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Gorilla in the room: Do we now trade Love?

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Teams that lose out on the AD sweepstakes could be positioned to make moved for him but they won't give up enough in most situations to justify Cleveland actually pulling the trigger. More valuable on the Cavs than what they would get for him in 90% of all trade scenarios due to his large contract in flux with his injury issues. one or the other would not be so much of a deterrent by itself esp the contract if it meant Cleveland taking on a bad deal to get a lottery pick, but piling on the value decrease due to injuries makes negotiations on a legitimate return for his on court value unlikely.
That being said if the Lakers can't pry AD or Beal I am sure they would give up the 4th for the 5th along with a couple young players for Love but that would not be enough incentive unless the only goal was to get out of Love's contract and there would have to be a 3rd team involved to send Cleveland a bad contract in exchange for another lottery pick (Miami?) with the Lakers young players going to the third team along with another Cleveland rotation player etc.
I would be calling Memphis and see if they are shopping the 2nd despite the news of their lock in on Morant. If the Cavs can somehow get the 2nd for the 5th and 26th and Love taking back Conley or Parsons for a season and then work out a deal to get another pick for Smith, it could work out well if the scouting dept. has their antennas tuned to the right frequency.
 
Whether or not Kevin puts butts in seats the Cavaliers can't afford to have crappy teams for very long or attendance will go to shit.

Having Kevin gets us enough wins to avoid being horrible provided we get some help going forward.
 
I'm for keeping Love. He's a good and our best player. He makes the team at least watchable when playing.
 
Whether or not Kevin puts butts in seats the Cavaliers can't afford to have crappy teams for very long or attendance will go to shit.

Having Kevin gets us enough wins to avoid being horrible provided we get some help going forward.

This is why we won’t dump him, only way you trade him is if you get multiple assets. I would say a lottery pick, a young player would be the starting point. Dan is going to want a decent team with the new arena and all star game.
 
I know I will get pounded with disagrees, but I’d trade Love for almost anything.

He has one of the longest contracts in the league, so it’s not like the Cavs could actually take back a worse contract at this point.

There’s just no benefit to paying a 31 year old 30M a year over the next four years when the team is a sub-20 win team.

If your argument is “they’ll be better with Love healthy”, you’re not wrong but is that actually better for the franchise long-term? I’d rather continue to play the percentages and win less 20 games the next 2-3 years than I would win 35 and still miss the playoffs.

If your argument is “all these young guys need veterans to show them the way”, I can even buy the concept of that too, but that’s why you bring in guys like Delly who make 9M a year.

This team is a really long way (multiple seasons) from even sniffing the playoffs, much less being a legitimately competitive team.

Given his age and injury history, why would you keep a 31 year old on a near max deal around when you’re trying to maximize lottery odds?

Just doesn’t make sense.

My argument, skill aside, is you have to pay someone.

We are going to cycle out a ton of salary.....and there's a floor. If you aren't overpaying someone like Love, for vet influence, teammate competence, what is being done with that money?

No player of his caliber (even on the downside) is coming here to wallow on a young, bad team....and it makes even LESS sense to overpay a less skilled player, who then may want to additionally take on an outsized role......that is a worse situation to me. Guys like Love and Delly are overpaid but they are team guys who will be good mentors and good teammates.

Additionally, we will be better wins wise with Love but looking at the landscape, it is really unlikely it effects our draft position. Even with Love, go through the standings. What even 4 teams will we be better than? Even with Love?

By the time we are ready to compete, Love's money will be either off the books or an expiring. If he had real value, I'd deal him but a trade for parts just doesn't make any sense to me, if he still wants to be here. It doesn't materially do anything for us, when considering we'll need his salary just to get to the floor soon. We only have $50 million on the books 12 months from now and only Cedi is likely to be retained from our cap holds.
 
Send him to Portland with Brandon Knight for Zach Collins, Meyers Leonard, Evan Turner, Skal Labissiere and their 2020 draft.
What’s the attraction there? With Love and a healthy Nurkic, that’s a 50+ win team easily. So you’d want to jettison him for the 27th and 57th picks plus that pu pu platter of utter mediocrity?
 
This is assuming the Cavs are going to let all of their expiring contracts simply expire.

The plan presumably would be for the Cavs to continue to do what they did this past season and flip as many of those expiring deals as possible for longer contracts in exchange for draft picks.

I think JR is a candidate to do that with, because of his unique contract value but I don't think our other players (TT, Clarkson) are going to garner much compensation back, given the teams in the market for them and the relative barren assets of most contenders.

Sexton, Cedi, #5, #26, Zizic.....1/3rd of our roster is already early 20 somethings. Knowing we are going to suck for several years, how many more draft picks are that useful for continuing to carry salary?

I'd trade anyone for a real asset but taking on long term money for #26 ish draft picks is not a great ROI, historically speaking. It makes sense to take a swing here or there but at some point, it is diminishing returns to use cap space that way......knowing the range of outcomes of those picks.

I see we own these picks in the next 4 drafts:

2019: 1st, 1st (HOU)
2020: 1st, 2nd (UTAH)
2021: 1st, 2nd
2022: 1st, 1st (Bucks protected), 2nd, 2nd (HOU)

Bucks protected is pretty much a lock to get looking at the landscape (Bucks convey non top 7 to Phoenix next year).....assuming Giannis stays healthy.

