies that are both lottery protected). The struggling 19-16 Cavs now have the big man to replace the unsurprisingly injured starting center Anderson Varajeo (who has played three full NBA season in his 10-year career) as the terrifying-looking 7' 1" Russian will reunite with Cavs coach and former Russian national team coach David Blatt. Mozgov will now be tasked with being the latest Eastern European center manning the post while power forward and reported 'superstar' Kevin Love listlessly looks on during defensive possessions and tries to steal rebounds from him.

ESPN's Marc Stein tweeted earlier today that the trade was possibly moving ahead, before it was confirmed this afternoon.

Deal sending Timofey Mozgov from Denver to Cleveland, I'm told, is on course to be completed as soon as today

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) January 7, 2015

Then it appeared to be happening:

Cavs & coach David Blatt really wanted Timofey Mozgov from Denver. So bad they're ready to give 2 1sts sources say: https://t.co/a6ljjDiAbW

— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) January 7, 2015

And that's what happened:

Update to Cavs story w/ @WindhorstESPN: Cavs will send TWO future firsts to Denver for Mozgov

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) January 7, 2015

As Stein and fellow ESPN-er Brian Windhorst say, LeBron's Cavaliers (well, y'know 'Actual Non-LeBron General Manager' David Griffin) "are paying a steep price by sending two protected first-round picks to get the deal done."

As for the details of the trade, they say that Cleveland will be shipping one future first round pick "from the Memphis Grizzlies from a 2013 trade" as well as another "first-rounder they acquired from the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this week in a deal involving Dion Waiters."

Yahoo Sources: Cleveland acquires Denver center Timofey Mozgov for two first-round picks. https://t.co/kuo7O9YDay

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 7, 2015

As reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports! "Cleveland has been purusing [sic] Mozgov aggressively for months, determined to reunite him with Cavaliers coach David Blatt. Mozgov played for Blatt on the Russian national team."

Stein added in his piece that Mozgov has a "strong relationship" Blatt following thier time together playing at the 2012 London Olympics, where Russia won the Bronze medal.

Aww that's nice! They're friends!

#WayBackWednesday David Blatt coaches newly acquired Timofey Mozgov in 2012 Olympics with Russia (@matt_dollinger). pic.twitter.com/N2RQ7TM8N0

— 120 Sports (@120Sports) January 7, 2015

Either way, after two bigs trades this week for the Cavs - who have now landed a defense-first shooting guard in Iman Shumpert, a proven bench scorer in JR Smith and Mozgov, a hulking brute who kind of protects the rim (or at least is better at than Kevin Love... but then, y'know, an orange juice container left on the court could do so as well) - somewhere an 'injured' LeBron James is feasibly stroking a hairless cat and whispering 'Good job, Mr Griffin, good job,' which was confirmed by the source who just made up that scene in our minds.

Well look who's already getting buckets in #TheLand... #CavsRockets https://t.co/XEPTTx2ZT2

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) January 7, 2015

If nothing else the Cavs are adding one of the NBA's scariest players... who could also play a Bond henchmen in a flash. Just take a look at this terrifying, scary-ass man.

 I'm ok

A photo posted by Тимофей Мозгов (@mozg25) on Dec 12, 2014 at 7:11pm PST