Was the Kevin Love trade to the Cavaliers less forced than we thought?

The idea that LeBron James forced the Cavaliers’ hand may not be as certain with recent revelations that other players were lined up to sign.

On a Cleveland Radio show, David Griffin, former GM of the Cavaliers, revealed that Kyrie Irving had lined up deals for Gordon Hayward, Trevor Ariza, and Channing Frye in the 2014 offseason.

Now, those deals would likely not have gone through entirely. Hayward, the key prize in that group, was a restricted free agent, and the Jazz matched the maximum offer sheet that he did eventually end up taking from Charlotte. With Hayward off the table, Ariza and Frye, both good role players, but role players nonetheless, become way less appealing, and regardless LeBron James was about to blow all that up.

What it does do, however, is put a ding in the complaint that LeBron James forced Andrew Wiggins out of town in favor of Kevin Love. That had long been a story since Wiggins’ name was omitted from the letter that LeBron used to announce his return to Cleveland. The narrative of LeBron picking and choosing who he wants to play with has kind of followed him around for a lot of his career, but this was one of the louder places because it seemed like he had given Cleveland a list of guys he wanted to play with and said to get rid of anyone else.

The problem, though, is that based on this report, Cleveland wasn’t being patient anymore. They were already looking to win, even before LeBron came back. Channing Frye was entering his age-31 season. Trevor Ariza was entering his age-29 season. Gordon Hayward was in his prime, but was also the least likely to actually end up on the team due to the rights of first refusal. Those are not the kind of players you bring in if you’re running with a 19-year-old rookie as the third-best player. Those are the kind of players you bring in to win right then and there.

So it’s entirely possible, then, that the Cavaliers would have traded for Love regardless. They had gone through the heart of the rebuild and were getting ready to actually start winning games. Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga were gone, and actual NBA players were replacing them. Kyrie Irving was looking like he could conceivably be a top ten player with a few additions to his game. And with that in mind, maybe it’s time to stop thinking that the trade was forced as a condition of LeBron coming, because it was a move that would have made sense for Cleveland anyway.