Heading into this offseason, the chances of Kevin Love heading to the Cavaliers were slim. But that was before LeBron James decided to return his talents to Cleveland. When LeBron announced his decision to sign with the Cavs, he preached patience, and in a move to lower expectations, implied that the team wouldn’t expect to contend for a championship this coming season.
But acquiring a player of Love’s caliber could certainly accelerate that timetable, which is one reason that Cleveland has seemingly been burning up the phone lines trying to work out a deal to acquire the stat-sheet-filling power forward. The feeling is apparently shared by Love, who, as recently reported, may have formally requested a trade to Cleveland via his agent.
Numerous other teams have been attempting to work out a deal, including the Warriors, Celtics, Lakers, Bulls and Knicks. Golden State still appears to be Cleveland’s main competitors for Love, but the Warriors have expressed an unwillingness to include Klay Thompson as part of the deal, which has stalled talks between the two franchises.
The potential blockbuster deal between the Wolves and the Cavs is being complicated by the insistence of Minnesota coach and president of basketball operation Flip Saunders that Cleveland include No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins as part of any package for Love. Wiggins recently signed with the Cavs, so they will have to wait 30 days before they can officially deal him away. But that is only a minor issue if both franchises are serious about making a trade.
Should the Cavs relent and include Wiggins if it nets them Love? Wiggins has a wealth of potential and could turn out to be a superstar, and the type of player you can build a champion around, but he has yet to play a minute of regular season action. Whereas Love has career averages of 19.2 PPG, 12.2 RPG, and 2.5 APG. He’s also only 25 years old and just entering his prime. The knock on Love of course is that in six seasons he has yet to lead his team to the playoffs, and that he is a subpar defender.
As for Wiggins, his value is more theoretical at this point. There have been numerous players, including first overall draft picks, who enter the league being touted as franchise changing talents, only to disappoint and underperform. The ceiling on the rookie appears to be incredibly high, but is holding onto him and gambling he’ll turn out to be a better player than Love worth the risk?
The other aspect to factor in is the leverage that Cleveland may have gained in the trade talks if Love indeed told the Timberwolves that he would opt out after the 2014/15 season and would not re-sign with the team. And if Love also specifically requested a trade to Cleveland, that could complicate matters further.
Cleveland could also decide to hold off on depleting its young assets and simply play out this season with its current roster, then try to clear enough cap room to sign Love next summer outright. This might allow them to keep Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and whichever other pieces, including draft picks, that they would have had to ship to Minnesota to get this deal done, but it would still be a challenge. The Cavs already have more than $48MM in commitments for 2015/16, assuming James opts in and the team picks up its option on Dion Waiters.
So now it’s time for you to step into Cavs GM David Griffin‘s shoes and make the call. Do you relent and include Wiggins if it will bring Love’s talents to Cleveland? Or do you draw a line in the sand and refuse to offer Wiggins, even if it potentially costs you a LeBron-Love pairing?
Play out the year… use Haywood’s contract to do a sign & trade for Kevin Love next summer. This year work out a way to get your stretch 4 in Ryan Anderson….
Cle gets Anderson
Storks get Bennett & J. Richardson & a Cle 2nd round pick
Philly gets Gordon, Dellavedova & a lottery protected 1st round pick from the Pelicans.
*Pelicans…Cleveland doesnt need to make that move, and I would expect Philly would just sign Bledsoe to the max if they wanted to take on money and possibly win games this year. I also dont think the Pelicans would want to move Anderson b/c it doesnt make much sense…
Cleveland should be focusing on obtaining some rim protection and someone to guard the PG spot. They do that, they’ll be a contender in the improved East
Wiggens can guard the PD spot.
true, as can LeBron, but you need their athleticism on the wing as well. Since they already have a lot of depth on the wings, that defender should probably be another PG
The Cavs have a PG and he’s not sitting down.Irving can;t guard a PG, the 2 guard will have to that, same as Klay does that for Curry.
