No, the Cavaliers aren’t trading Kevin Love for DeMarcus Cousins
By John Buhler
While there have been rumors that the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to trade Kevin Love to the Sacramento Kings for DeMarcus Cousins, that is not happening.
Though it would be a massive blockbuster trade if it did happen, the Kevin Love for DeMarcus Cousins trade rumors are simply that of pure speculation.
King James Gospel’s Quenton Albertie put together a solid speculative piece about how the Cleveland Cavaliers might want to look at orchestrating a trade with the Sacramento Kings to nab Cousins. The primary piece in exchange for Cousins would be to send Love to Sacramento, along with three future first-round picks.
It’s an interesting theoretical trade on paper, but there is no way that the Cavaliers are going to want to send Love to Sacramento in exchange for Cousins. Love was a huge reason that the Cavaliers won Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals with great rebounding and low-post play. He’s not an ideal fit in Cleveland, but doesn’t provide the locker room headaches synonymous with Cousins.
It’s all in good fun to think of hypothetical trades between two teams that could mutually benefit from it. That is until somebody takes an idea and turns it into a trade rumor. Sportrageous.com turned a speculative trade scenario into a full-blown rumor with the use of a misleading lede, “NBA Rumors: Cavs trading Kevin Love for DeMarcus Cousins suggested as teams reload their rosters.”
The idea of a Cousins for Love trade is purely speculative at this point, as no credible journalist from publications like the Cleveland Plain-Dealer or the Sacramento Bee have reported anything on whispers between Cavaliers general manager David Griffin and Kings general manager Vlade Divac.
Given that this proposed trade lacks the necessary double-sourcing from two credible sources, it’s just speculation and not even a rumor at this point. If dialogue between the Cavaliers and Kings organizations were occurring about a Cousins for Love trade, there would almost certainly be a reporter with credible sources to either club, probably some guy with a blue check mark on Twitter, would tastefully share to the world the rumblings of a trade on the horizon.
Even if this trade were to happen, why would Cousins be any different from what he is in Sacramento? The always disgruntled, ball-centric center for the Kings would hate not getting pick-and-roll opportunities from ball-dominant point guard Kyrie Irving.
There would be multiple spacing issues with starting big man Tristan Thompson. Cousins would presumably take many of Thompson’s well-earned offensive boards and put back opportunities. He would also get in the way of Thompson on defense, whose ability to pick up smaller players on defense gives Cleveland defensive credibility on switches. In essence, Cousins to the Cavaliers completely marginalizes Thompson’s effectiveness as a max player.
Lastly, how would Cousins mesh with LeBron James? James has done wonders taking previously aloof players like Irving and J.R. Smith and helping them play championship caliber basketball. However, Cousins is a big guy, who won’t want to be pushed around by James.
Love may tolerate playing a more perimeter-based offensive game, but Cousins NEEDS to be in the low-post. He may have a decent three-point shot, but he has to work his magic in the paint to remain an All-Star caliber player. James wants big guys like Cousins to drag rim protectors out of the paint so that he can attack the rim with undeniable ferocity to take over games.
James isn’t the best player on the planet when he’s relegated to being a jump shooter. Love gets by in some capacity, but Cousins would be a worse player in Cleveland and he would hate James for changing his game even the slightest bit. Cousins deserves to play with better players, but Cleveland isn’t the best fit for him.
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