FWIW, here's a very recent article involving speculation about Love and his fit on the Blazers.
The Portland Trail Blazers remain one player short of contending for a title. Which star should they target to add next to Lillard and McCollum? The offsea...
ripcityproject.com
This is...not a good article or assessment of Love, and it's just a fan site, but I'm posting it to make two points:
(1) Despite the article's own (faulty) assessment of Love's production and injuries and "decline," the author still sees him as a valuable piece that could put the Blazers over. Maybe not
over, i.e., a "guaranteed" championship, but highly competitive. Again, that's
with his faults being considered. It's the Wild West now that Golden State is a wounded animal. Someone here called it an "arms race," which is perfect. His contract will not be an issue.
(2) I've seen some people here referring to what "teams" think of Love, or what the "league" thinks of Love, which is really a way of saying what the media and fans think of Love. But "teams" or the "league" aren't going to be trading for him...a specific team will. His fit on a specific team, like Portland, is what matters. That's it. The generalizations about the league's perceptions of Kevin Love don't matter.
Granted, there are only a handful of teams that would be potential good fits for Love (Portland, Pelicans, Lakers, Golden State, maybe Denver, Spurs, Pacers, Jazz, Heat, Mavericks), but unless we're talking about a Top 5 player, isn't that the way it usually is? And sure, most teams need to see how Love performs in the first half of the season.
(FWIW again, that article at least adds Nassir Little to the Whiteside expiring/cap relief, which moves the needle closer for me. I'd need picks and to see Little play. I'd consider Zach Collins in the mix, too. I tend to think Portland and Cleveland have already seriously talked about a possible trade deadline scenario, and that they did so before the Whiteside trade.)