The Cavaliers will need Kevin Love to post the type of numbers he put up regularly in Minnesota for them to remain a playoff contender after the departure of LeBron James, writes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Love had an eventful off-season, highlighted by his 30th birthday last week and a four-year, $120MM extension in July.
Love was an All-Star with the Timberwolves before a trade brought him to Cleveland to be part of a Big Three with James and Kyrie Irving. That trio reached three straight NBA Finals and won the 2016 title before Irving was traded to Boston last summer.
Love played 59 games last season and made his fifth All-Star appearance, but he was sidelined for much of the year by a broken hand. He has become the face of the franchise now, Vardon notes, and the Cavaliers will be expecting much more than the 17.6 PPG and 9.3 RPG he averaged last year.
There’s more news out of Cleveland:
- The Cavaliers should ignore calls to trade Love and accelerate the rebuilding process, David Aldridge of TNT writes in a mailbag column. Cleveland doesn’t have a great history of attracting free agents, Aldridge argues, and that path would be much more difficult without an elite player on the roster. Love can keep the Cavs competitive for the next couple of seasons, then be traded if the organization decides to commit to a youth movement.
- Rodney Hood will be competing against a talented group of shooting guards when he becomes unrestricted free agent next summer, notes Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report. After failing to get a contract he liked as a restricted free agent, Hood opted to accept Cleveland’s $3,472,887 qualifying offer, reportedly turning down a three-year deal from the team in the neighborhood of $21MM. Also hitting the open market next summer will be Klay Thompson, J.J. Redick, Tyreke Evans, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Austin Rivers, Mario Hezonja, Danny Green, Terrence Ross and Jeremy Lamb.
- Hood’s body of work through his first four seasons suggests his best days might still be ahead of him despite his playoff struggles, Joe Gabriele of the team’s website opines. Hood could have a breakout season since he’ll have more of a scoring and leadership role with the James-less Cavs, Gabriele adds.
They should trade love. They could get a good package.
Disagree twice. Love has not been in demand when attempts were made to trade him– he would not return that much.
However, he WOULD be a draw for a loose FA who would rather not join a team of nobodies (as soon as the roster clears up and they have money to spend).
Cavs should avoid backsliding into oblivion. There are players who want to be here, let’em be here.
Like Aldrege said, Love is the bird in hand.
100% agree, there is no way an older Kevin love can make the Playoffs by himself when a younger and more productive version of himself couldn’t do it.
Agreed. Love is 30 going on 35 and is a sure bet to miss at least 30 games. Of course other teams know that too.
Disagree also with Vardon, as Cedi Osman will be the key active element going forward. I’m sure Love will be stuffing the stat sheet when healthy but the others cannot stand around watching.
Keep Love and build. Trading him won’t get enough at this point to justify losing his talents and ability to bring in talent. The best you could hope for is to hope you get a player as good as… KLove and then have to develop that player only to lose him.
Keep KLove as he wants to be in Cleveland.
KLove is going to be amazing this year as long as he stays healthy. He was such a beast as an offensive focal point and he’s still young enough to be one for 3 or 4 more years. I think his trade value skyrockets by the deadline and definitely by next offseason. They gotta go
PG Sexton
SG Hood
SF Osman
PF Nance Jr.
C. K-Love
PG G Hill
SG Korver
SF Nwaba
PF Preston (hopefully….I know it’s a reach)
C. TT
Bench: Clarkson, Zizic, Smith (hopefully JR is bought out)
Agree with moazetongue. K-Love is better than anyone they can get in a trade. Can’t wait to see him back to the level he was in Minny, he is the only one that can make Cleveland relevant, if they trade him, they will go strait to oblivion, like after the first time LBJ left & that was awful to watch. I really hope K-Love can have a monster season to prove to everyone that he deserves his new contract, as he does.
link to espn.com
Tell me how this trade doesn’t make sense. Spare parts for everyone. I personally think it would result in a bigger winning percentage for all teams
Is this a joke?
What’s the chances of Irving coming back?!
Naturally as a FA.
With him “should” bring Butler, going by other reports.
Irving/Butler/Love big 3 plus Hood and Nance, be a nice, solid uniform