Kevin Love has a chance to raise his trade value by the February deadline, which may explain why the Cavaliers aren’t putting him on the market now, writes Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com. GM Koby Altman said this week that the organization “doesn’t get better” by moving Love, and a rival executive that Pluto talked to agrees.
With LeBron James gone, Love will become the new focus of the offense in Cleveland and he has a good chance to raise the numbers of 17.6PPG and 9.0 RPG that earned him an All-Star berth this season. He also stretches opposing defense, which will give Jordan Clarkson and rookie point guard Collin Sexton easier paths to the rim.
Love will make $24MM in the upcoming season, then has a $25.6MM salary for 2019/20 that he is expected to opt out of, so the Cavaliers will likely decide to trade him at some point. The unidentified executive says he could be very popular around the deadline, especially in the Eastern Conference, where teams will see a wide open field with James now a Laker.
There’s more this morning out of Cleveland:
- The Heat, Hornets, Trail Blazers and Raptors stand out as potential trade destinations for Love, according to Frank Urbina of Hoops Hype.
- Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue will meet with Lakers coach Luke Walton and associate head coach Brian Shaw to discuss the experience of coaching James, according to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. “I’ll just tell them LeBron’s easy,” Lue said. “People get this whole thing built up like he’s hard to coach. It’s not. LeBron’s not the problem. It’s the outside tension that’s the problem. Just put added pressure immediately on the coaches, on his teammates. Now everything you do is under a microscope. … So it’s going to be a totally different change for the Lakers. They’ll be able to handle it.” Lue adds that he spoke to James a number of times while he was making his free agency decision, but never pressed him to stay in Cleveland.
- Pluto examines James’ legacy with the Cavaliers in a separate story. Through all he has accomplished, the enduring memory for James may be bringing an NBA championship to Cleveland. “Only people who are from there understand what that title meant,” said former Cavs coach Mike Brown. “To LeBron, I bet it’s worth more than all his MVP awards [four] and his other titles [in Miami] combined.”
- Ante Zizic, an overlooked part of the Kyrie Irving trade, has been putting up huge numbers in the Las Vegas Summer League, relays Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. He posted 25 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday’s loss to the Bulls.
As a Cavs fan, the silver lining of LeBron leaving is that I get to see some of the young guys (Sexton, Zizic, Cedi, maybe even Billy Preston) develop. Obviously being in position to win a title is better, but it’s still fun to watch young guys find a place in the league.
100% agree, I’ll add Nance Jr to that list as well. The absence of Lebron will let the Cavs clean up the financial mess they/he created as well.
Yeah true, I don’t really think put him in the group of new guys but I don’t think it’s out of the question that he has a little more upside to tap into either. And that’s another good point, because other than TT and the small guaranteed portions of Hill’s and JR’s contracts, there isn’t really a ton of money on the books after this year. It’s still not a great spot to be in, but this isn’t 2010 all over again or anything.
It’s fun for about a week
Can you let me just try to be optimistic?
I went through the process… once Love is traded it may be pretty terrible basketball, lot of turnovers esp with a rookie PG. Korver will be dealt for sure too.
Oh yeah, it’s gonna be ugly for sure but I’m also a Browns fan and this isn’t the first time LeBron’s left so I experienced that too. It won’t be fun but I’m trying to look at it differently than last time.
There will be a couple month’s worth of good stuff. But it will be spread out over the year!
Osman should have played a lot more last year. If they had kept Crowder, those 2 could have been disruptive on the wing, which is something the Cavs desperately needed the last couple of years.
I like Sexton’s defense, and attacking mentality. I feel like he is a little small though, and he needs to be a more willing playmaker. We knew he dribbles a lot like Westbrook and Kyrie, but 0 assists in an up and down game like in summer league is really telling…also obviously needs to improve the jump shot
I agree on everything except the no assist thing. It’s SL. Every player there is trying to show something even the lotto picks. There is no time to develop an offensive system or a defensive system. Every thing is base O and talk D. Now… once he gets to regular season, he better have at least be in the 3 to 4 per range. Unless of course the Princeton O is used (they have the players for it) and guys like Love and Zizic (as we can see already with his assists in SL) are the main culprits when it comes to assists. I’m not worried about it at the moment.
btw, SL = Summer League not Second Life
With the pace and open floor of summer league, he should get multiple assists just by running the floor. The lack of structure should lead to that, in my opinion
I would prefer Sexton play the 2 initially to ease the pressure on him, and make use of Hill. I am mystified by the “natural pointguard” talk surrounding him. He has effort, stamina and physicality on his side.
He has passed to teammates but they must finish the play. The shooting by the Cavs SL players is awful.
The proposed K Love to Charlotte trade by Urbina would be a really good deal for Charlotte.
Horrible one for the Cavs though. Those two guys don’t provide any future assets, won’t save us any money and while they might help a contending team, that’s not what the Cavs will be next season and aren’t an upgrade over Love.
Sometimes getting worse is getting better.
100% Richard.
I like the any deal where there’s a future 1st rounder involved. I didn’t see anything indicating the Blazers pick was protected. For Ibaka , I’d like to have a separate deal already in place to move him as I wouldn’t want to run the risk of not being able to move him. Neither the Blazers or Raptors picks would likely be a top 12 pick but you can still find value in the 20’s.
Dreaming obviously, but Love would be amazing on the Sixers if the Cavs are doing terrible by the deadline. Love starts with Embiid and Saric and Love stagger their minutes with Embiid. Love would excel on this shoot first Sixers team.
Read Love’s injury history is hurting his value. Said he’s one concussion away from retirement. He’s not worth what he used to be.
Teams and fans outside of NE Ohio don’t value KLove (neither did James for that matter) as much as the fans and FO in Cleveland do. At this time. That’s why it would be smart to hold on to KLove until the trade deadline as there will certainly be teams lined up to over pay for KLove seeking the good life in the East.
