Kevin Love’s new deal feels like a panic move for Cavaliers

Still reeling from the summer departure of LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers have trapped themselves with Kevin Love’s new contract.

In a vacuum, paying Kevin Love $120 million over four years isn’t a terrible contract.  It’s just the sort of move a fringe NBA contender might make to try to put their roster over the top. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, they aren’t anywhere near contender status. That’s why it’s a horrible deal for Cleveland.

This screams of a panic move in the aftermath of LeBron James’ exit. Koby Altman and, more likely, Cavs ownership know they need a big name to stay relevant. Locking down Love to a long-term extension gives them control over a potential fringe All-Star for the next four seasons.

Keeping Love in the fold should be just good enough to keep the Cavaliers in the hunt for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference for the foreseeable future. Perhaps if Collin Sexton blows up and becomes the best player in his draft class Cleveland might even fight for the sixth spot. In other words, this contract locks the Cavaliers into NBA purgatory.

If we learned nothing from Sam Hinkie’s tenure with the 76ers it’s that avoiding the middle is the key to NBA relevancy. Teams should either aspire to legitimately compete for an NBA title or make sure they’re bad enough to get quality draft assets until they can ascend to that level.

This trade makes sure that Cleveland can’t follow either path. Presumably, they believe Love can revert back to the way he played for Minnesota back in the 2013/14 season. That’s a pretty foolish bet. Love has played a lot of basketball since then and has suffered more injuries to his body. His numbers may improve due to a larger role in the offense, but he’s not going to be the devastatingly efficient scorer he was five years ago.

Instead, it’s much more likely we’ll continue to watch Love decline over the life of this extension. He’ll turn 30 next season and he’s already short on the athleticism required to defend at a high level in today’s NBA. Moving to center may help him be marginally more effective on defense, but he’s still going to be a below-average defender in most matchups.

That means he’ll need to derive almost all of his value on the offensive end of the floor. That’s a big ask for a player who’s spent the last four seasons running to the corner to space the floor for LeBron. He’ll get the ball a ton for the team now, but there won’t be enough spacing to really let him operate. Expect to see a ton of ball screens with Sexton and Love at the elbow.

Cleveland’s only real hope here is that Love plays well enough this season to make this contract a positive asset in a trade this summer. That’s the only way this move pays off for the Cavs in the long run and it’s exceedingly unlikely.

Next: Collin Sexton wants to make Cavs fans forget about Kyrie Irving

Love’s new deal is the worst thing Cleveland could have done with their star player. Trading him now or letting him walk would have been painful, but it would have given the franchise the hard reset it desperately needs. Now Love will continue to toil away in Cleveland in a desperate attempt to keep him and his team relevant. Ultimately, this transaction will be a failure for everything other than Love’s bank account.