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Cavs inquired on Love, Aldridge and Gasols?

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Here we go lets let lebron reuin the franchise again. So lets say we are dumb enough to build a team for that peice of shit guy and start wooing him during free agancy. What the hell do we do when him and bosh opt out and both go join D12 on the lakers or he can go team up with howard and bring in another star cause LA has a ton of cap. So we are going under the impression that this is his home and he would love to come back, last time we though that we were burning stuff on tv. And the over played card of him being friend with kyrie and TT is overblown. The dude befriends anyone and everyone that comes into the league he just tries to get people to like him.

Lets just build the team around kyrie and what we got and stop hoping he would chose us even if he opts out.
 
So I tried to look up the contract situations of each player to see if any of them were coming down to the end of their deal.

Aldridge is on a 5 year 67.5 mil deal that makes him an unrestricted FA in 2015.

Marc Gasol is in the 2nd year of a 4 year 57 mil deal that would make him an unrestricted FA in 2015

Love is a 4 year 60 mil deal that makes him unrestricted in 2016.

So none of them are nearing the end of their contracts so that eliminated the possibility of their teams trading them to avoid paying the max or something similar. Or feeling that they are going to leave and trying to get something for them.

Also found this bleacher report (yes bleacher report, keep that in mind) article when I was looking for that info.

The Cleveland Cavaliers haven't been one to pull off a blockbuster trade, but one big deal could be too perfect to pull off.

It's quickly become no secret that NBA superstar Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves is growing rather impatient with his current team.

Love has yet to make the playoffs in four seasons in Minnesota and could very well opt out his contract a year early in 2015.

If the T'Wolves feel Love is going to walk or is proving to be a distraction to the team, they may decide to trade him sooner rather than later given his extremely high value.

One willing trade partner could be the Cavaliers, whom Minnesota already has targeted for another potential trade, as reported by 1500ESPN.com.

Cleveland has taken the wise rebuilding route in previous years, collecting high draft picks and young talent while building up a large amount of tradeable assets.

While Kyrie Irving would certainly be off limits, everyone one else should be available if the potential to land Love exists. Love has career averages of 17.4 points and 12.1 rebounds per game. The former fifth overall pick in 2008 averaged a career high 26.0 points per game last season.


Irving and Love would represent a dynamic one-two punch and provide the backbone of a perennial title contender.

So what would Cleveland have to give up in order to get possibly the NBA's best power forward?

Quite frankly, a lot.

Minnesota has expressed interest in Anderson Varejao, the NBA's leading rebounder this season. Still just 30 with a team-friendly contract for the next three seasons, the Wolves could use Varejao on a rebuilding team even after trading Love.

Next, they would want one of the Cavs' young talents to help build around Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams.

This would likely mean either Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, Tyler Zeller or a combination of the three. I would think it the priority of the Cavs to try to keep Waiters first instead of offering up one of their young bigs.



Waiters (14.7 points, 3.5 assists), Thompson (8.7 points, 8.2 rebounds) and Zeller (7.8 points, 5.2 rebounds) are all currently starting for the Cavs and are all 22 years old or younger.

The third piece Minnesota would want would be draft picks. Luckily for them, the Cavs have quite a few.

Cleveland owns their own and Miami's first-round pick in 2013, along with Sacramento's should they make the playoffs or be the first team out. They also own Orlando's second-round pick in 2013 and 2014, which should land somewhere in the 30's overall.

If the trade for Love goes down this season, the Cavs' own pick in 2013 would carry the most value by far, given their poor record. If the Cavs could somehow hold onto that pick while offering up first rounders in future years or Miami's 2013 pick, they'd really be in business.

Here's how a couple of these deals could be constructed.

Deal No. 1:

Cavs Receive: Kevin Love

T'Wolves Receive: Anderson Varejao, Dion Waiters, 2014 & 2016 first-round picks



In this the Cavs have to part with their second best young player Waiters, which would be tough to swallow due to his Dwayne Wade-esque flashes this season.

If the Cavs push to keep Waiters, a second deal could look like this:

Deal No. 2:

Cavs Receive: Kevin Love

T'Wolves Receive: Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson, 2013 first-round pick


In this the Cavs get to keep Waiters, but sacrifice their 2013 first rounder (likely a top-five selection). Thompson and Varejao give the Wolves a nice current and future starting power forward next to Nikola Pekovic. A third option in which the Cavs get to keep both Waiters and their 2013 pick but sacrifice some money could look like this:

Deal No. 3:

Cavs Receive: Kevin Love, Brandon Roy

T'Wolves Receive: Anderson Varejao, Tyler Zeller, Luke Walton, 2013 first-round pick (via Miami), 2014 first-rounder



In this deal the Wolves get to clear some cap space by swapping the injured Brandon Roy (two years, $10 million) for Walton (one year, $6 million) while also collecting two first rounders from both Cleveland and Miami.

Cleveland loses a lot, but also gets to keep Waiters and their 2013 first rounder.

While Kevin Love to the Cavaliers is simply speculation at this point, the dots can be connected to a potential deal. Cleveland has a lot to option in the trade department with young talent and future draft picks.

