Trade season is nearing and Kevin Love‘s name is again popping up. However, the latest tidbit isn’t particularly favorable to the Cavaliers. Jason Lloyd of The Athletic hears from multiple sources that the team is going to have a difficult time dealing Love because of his massive contract.
Love has three years and roughly $91MM left on his deal after this season and some teams are asking the Cavaliers to attach a first-rounder or other asset to the big man in order to move him. While that stance exists, it is not uniform throughout the league.
Cleveland is seeking a first-rounder in exchange for Love and Lloyd hears from one rival executive that the franchise may end up netting that asset in a trade. It may all depend on how much salary the Cavaliers are willing to take back in addition to the pick.
“I don’t think it’s distracted anything right now,” coach John Beilein said of the trade rumors. “I’ve been hearing that since the time I was hired. We want Kevin to go out there and play his best every single day for the Cleveland Cavaliers.”
Lloyd names the Celtics, Trail Blazers, and Mavericks as teams that make sense as a trade partner based on his conversations with people around the league. Portland might seem like an odd fit with Carmelo Anthony playing well at power forward, but some around the game believe Melo’s game will fade as the season goes along.
The Cavaliers have essentially made “everyone but [Darius Garland]” available. The franchise wants to find way to gain additional first-round picks and would love to flip a player on an expiring deal for one. That’s unlikely to happen even for Tristan Thompson, who is playing some of the best basketball of his career. Trading Love while taking some money back may be Cleveland’s only route to its desired asset.
Not sure how I see Mavs working though I’d love it. They only have theirs and GS 2nds to offer. Though GS at this point would be like a late 1st
But it take Lee and probably Hardaway to get salary match they’d take back Live and Deladova?
Any other ideas on how it work?
Put this through the ESPN trade machine. Tristan Thompson and Keven Love straight up for Porzingis and Doncic. Salaries match up almost perfect. /s
Ha ha
Funny. But Mavs will pass
Dallas wont take on Love and his 4 years. Maybe if love had 3 years left on his contract, they might do it. Dallas wants to go all in and use their cap before signing luka to a5 year max
Andre Drummond is a much better fit for Dallas than kevin love
I tend to lean on the side of the teams requesting a first rounder to take on the remainder of Love’s enormous contract. He is nowhere near the player he was in Minnesota, and it’s debatable if he even contributes to winning anymore. He’s probably a net negative on any team he plays on, so paying in excess of 30 million a year for that is foolhardy at best.
Exactly. The Cavs even remotely wanting something in return is absurd. Hopefully they have to atone for that god awful contract for another 3 years. At least it isn’t Luol Deng.
Whether or not the Cavs can get a first rounder back for Love, it doesn’t make any sense for them to trade him unless they can.
They’re already projected to have a lot of cap space this offseason, and they’re clearly early enough in the rebuild that they shouldn’t be splurging in free agency anyway. They don’t have a pressing need for cap space. Attaching an asset to get rid of his contract would be counterproductive.
No way will he get traded to Houston for Capela. Love would be a slight upgrade on offense over Capela, but a huge downgrade on defense.
Love makes sense for teams incapable of upgrading outside of trades, aka cap maxed teams. Gallinari is the only unrestricted stretch-4, and there are no stretch-5s that could start on a team. In 2021 you’ve only got backups like Olynyk. So there isn’t an unrestricted Stretch-4 or Stretch-5 out there that you can just go sign for 3 years. And the teams that would be interested arent cap flexible for 3 years anyway. Portland, Miami.
Love would be a great fit on the Celtics right now
I’m a little surprised Thompson hasn’t garnered more interest. He’s a free agent at the end of the year so he would be a rental and would be a solid rotation piece. He’s not an elite defender, but is a half decent rim protector (at the very least, he contests shots in the paint even if he doesn’t block many shots), has enough athleticism to guard smaller players in a pinch, and has great rebounding instincts. I would assume that some teams are waiting for the season to draw on a little more so there is less money owed to him.
Kleber gives the Mavs what Love provides for a third of the price. Hard to think of decent trades for Love. To Atlanta for Chandler Parsons and Cam Reddish? To OKC for Schroeder and Roberson plus a late first round pick? To Phoenix for Tyler Johnson and Mikal Bridges? To Memphis for Iguadola, Solomon Hill, and a second round pick?
None of those proposals make since for the teams u mentioned. ATL wouldn’t want to punt on Reddish so soon. OKC more then likely will b trading there Vets for young guys to fit around SGA. PHX has Saric who’s younger and a similar player to Love, also y would they give up a good wing defender in Bridges for Loves huge contract?… Memphis makes less since then them all, they want picks and young dudes around Morant and Jackson. If they r gunna trade Iggy it’s gunna b to a contender like the Clippers for someone like Shamet or J Robinson who can form the young backcourt with Morant.
The one I c that could b beneficial is Love to the Celtics for Robert Williams and another piece to match salary… Cavs get there young Big to fit with Garland and Sexton.
A trade to the Celtics is financially impossible. The Celtics have no matching contracts for Love’s 29Million dollar contract that they’d reasonably part with: Kemba 33M, Hayward 33M, or Smart 12M, Tatum 8M, Brown 7M. There’s no reasonable way to match those salaries. The trades I proposed are only decent. Certainly not great, but they all work from a financial standpoint; they are in the realm of possibility. It’s hard to trade Love because good teams pretty much won’t have 30 million in bad salaries to send back to Cleveland. ATL may decide it thinks it can make a playoff run with the return of Collins and the addition of Love. OKC and Phoenix might also prioritize their playoff chances over building for the future. OKC and Memphis have traditionally favored immediate mediocre success over complete tanking and rebuilding. Love creates no long term burden for Memphis because big time free agents don’t go there. Love can play next to Jaren Jackson. Iggy’s not getting traded to the Clips for the same reason that Love’s not going to the Celtics. The Clips don’t have 17M in bad contracts to send back to Memphis. Basically bad teams won’t take Love and good teams don’t have the bad contracts to send back to Cleveland in matching salaries. I think the most likely trade partners are fringe playoff teams that would value making the playoffs more than the loss of a late first round pick worth in value. Making the playoffs can save a general manager’s job. I’m not saying my trade suggestions are great but they are at least possible. To my list I’ll add Love to Portland for Bazemore, Hood and a late first round/lottery protected first round pick.