If the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to move Kevin Love at the NBA trade deadline, we’d love to see one of these deals come to fruition.
Ball-slamming aside, Kevin Love has been a loyal soldier for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The fact of the matter, though, is that he’s an expensive soldier for a team that’s fighting a losing battle at 12-32 on the 2019-20 NBA season. So as the 2020 NBA trade deadline approaches, Love figures to be one of the names thrown around as a player that could be on the move.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported in early December that the Cavaliers were willing to listen to offers for Love leading up to the NBA trade deadline. Furthermore, Love has expressed his desire to simply play for a contender. And contenders could be interested in acquiring the 31-year old power forward who’s averaging 19.8 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per 36 minutes this season with a true shooting percentage of 59.6, per Basketball-Reference.
But what teams have the flexibility with contracts and a possible desire to add Kevin Love to their team? Let’s examine that and conjure up five NBA trade deadline deals that we love for the Cavaliers forward.
5. Celtics going in
At their best, the Boston Celtics have looked the part of a team that could emerge out of the Eastern Conference and challenge for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The addition of Kemba Walker in free agency this past offseason has worked beautifully for Brad Stevens’ club and the young grouping of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown appear to be fully coming into their own.
The one piece that is seemingly out of place in Boston, however, is Gordon Hayward. When he’s been healthy in the 2019-20 season, he’s looked much improved from the player we saw last season when he was clearly still recovering from his devastating leg injury. At the same time though, Hayward can create a bit of a logjam on the wing with Tatum and Brown that leaves the Celtics little flexibility as they try to work Walker and Marcus Smart into the rotation.
Trading Hayward and the Milwaukee Bucks (by way of the Suns) top-7 protected first-round pick in exchange for Kevin Love would alleviate those issues for the Celtics. In fact, it could make them more dangerous. Love has long seemed like a phenomenal fit in Stevens’ offense and would give Boston a lethal small-ball lineup with him playing at the five.
If you’re looking at one-to-one player comparisons, Hayward and Love are quite similar in terms of their statistical impact. However, when you then consider the fit of each player in Boston as currently constructed, making a move for Love could unlock the top-end potential of what the Celtics can be.
4. Blazing trails
It’s difficult to say what the Portland Trail Blazers are expecting to accomplish over the second half (roughly) of the 2019-20 season. Currently, they sit at the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference with a 19-26 record, two games back of the No. 8-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. With the talent on this roster and the right moves to supplement it, they could clearly make a move.
While that seems logical, the Trail Blazers recently dealt Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver to the Sacramento Kings in a move that was largely meant to cut salary. Perhaps they are shifting into cost-cutting mode given their playoff positioning or maybe they are gearing up to take on a big salary like that of Kevin Love.
Bringing the Lake Oswego, OR native back home would not only likely appease the 31-year old forward but could also help Portland make a big-time late-season push up the standings as a dark-horse contender in the West. Love’s ability to stretch the floor and help facilitate the offense as a terrific passer would compliment Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum well.
Additionally, Love would be a long-term investment for the Trail Blazers to establish their own elite trio with Lillard-McCollum-Love leading the way. Sending Cleveland Hassan Whiteside’s expiring contract and a lottery-protected 2020 first-round pick would serve the Cavaliers’ purposes of shedding money and acquiring draft capital moving forward as well.
This could be a win-win for both parties, assuming Portland wants to make a playoff push with the impending return of Jusuf Nurkic.
3. Eyes on the future
With Kevin Durant’s injury and opting to join the Brooklyn Nets along with Klay Thompson’s torn ACL suffered last year, this was always going to be an abnormal year for the Golden State Warriors. There was still some glimmer of hope, however, that Stephen Curry and newly acquired D’Angelo Russell would be able to make some noise and keep the Warriors competitive in the Western Conference. When Curry went down though, that optimism was lost.
As the NBA trade deadline approaches, Golden State sits in the cellar of the West and has the worst record in the league at 10-35. It’s safe to say that they won’t be contending this year; next year is a different story entirely, though.
If all goes as planned, both Curry and Thompson should begin the 2020-21 season at full strength, which should be enough to make the Warriors a playoff team at the very least. When Golden State signed Russell this offseason, they did so with the reported intentions to possibly move on from him down the road to get assets to continue building around the Splash Brothers. They could up that timetable and do so now.
Trading for Kevin Love would give the Warriors a new trio of stars to ride with for the next three seasons and attempt to bring more championships back to the Bay Area. His passing and ability to step out and shoot from long range would fit beautifully in the Golden State offense. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers would get rich assets with Russell and two high-upside young players in Eric Paschall and Glenn Robinson III.
Whether or not the Warriors would want to make this move now remains to be seen but, in truth, there’s no reason not to. There is nothing to play for this season, so start eyeing the future and try to get a potentially game-changing piece in Love while he’s available.
2. Turning up the Heat
The addition of Jimmy Butler has paid immediate dividends for the Miami Heat this season. Despite being in the mix with some of the heaviest hitters in the conference, the Heat currently occupy the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and are a team that looks to be a potential big-time buyer at the NBA trade deadline to try and keep that position and challenge the Bucks in the playoffs.
Not only do the Heat appear to be a team that is just one (or two, maybe) pieces away from being an outright contender to win the title this season but they have the contracts to make a potential trade for Kevin Love work. No, they won’t be sending away guys like Bam Adebayo or Goran Dragic who would be crucial to a postseason run. However, they do have some albatross contracts they could get off the books.
The snag in a potential Love-to-Miami deal is the lack of draft capital the Heat have to send to Cleveland. Because of the Dragic trade that cost the Heat their 2021 first-rounder, Pat Riley can’t trade his 2020 or 2022 first-round pick, which would make this deal easy to get done. Instead though, they could pony up a former first-round pick of their own in Justise Winslow while also getting James Johnson off the books and sending a future draft pick (likely 2025) to Cleveland.
It would be tricky for Miami to get a trade for Love completed given the moving parts but it is possible. What it may come down to is whether or not Miami wants to go all-in on this season and make a run or stand pat and wait for a 2020 offseason pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
1. Luka party
Sitting at the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference just 2.5 games back of the crowded No. 2-4 seeds, the Dallas Mavericks have been one of the most entertaining teams in the NBA this season thanks to Luka Doncic’s arrival as a bonafide superstar and with Kristaps Porzingis returning to form. More importantly, they appear on the brink of being a contender with just those two pieces in the fold.
Adding Kevin Love to the mix in Dallas would make for not only immense entertainment value but a potential leap into being a surefire candidate to win the title this year. Love’s arrival with the Mavericks would give Doncic incredible spacing to create in the lane while also giving him more outlets to distribute to on the perimeter. This is already a deadly offensive team but they could be downright unstoppable with Love in the fold.
The Mavericks are another team that the potential of adding Antetokounmpo could play a factor in their NBA trade deadline activity, however. Trading for Love and the years left on his contract would, in essence, remove Dallas from the Giannis-sweepstakes in the offseason. With the risk of coming up empty-handed in that pursuit, though, making the immediate play for Love might better suit the Mavericks.
Cleveland could leave a deal with the Mavericks quite pleased as well. Dwight Powell has a manageable deal paying him roughly $11 million per year until 2023 and can be a valuable rotational frontcourt player. Throw in a draft pick and Tim Hardaway Jr.’s contract that expires after an $18.9 million player option and the Cavaliers get several things they won’t with pieces, picks and cap mobility.