Should Cleveland Cavaliers Re-Sign Tristan Thompson Over Kevin Love?

Kevin Love returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, but he’s wearing out his welcome and the team may be better off re-signing Tristan Thompson over him. 

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The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Kevin Love this past offseason to be a rock in their frontcourt and add scoring power to what looked to already be a high powered offense with Kyrie Irving and LeBron James. But since arriving, it’s been slow going for Love and it’s cost him a lot of respect with fans and teammates.

But is he really worth parting ways with after just one season of trying to fit a square peg into a slightly less square hole? It’s not that Love doesn’t fit with the Cavaliers, it’s just he’s not fitting into the role people assumed he’d fit when he was traded from Minnesota in the offseason.

Tristan Thompson is in a similar, albeit less intense, situation. He’s a guy who the Cavaliers value but he’s not someone who is playing the game changer role the way he might on another team. That’s not a bad thing though, as just like Love, Thompson has a role on this team that Cleveland needs to pounce on.

The question of keeping one or the other has come up in the past, as they both play the four and neither are stretch forwards. Thompson can sometimes play center, but he’s undersized and Love just isn’t defensively sound enough to play the five. But together, on the same team, both Kevin Love and Tristan Thomson are a deadly combination.

It’s not a question of if the Cavaliers should sign one over the other — they need both.

LeBron James and the Miami Heat have hammered it our heads that combo players need to be on the floor at the same time forming some Big 3 to matter. But Love and Thompson are players the Cavaliers need to both re-sign, as they bring different skills that combine to be dangerous.

Thompson is a defensive forward who can rebound ferociously and be a tenacious defender. He’s not a prolific scorer though and teams playing against him know that when he’s on the court. Kevin Love is the polar opposite, as he is a three-point sharpshooter who can spread the floor well offensively. He’s one of the best rebounders in the game, but he struggles defensively which is causing issues late in games.

It’s not a question of if the Cavaliers should sign one over the other — they need both. Love could be a sole star somewhere else, but he’s in a position where he an grow into a truly special player in Cleveland and the same goes for Thompson as well.

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