So that's already 10 draft assets, 6 first round picks. I'm not advocating to pass on real assets, if available but I just think at some point, there has to be someone else on the roster other than rookies / young players or guys that don't want to be here.
 
I think JR is a candidate to do that with, because of his unique contract value but I don't think our other players (TT, Clarkson) are going to garner much compensation back, given the teams in the market for them and the relative barren assets of most contenders.

Sexton, Cedi, #5, #26, Zizic.....1/3rd of our roster is already early 20 somethings. Knowing we are going to suck for several years, how many more draft picks are that useful for continuing to carry salary?

I'd trade anyone for a real asset but taking on long term money for #26 ish draft picks is not a great ROI, historically speaking. It makes sense to take a swing here or there but at some point, it is diminishing returns to use cap space that way......knowing the range of outcomes of those picks.

I see we own these picks in the next 4 drafts:

2019: 1st, 1st (HOU)
2020: 1st, 2nd (UTAH)
2021: 1st, 2nd
2022: 1st, 1st (Bucks protected), 2nd, 2nd (HOU)

Bucks protected is pretty much a lock to get looking at the landscape (Bucks convey non top 7 to Phoenix next year).....assuming Giannis stays healthy.

So that's already 10 draft assets, 6 first round picks. I'm not advocating to pass on real assets, if available but I just think at some point, there has to be someone else on the roster other than rookies / young players or guys that don't want to be here.

Yep. And you trade expirings for late picks not allstar players.

Really, Loves Contract is too big, and so it helps us reach the floor. He is not a value contract, but his value for us to make the team watchable and Championship experience. With TT expiring, I think you get better value from him than you do Love this year.

Love buying into what the coach is doing is going to be so valuable to get buy in from the young guys. Getting Cedi to buy in just doesn't have the same effect. We need leadership. The biggest thing guys with young talent learn playing on a terrible team is that they are the best option 100% of the time. Having a guy like Love hwo is abetter option 9 times out of 10 teaches young guys with talent humility and team play. It makes their job easier, not harder, and that carries over into team play for their career.
 
What about sending Love to Denver for Millsap, Porter Jr, and Denver’s first round pick?

I think Love would be an awesome fit there with their dynamic guards and Jokic. Talk about an incredible big man duo. Love bombing threes too.

Millsap is on a $30M team option this year. Denver picks it up and makes the trade with us. Millsap is a good locker room guy and could be that mentor that our new coach could lean on. But his contract is up at the end of this year. We would pick up Porter who is a big question mark right now but has significant potential. An addition FRP could be more ammo to package with JR to move up with a team looking to dump bad contracts.
 
Kevin Love is a 178lb Power Forward

Yes
 
What about sending Love to Denver for Millsap, Porter Jr, and Denver’s first round pick?

I think Love would be an awesome fit there with their dynamic guards and Jokic. Talk about an incredible big man duo. Love bombing threes too.

Millsap is on a $30M team option this year. Denver picks it up and makes the trade with us. Millsap is a good locker room guy and could be that mentor that our new coach could lean on. But his contract is up at the end of this year. We would pick up Porter who is a big question mark right now but has significant potential. An addition FRP could be more ammo to package with JR to move up with a team looking to dump bad contracts.
Denver does not own the rights to their pick for trade purposes, and they are not trading for Love when they can just decline Milsaps Team Option for next season. we also should not be interested in a major injury red flagged ball hog either
 
I don't mind keeping Love for all the reasons that have been mentioned before...
However what if Charlotte came calling? I admit I have no idea what is going on there. They have to resign Kemba and if they don't
I guess they are headed for a major rebuild....but let's say they can resign Kemba if Love goes there.
How about Love for Batum/#12/Miles Bridges....That is the kind of trade I would be looking for.
You could even take Batum out if you wanted to and put in a combination of MKg/Biz/Marvin/Cody Zeller....
just food for thought.
 
I don't mind keeping Love for all the reasons that have been mentioned before...
However what if Charlotte came calling? I admit I have no idea what is going on there. They have to resign Kemba and if they don't
I guess they are headed for a major rebuild....but let's say they can resign Kemba if Love goes there.
How about Love for Batum/#12/Miles Bridges....That is the kind of trade I would be looking for.
You could even take Batum out if you wanted to and put in a combination of MKg/Biz/Marvin/Cody Zeller....
just food for thought.

That is approaching something I would consider I think. Most of the other stuff thrown out there just seems not worth it.
 
That is approaching something I would consider I think. Most of the other stuff thrown out there just seems not worth it.

I think it would work for both side especially if we were able to help them also open up enough for another max guy with JRs contract. Kemba has a small cap hold of 18 million so it could be possible for them to open cap space and get Love. They will have to ask either Marvin or MKG to decline their option and resign later for the MLE.

But since it's the Hornets I don't have faith that they would be able to get all the parts lined up to keep Kemba then get Love and another star. They always seem to over value their draft pick and I'm not even sure how they view Miles Bridges.
 
Some chatter Hou is pursuing Love and want the package centered around Capela.

That’s not enough, so wonder how else Hou could sweeten the pot?
 

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