Despite seeming unrest, the Cavaliers are not looking to trade Kevin Love before the deadline
With the unrest in the Cleveland Cavaliers organization after the firing of David Blatt, much of the blame regarding the on-court production from the outside has fallen on former All-Star power forward Kevin Love. This, of course, has led to rampant speculation about whether or not the Cavaliers would trade Kevin Love, who they just signed to a five-year max contract this offseason. Cavaliers general manager David Griffin says that’s not going to happen, though.
Despite no real feeling of closure coming from Cleveland, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is reporting that Kevin Love isn’t and will not be on the trade block leading up to the Feb. 18 NBA Trade Deadline. In fact, Griffin went as far as to say that the organization has “never once put together an offer involving” the forward and that they’ve also not entertained any calls about a deal that would include Love.
Considering what Griffin and the Cavaliers had to give up to lure Kevin Love away from the Minnesota Timberwolves upon LeBron James’ arrival back in the Cleveland—Andrew Wiggins being the key component in the deal—it’s not surprising that they would want to keep riding it out with Love after only a year-and-a-half of having him in the organization.
That being said, Love and the Cavaliers have struggled mightily since the return of Kyrie Irving after the point guard missed most of the start of the year due to his recovery from knee surgery. Cleveland has been a disaster defensively when Love and Irving have been on the floor together, something at least mildly predictable given the duos lack of defensive reputation.
Even still, it’s certainly worth a shot for the Cavs to see if Tyronn Lue can scheme up a solution to this problem that perhaps Blatt couldn’t when he was at the helm. While that’s not certain, it does seem like a near formality that Kevin Love is going to be a Cavalier for the foreseeable future.