Trades for JR Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov paying off for Cleveland in NBA play-offs

On January 5 the Cleveland Cavaliers suffered one of their more egregious defeats of the season, a 95-92 pratfall at the purposefully bad Philadelphia 76ers.

Their record fell to 19-16, LeBron James had been looking listless through much of the year and Kevin Love looked lost.

The grand Big 3 experiment hashed out in James’s return to the Cavaliers seemed to be failing.

Whether out of panic in losing to the 76ers, a weeks-long consideration that Cleveland had been less than the sum of its parts or some other motivation, that was the day the Cavs made the first of two trades that wound up altering their season.

– LeBron James, always so reliable, returns Cavaliers to NBA Finals

The deals did not seem important, at the time. Depth is important to any title contender, but top-end talent is what makes a contender. The Cavs already had that. They had LeBron James. They would be just fine.

Still, the reinforcements, first JR Smith and Iman Shumpert in a three-team deal with New York and Oklahoma City, and then Timofey Mozgov from Denver a few days later, proved their worth.

The Cavaliers bottomed out at 19-20 on January 13 but were 32-9 the rest of the way.

In the play-offs, those trades are proving even more consequential.

Love’s absence and Kyrie Irving’s assortment of ailments would have left James disastrously unsupported without the January reinforcements.

Smith, in particular, has been valuable. The erratic scorer has supplied a handy 13.5 points per game in the play-offs, shot a dependable 39.6 per cent from three and been on fire in a few key moments.

Shumpert has scored just over 10 a game, shooting 36.8 per cent from three and playing solid defence. Mozgov has been a steadying presence in the middle, with about nine points and seven rebounds per contest.

Injuries are the one great variable in the NBA. Health can be the difference between a title and a forgettable exit.

But teams can plan ahead. The Cavaliers came up with a contingency plan back in January that just may deliver them a championship in June.

jraymond@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

The Settlers

Director: Louis Theroux

Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz

Rating: 5/5

Trades for JR Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov paying off for Cleveland in NBA play-offs

Kevin Love’s absence and Kyrie Irving’s assortment of ailments would have left LeBron James disastrously unsupported without the January reinforcements, writes Jonathan Raymond.

The Settlers