While the Cavaliers’ roster appears very much in flux following the team’s second consecutive NBA Finals loss to the Warriors, Kevin Love says he would like to remain in Cleveland alongside LeBron James if possible.
As Matthew Florjancic of WKYC.com details, Love said after Friday’s loss that he likes playing for the Cavs and “always wanted to win here.” However, James’ free agency decision figures to dictate the direction of the organization, which Love recognizes.
“It’s something where I’m sure he will spend time with his family and when that time comes to make a decision, he will be in a good frame of mind,” Love said. “Obviously, I’d love to play with LeBron the rest of my career, but that will be a choice that he makes.”
Even if James decides to stay in Cleveland, there’s no guarantee that Love will be back too, since he could become a trade chip. However, the likelihood of the Cavs shopping Love would increase significantly if LeBron leaves, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Appearing on The Hoop Collective, Windhorst said there’s not “one player on that roster who is guaranteed to be back next year.”
“They start over (if James leaves),” Windhorst said, per RealGM.com. “They fully make Kevin Love available. I bet they would look for a first-round pick in that trade. He’s on the last year of a deal so they don’t want to take on money.”
Technically, Love remains under contract for two more years, but the final year of his deal in 2019/20 is a player option worth approximately $25.6MM. Love will be 30 years old next summer, and could decide to opt out and secure a longer-term contract, but his decision may hinge on how the 2018/19 season plays out. At this point, it remains unclear which team Love will be playing for by the time he becomes eligible to reach free agency.
Trade Love back to the T-Wolves for Wiggins. Love could become the player the Wolves had before and Wiggins looks like he’s worn out his welcome in Minnesota and would be a good player to build around in Cleveland. Minnesota gets some salary relief to sign butler and KAT to extensions.
Thing is Love could still be that player in Cleveland if he winds up being the focal point of the team. Let’s not forget Kevin Love was an all-star this year.
IMO I believe LBJ is doing his team and his home town dirty I’m sorry you need to let them know what you’re doing not like what he did before
Give the man some time to think. With their draft picks they’re going to take the best players available, and free agency doesn’t start until July.
The Finals just ended. I’m sure nobody involved wants to make any rushed decisions right now.
Yeah the man who single handedly dragged them to 4 finals and the city’s first championship in decades is doing them dirty.
Pretty sure the main reason they won the championship that yr was because of Irving not just LBJ so try again
This yr ya it was all him
i agree, i dont agree that he should just leave cleveland in shambles like that again lol. in the very least he should let them know by the draft so that they can trade love and other pieces for picks. realistically though, he’ll probably wait til his deadline on the 29th
The longer he waits the better (for fans of staying). That was an exhausting year and if he decides while still tired then it will be Leave. Right now it’s Leave. Cavs draft Porter, maybe he hangs around. Cavs draft Sexton, GILBERT wants to move on!
I agree. Draft day is June 21st. I think he’ll wait and see who the Cavs draft and in all likelihood will probably want to know a pathway the FO can take to move some of their bad contracts. He’ll probably want to see where Cousins, George and Paul go first.
If the cavs draft someone that’s the end of the Lebron era in Cleveland.
No it’s not, just because they draft a guy doesn’t mean he can’t be traded after the draft. They traded Wiggins after the Summer League.
Yeah, there are no game changers, franchise types at pick 8. They need to package that pick for a proven player to add to the mix to have ANY shot at keeping LBJ. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Lakers trade Ball and sign Bron and CP3. Doubt they could move enough cap space, but if possible, maybe PG, CP3 and Bron.
That’s kind of an ignorant thing to say. Plenty of stars have been drafted after the 8th pick that are legit stars. Klay Thompson, Kawahi Leonard, Donovan Mitchell, etc. Cleveland has a new GM. Just a matter of “is he a good enough talent evaluator to find them, if they exist in this draft”. Keep in mind that in addition to being drafted after the 8th pick alllll of those guys were PROJECTED to be mid-round pics.
Just using nbadraft dot com.
2015 Devin Booker projected 14th went 13th
2014 Nikola Jokic projected 53rd went 41st
2013 Steve Adams 14th went 12th, Giannis 15th went 15th, Rudy Gobert 29th went 27th
Point is, even if you aren’t a GREAT talent evaluator you can stumble upon stars that weren’t projected to be top 10 and were drafted where expected or even later.
By the way, shout out to the Nuggets (Mitchell, Jukic and Gubert) for finding those non-lottery gems, although they immediately traded Gubert for a scrub.
If someone slips down to the Cavs (Porter?) or they draft someone LBJ is intrigued by, then that plus another move or two might sway LBJ to stay one more year.
And the Hawks have Cleveland’s first rounder next year if I’m not mistaken.
Top ten protected, which is an incentive to start tanking quickly (if Leave).
BTW Cavs have to make a pick due to Stepian rule. It can be traded later (if Stay).
I would take 2 yrs of Kevin Love if LBJ n PG13 didnt join the Sixers.