While it would require a great deal to pull off, any chance the Cavs have at pairing Irving and Love together should be pursued immensely.


The comments are more entertaining then the article. :chuckles: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...the-cleveland-cavaliers-could-land-kevin-love

And here is an article I found that was posted on Minnesota's ESPN subsection. Nothing really new here, it was posted 10 days ago.

Since president of basketball operations David Kahn joined the Minnesota Timberwolves in May 2009, he has made an absurd number of trades -- 25.

The strong belief in league circles is No. 26 will come by the Feb. 21 deadline.

Yes, Kevin Love, there is some sort of plan.

However, team sources maintain that Kahn is not making any calls for now until he sees how point guard Ricky Rubio looks, beginning with his expected season debut on Saturday against Dallas at Target Center.

That hasn't stopped Kahn from answering the phone, though. League sources insist both Cleveland and Toronto have reached out in recent weeks.

The Cavaliers are gauging interest in center Anderson Varejao, whom I'm told the Timberwolves like a lot. He's signed through 2015 at less than $10 million per season.

Before he suffered a one- to two-month elbow/wrist injury earlier in the week, the Raptors were putting out feelers about big man Andrea Bargnani.

On the Love situation

A league source was quick to remind me of a statement Kahn made at a breakfast with reporters in June 2009: "On a championship-contending team... Kevin (Love) might be the fourth-best player."

The source's informed theory is that statement, combined with seeing good friends Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose get five-year extensions, continues to have Love irked. It's definitely not the money.

A front office executive spelled out how Love will benefit financially in the future: "The reality is that while the difference in guaranteed money between the four-year max deal that Love received and the five-year designated player max that Westbrook received is $17,769,374. (Rose was named MVP, so he was able to take advantage of the designated player max where his first year salary is 30% of the salary cap).

"If Kevin does not exercise his option after the 2014-2015 season, he can become an unrestricted free agent and either re-sign with the Timberwolves for five years or another team for four and receive a salary which starts at 30% of the salary cap. Consequently, Kevin may end up getting more money that Russell over the same period."

As for whether Love will sign an extension before the summer of 2015, the source said, "Kevin could sign an extension prior to declining his option for the 2015-16 season. That extension would be for three years and he could not get any additional money in '15-'16 unless the Wolves were under the cap, which they won't be.

"I don't consider Kevin signing an extension a likely scenario -- see Atlanta's Josh Smith. The extension can only be for four years, including the current years of the contract. If he waits until the end of the '14-'15 season and becomes a free agent, he can re-sign with the Timberwolves for five years (likely for $100 million-plus) or another team for four years. Most players at that stage of their career are prepared to wait and sign for five, or four years."
 
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Here we go lets let lebron reuin the franchise again. So lets say we are dumb enough to build a team for that peice of shit guy and start wooing him during free agancy. What the hell do we do when him and bosh opt out and both go join D12 on the lakers or he can go team up with howard and bring in another star cause LA has a ton of cap. So we are going under the impression that this is his home and he would love to come back, last time we though that we were burning stuff on tv. And the over played card of him being friend with kyrie and TT is overblown. The dude befriends anyone and everyone that comes into the league he just tries to get people to like him.

Lets just build the team around kyrie and what we got and stop hoping he would chose us even if he opts out.

Nobody said anything about banking on him returning. Why close the door, though?
 
The inquiry about Love has got to be Uncle Drew trying to get Uncle Wes and building the team back up. That is all I have to say about that.
 
If (BIG If!), Kahn was somehow open to moving Love at the deadline, I actually wouldn't count the Cavs out. The package of Andy, Dion and our 2014 & 2016 1sts is almost close enough to consider. I think you'd need a third team in there. Someone willing move a decent player for cap relief that the Cavs could absorb and send to Minny, that's not the worst haul in the world for them. Then you end up with 2 franchise cornerstones in Kyrie and Love, can draft your SG and C in this draft, and Tristan moves to the position he belongs at, a bench big.

Also, I think Lamarcus is more getable than people seem to think. Portland is treading water. They have a new cornerstone in Lillard, and should start refocusing the team around his skills. Lamarcus is 27 and theoretically entering his prime. He wouldn't be the worst get in the world for us.
 
Rrreally want to keep Dion if we were to get love, kid has so much promise and we would be left with CJ and boobie as our 2's ..so without an SF/SG and no draft picks to get a good one, im not sure that would be so good. But it is Kevin Love afterall, so who knows.
 
So the Cavs are trying to acquire a Love/Aldridge type of player (be it caliber wise or position wise). To me, it seems the smart thing to do would be to aggressively pursue such a target by packaging Varejao/Waiters/A draft pick, or something of that sort. I doubt that's enough to get Love :chuckles: But I'd start with that. I wouldn't give up our draft pick even though it's the most valuable one...because you'd want to draft a guy like Muhammad and slide him into the 2 spot.

Then of course you're doing all of this in preparation for LeBron, who couldn't resist the "I'm the hero come home!" story and come riding in on a white horse to "lead" the team to multiple titles.

