A seven-game win streak was not going to lull general manager Dennis Lindsey into believing his team was whole enough — for the time being or for the seasons ahead. His immediate plan just found the on-ramp toward a more steady, secure route to the playoffs, all as he looked in his rearview at achieving something he missed on last summer.
Obtaining Jae Crowder had been attempted via sign-and-trade in the Gordon Hayward fiasco with Boston in July. Just before the trade deadline on Thursday, Lindsey got his man while dealing skittish Rodney Hood to Cleveland, where the former Jazz wing can see what it’s like to play and live and try to stay healthy and find a consistent stroke in the long shadow of the king.