If LBJ leaves would Love for Fultz, and one of this years 1st rnd picks and the 76ers 2010 pick seem reasonble? Another player may have to comeback to Cleveland to make it work.
I wouldn’t trade Fultz for Love tbh.
What good is Fultz going to do for Philly? Especially, if LBJ goes there. In addition, Love is exactly what they need. A stretch 4 who can create some space for Embid in the post and Simmons to slash to the whole and kick out to. He’s still a top 10 rebounder which can take some load off of Embid and his delicate body. And he’s a cerebral player that LBJ trusts. If LBJ were to go to Philly I wouldn’t be shocked to see Love or Korver join him via trade.
“hole”
Love has bad knees and a bad back and is owed 50M. Basically it could go way wrong and make a bad trade up for fultz look that much worse. I would give picks. Bc they have the cap space outright. This is a LBJ PG13 contingency idea. Like they went to LA.
Love had minor knee surgery to remove loose bodies. He was out 6 weeks which means it wasn’t that serious because there was no structural damage (like Kyrie for instance). He hasn’t missed any time because of his back in the last two years. He missed time from having his shoulder yanked out, two concussions and a hand injury. If you want a 20/10 stretch 4 who can shoot the 3 and spread the floor it’s going to cost you. I think it’s a stretch to classify Love’s contract as “bad”. Shoot Paul Milsap signed a 3/$90 mil deal and he’s nowhere as good as Love.
Love and the 8th pick to the knicks for one of the PG and Thomas and the 9th pick
I’m a Knicks/Cavs fan. Why would the Cavs a) want either of their PG and Thomas b) Have to send a pick along with Love. Love is an all-star. This trade is not a salary dump. Look around at some of the players making a lot more than Love. Quite a few were never all-star caliber players. Love can still get you 20/10 with great shooting from 3pt land.
To be honest, the Knicks shouldn’t be looking to acquire ANY vets making big money at the moment. Love isn’t going to make them a contender and I don’t think he’s the kind of player Fizdale is looking for.
Build around Love, don’t move him. I would trade Lebron and Tristan to Boston for Kyrie.
K-Love cannot go back to Minny, he cannot play with KAT, not compatible.
Kyrie cannot go back to Cleveland HE & the team sucked for all the years without Lebron.
Lebron is not doing anything wrong by taking his time to think what to do with his life, career & job, thinking of his family too, people always say players are not loyal to teams, I say teams are not loyal to players, as soon as they no longer need/want you they get rid of you, so why would the players be loyal to them, at the end of the day the players make the league & the entertainment not the teams, they are the important thing.
They have good players…th y have screwy Lue who doesn’t know who to play. JR Smith should have been benched…down by 7 in OT and Korver on the bench. Nance, Clarkson, hood….they all can play but the goofy gatekeeper wants to play “my guys”. Hood did the best job on KD…when he finally got in. Dumpster fire alert!
Hood should have been purposed to defense from the getgo. Let him earn the role he had in Utah. He wound up adrift until he got set aside. When finally called upon he was mad!– and free.
POR, UTA, DEN, PHX, I guess all the western teams are the best landing spots for Love.
I can picture this weird trade, if Lebron leaves:
Love for Faried, Plumlee and Lyles.
This saves DEN some cap space and they still have Milsap, Jokic & 2 youngsters at 4/5. DEN is trying to keep a roster together that did not make the playoffs; this is a boost.
Cavs can build with Lyles & Plumlee.
If Lebron stays, is POR interested in moving Mccollum? Doubt it. A Korver-Harkless trade would save POR ~$11mil.
Faried and Plumlee are too old and really are limited players for the Cavs to “build around” and they each have 1 and 2 years left of control. Lyles is ok but I’m not sure what his upside is and since Nance, like Tyler, is at the end of his rookie contract I would rather invest in keeping Nance vs Lyles.
I think ppl are under valuing Kevin Love for some reason. I mean, he’s not good enough to be the #1 or #2 on a championship contender but I think he can make a lot of sense for teams looking to get over the hump and it’s still only a 2 year commitment.
Westerner Love will leave if James leaves; above he said the Cleveland attraction is James. And Gilbert will okay that, to get rising pre-prime players that can draw James back. Lyles 22 and Plumlee 28 are that, check their prorated stats. Centers can be older.
Mo need to decide between Lyles and Nance!
Kevin Love is getting dumped some place like SAC or PHX if LeBron leaves. He has no say and they will take best offer. If they won’t pay him then they obviously don’t want money back. Maybe if it’s to give Faried a new start and Love does some damage up in DEN. Wouldn’t it be funny if LeBron takes his talents to Philly and watches his kids kill it in the same high school that Kobe once played? LeBron loves beating the greats.
Why would two rebuilding teams like Sac or Phx want to take on Love’s contract when they a) aren’t contending for the next 2 years b) probably don’t have the right contracts to send back to Cleveland to offset the money?