I agree with you. I’m just saying that the Heat have shown in the past how important it is to have that other guy to guard the PG spot, which is why they drafted Norris Cole
Philly is looking to accumulate assets, and the future pick in my scenario is that asset, I don’t know if they are even at the salary cap floor right now though…
ya but Philly is trying to be terrible this year again, so they wouldnt want the few wins Gordon would get them…
I don’t know that Gordon gives them a few wins. He’s just a chucker imho. The only difference between him & tony wroten would be $ and meeting the salary cap min. He’d also have trade value next season as an expiring contract. Plus, how many games does he even make it through?
Bro, teams aren’t just going to give Cleveland assets without getting value in return. There’s no way Minnesota helps Cleveland get Love unless Wiggins is involved, and there’s no way the Pelicans let Anderson go for someone they hope is a third as good as him.
Bro, each day Minnesota has Love on their roster, the less their leverage becomes. He can just walk to the Lakers if he wants next season, they have the cap space, so will the Knicks. And I said use Haywood’s contract because it’s got 15.5 MM value when they trade him next offseason…
As far as the pelicans go, if they can figure out a way to get rid of Eric Gordon that involved Anderson as well, they’d do it. Outside of trading Davis, they’d figure out any way they could get rid of Gordon and go for it. Money that’d free them up to go after a true C in Marc Gasol, Deandre Jodran, Robin Lopez – allowing Davis to play the 4 exclusively. I mean seriously who gives up a 1st round pick for Omir Asik? Even if it’s weirdly protected.
No reason for the Cavs to give up Wiggens in a trade for Love.
Love has made it clear that he’s wants to go to the Cavs, and if he can’t do it in 14-15, he’ll do it as a free agent after the season.
No team is going to give up 3 pieces for one year of Love. Flip overplayed his hand. Cavs can give up Bennett and a first along with a veteran they can get from another team. That is plenty for a guy that’s a one year rental.
I personally dont think Kevin Love fits that team to be honest. He fits offensively, but the issues defensively are obvious. Also, thanks to Dan Gilbert, its very hard to keep 3 stars together and build anything around it. To have to pay both LeBron and Love $20 million+ and then Irving $18 million, that kind of doesnt leave much room for anything else. I’ll continue to say that I think the Cavs should build around this roster, around LeBron, Wiggins, Waiters, Irving, Thompson, and Bennett. Keep the cost controlled young guys so you can add the role players you need. Besides, if they figure out how to play together, they have a pretty dynamic offensive team already anyway
Someone will probably bash this at some point because they don’t think they can work it out in the Cap, but they can technically. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if they keep them all and Bennett doesn’t improve at all do they renounce him or trade him for a future 2 and “cash considerations”. The same with Thompson, will he be worth a QO to them next season or will they use him to facilitate a trade to free up space for Love.
I think a bigger problem is thinking that Kevin Love is a max contract guy, especially in Cleveland. He has, apparently, made it known that he wants to play with LeBron, and that he will only re-sign with a team that trades for him if it’s the Cavs. I don’t think Cleveland will have to offer near the max for him. If Wade and Bosh can take less money for 4 years, so can Love.
Besides, based on similarity scores, Love isn’t a max contract player anyways. He’s a solid #2 guy. He’s quite figuratively the Pippen to LeBron’s Jordan. Seeing the number of guys that would love to play with LeBron, I don’t see Irving trying to squeeze for every cent he can get. Of course, I don’t know the guy, but if I was a professional basketball player, I’d definitely take less money to not only play with the best in the business, but to play with 4 #1 overall picks (LeBron, Irving, Bennett, Wiggins).
Irving already signed his extension. I also doubt Love would want to take less to go to Cleveland and play with LeBron. Part of the whole reason it was easy to take less was b/c it was in Miami and also the lack of state income tax.
Tax issues are important. Max tax rate in Minn is 9.85, Max in Ohio is 8. Maybe he shaves 1.85% off the max. lol