I don't think the Cavs have a package that could get a player like Aldridge or Love without surrendering our own draft picks though, so I'm not sure I'm interested. I'd almost just rather go ahead with what we have in that case, draft a few more impact players between now and 2014, and hope James comes back (I know, 99% of you claim you don't want that).
Giving up the 2013 1st isn't bad for someone like love. let's be honest, shabazz is a pipedream (like Davis was last year) and frankly, even if the cavs were somehow able to get him he probably isn't enough to justify passing on arguably the best player at his position who just turned 24. on top of that, this draft is widely considered to be weak, so giving up a top pick isn't necessarily that bad when you are getting such a proven, young player in return.

i've said it before, but lebron james coming back is the cavs best chance of winning a title. being able to dangle irving and love, plus the hometown hero story, is damn appealing. even if he didn't come back, elite talent is what wins titles and that is what the cavs sorely lack - pairing irving with love would go a long way towards solving that.

If (BIG If!), Kahn was somehow open to moving Love at the deadline, I actually wouldn't count the Cavs out. The package of Andy, Dion and our 2014 & 2016 1sts is almost close enough to consider. I think you'd need a third team in there. Someone willing move a decent player for cap relief that the Cavs could absorb and send to Minny, that's not the worst haul in the world for them. Then you end up with 2 franchise cornerstones in Kyrie and Love, can draft your SG and C in this draft, and Tristan moves to the position he belongs at, a bench big.

Also, I think Lamarcus is more getable than people seem to think. Portland is treading water. They have a new cornerstone in Lillard, and should start refocusing the team around his skills. Lamarcus is 27 and theoretically entering his prime. He wouldn't be the worst get in the world for us.
what i think you're missing is whether the cavs would do that. if they were being serious and not delusional homers (like some of the love trades posted on this forum a few weeks ago), they absolutely could offer a legit package for him. it'd certainly be expensive tho, and i'm not convinced they would do that at this point. though they should.

aldridge isn't yet attainable imo, but if they regress by the deadline then yeah absolutely. not sure what it'd take though. a lot, obviously, but not as much as a deal for love. it'd also have to include a 3rd team as portland would have no use for varejao.
 
I think we could talk a team into being the third wheel on this trade. We would take on a contract and have them forward a first or some talent to Minn. I would go crazy if Kevin Love made it to Cleveland. Our defense would be atrocious though. Having Love and Irving may be enough to wntice Dwight or Lbj into coming here. Say what you want about Dwight, but him and Love are perfect complements.
 
I'd rather get Aldridge if it really would take us giving up less.
 
The original Lloyd article also mentions this tidbit, which I have somehow not heard of over the last year and a half:

Grant has tried for years to trade for a star. Not surprisingly, none is available. He tried using the No. 4 pick a couple of years ago to land Al Horford, but the Atlanta Hawks said no, so the Cavs selected Thompson.

http://www.ohio.com/news/top-storie...cision-could-alter-path-of-franchise-1.359912

Al would have been a great big man to add next to Andy and Kyrie.
 
Grant is really shooting for the moon if he's looking to get Love, Aldridge and Gasols. Pau would be an awful idea but Marc makes sense.

I would be very much excited if the Cavs got PJ3, Lamb, Toronto pick and probably Perkins to make salaries work for Andy and some filler like Boobie. I still don't see why Presti puts all 3 of those assets in the deal, I can see 2 out of the 3 but 3 out of 3 is pretty steep.
 
Using Varejao as the centerpiece of a Love deal and expecting anything but an instant no doesn't make much sense either.

Also, is Lloyd not the Cavs glorified mouthpiece? IIRC it became evident around draft time that he just reports whatever BS the Cavs organization feeds him. Might be someone else but I'm pretty sure it was him...

Well, it makes sense that the Cavs inquired about it, I mean. I'm not really sure why we'd be inquiring about Pau Gasol, as he seems a bit too old to make sense in our current rebuild. It may be more likely that the Lakers inquired with us about the availability of Varejao and it was reported backwards.
 
I'd be shocked if anything the Cavs are doing has anything to do with specifically hoping to sign LeBron. They can't be that stupid. Let's let this guy dictate what we do when he's not even here?? Come on. How can you take anything LeBron says seriously at this point anyway?

I doubt we have what it takes to get Love but no doubt we should try. He won't remain in Minny. He'll probably eventually become a Laker. I'd think about including one of TT/Zeller (IMO, Zeller) in addition to Andy and Dion in a deal for Love.
 
I have no doubt Lloyd is telling the truth. You can inquire about anything/anyone. It's a question of how serious the dialog got. I have a feeling this is how it went

Grant: Hey David. What's the story with Kevin Love? I know you like white guys, I'll throw you Varejao, Harangody and the rights to Semi Erden for K-Love

Kahn: Thanks for the phone call Chris, not a chance in the world. How's your golf game?
 
If we turn our Santa bag of junk assets into Kevin Love... Grant should win Exec of the Year this year AND next year.

Bottom line, is Kahn really that stupid?
 

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