I disagree with you in terms of LBJs feelings towards Love. Of course I haven’t spoken to him but LBJ asked Love to join him in Cle and always spoke well of his basketball IQ and ability to stretch the floor and make great outlet passes that led to easy baskets.
As for how he’s valued I disagree as well. Anyone with intelligence understands that any 2nd or 3rd option that cannot create their own shot, will see a slight dip in their counting stats, especially like Love or Bosh who were big scoring 1st options with their prior team. In an nba culture that emphasizes ball movement and outside shooting, especially stretch 4s who wouldn’t want Love who had a great year with a 46%/42%/88% line and 18/10 on the regular? If he were a FA he would easily get 2/$50 mil imo.
Not everyone is as intelligent as you. ~. The simple fact is, KLove is NOT valued as much as Cleveland values him. If he were, he’d already be selling his new team’s jersey at Dick’s.
I tend to agree with pihc James did want KLOVE. But After the season got going James tweeted about not being all in. I’m not saying the two fought or that James didn’t like him. I’m saying James wanted him to be something he wasn’t. Not a critique in either player.
KLove is Cleveland’s best asset at the moment. Playing the devil’s advocate here, what if another player or two no one even thought of up to now steps up? I’ll give you Cedi. He may, given 25+ min. per night, tantalize teams with his size, length, D and ability to run the floor. Some teams may over pay to get him as to who wouldn’t want a energy guy like him on a contender, a pretender or a developing team.
* looking at the first two summer games, Cedi plays and the Cavs crush the other team. Cedi gets a night off due to his play in FIBA this summer and the Cavs lose. Coincidental? I think not.
So now is NOT the best time to trade Love. Wait until the trade deadline at least before trading him. The Cavs aren’t going to win a title, but they’ll be entertaining with the youngsters, KLove trying to get back his numbers he left in Minny and to see how long it is before Koby realizes Luezer is the coach. I’m hoping Drew takes over by Christmas. It would be my best Christmas present.
I dreamt last night that Sexton (with Hill teaching and coming off the bench supporting him), Hood at the 2, Cedi, Love and Zizic were moving without the ball waiting until someone gets the open shot and playing good D. At least I had fun in that dream. We won and I got to take a cheerleader home.
That’s obviously not a team that would compete for a title, and maybe not even seriously compete for the playoffs. But it would still be fun to watch. I kinda hope they tank so that they can keep their first rounder next year.
I don’t think anyone thinks the Cavs are going to compete for a title wo James at this point. With you in that this will be fun. I’m looking forward to it. Its inevitable for all teams when you lose your best to FA.
I like the part about the cheerleader. lol
Funny to read how some fans seems to think that LBJ was a problem in Cleveland, or now they are free from him, he was/is & will be everything, Cleveland was relevant only for him. Big superstars are always worthy anything, megastars like The King well, you cannot do too much for them.
Totally looking forward to see the old K-Love dominating again.
I think we all know that the positives LBJ brings to any team will far exceed any possible negatives that may come with him. Those negatives do exist and since he’s moved on you no longer have to deal them. A) Because of the give-the-ball-to-LBJ and let him drive to the basket and score or kick it out to the shooters style of play it limits the strengths of those non-elite shooters. B) Him going year-to-year never allowed the Cavs to think ahead, and imo, develop a team personality. Again, we would happily like him back because of his overwhelming positives. It’s all a matter of realizing what we were and now looking towards what we can be. Not a slight against LBJ at all.
I think that’s coaching though. The ball moved pretty free flowingly in Miami in the championship years. Of course, the defense was exponentially better
Cavs should replace Altman as soon as possible, and, as soon as the replacement thinks the time is right, Lue. I like the Sexton pick, but aside from that, Altman’s moves and reasoning for them have underwhelmed, and Lue just seems ill suited to a rebuild even if they’re not calling it that just yet. No reason to have a GM and HC that have investments and baggage with the current roster, unless they’re just outstanding. A long way from that here. Get some fresh eyes.
The Hoopshype link was a real mixed bag of value for a Love trade. But I’m sure the scene will have changed by the time it comes to trade.
Thing is, if Love is fine with the Cavs, they won’t trade him ever.
And if Love is popular with eastern teams but not western, the Cavs may look fine in comparison. They can pay more, and if he misses the next rise, well he has already been there.
Frankly I’m a bit nervous about Altman trading. It is probably best that the Cavs don’t have many trade options. His Laker trade opened the door for James.
You absolutely can’t factor that in at all in the James discussion. Altman was tasked with turning things around so we could go deep into the playoffs which I think obviously would factor into LBJ’s thinking I would imagine. Besides who did they take on that they couldn’t of moved anyway? Nance makes around $2 mil and a young talented guy liked Clarkson @ 2/$25 on his contract would’ve been easy to move anyway. It’s not like they took on Deng’s contract in the IT trade. It was a non-factor. Besides, the worst case scenario (LBJ leaving) happened and Clarkson and Nance were pieces that they wanted in the rebuilding process.
Nobody else has ever wanted or wants Clarkson and his 4/$50mil, LAL or CLE. Nance and his $2mil, sure.
Worse case scenarios have to be accounted for by responsible execs. The record is the record. Best you can say is Lebron would have left anyway, or that nobody else wanted IT, but we will never know those things.
I’m not bothered by Altman in the least. YET!
I look at the Celtic trade as this:
we give the Celtics Irving: Lakers the 25th pick, Brinks Thomas, and Frye: King’s Crowder, Shumpert and DRose
Cavs get: Sexton, Zizic, Clarkson, Nance, Hill, Hood
Pretty good when all you give up really is Irving.