Five Kevin Love Trade Scenarios

Dec 26, 2014; Orlando, FL, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) against the Orlando Magic during the first quarter at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Cavaliers are likely to enter next season with Kevin Love on their roster. The Cavs traded Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a 1st Round pick to create their Big 3 with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. The season wasn’t overly smooth and ended with Love getting hurt in the NBA Playoffs but the Cavs still winning 2 games in the NBA Finals.

Love has made it clear since he arrived in Cleveland that he plans to be with the team for the 2015-16 season. He has reiterated it a number of times throughout the season including in his lone meeting with the media following his shoulder injury.

Yet the conversation from the outside has continued with rumbles that either Love or the Cavs would be interested in moving on from their partnership. There is some logical conclusions that lead to those rumblings: Love didn’t fit perfectly and didn’t seem comfortable while the Cavs still competed in the NBA Finals without him. Those make sense from the outside looking in.

Yet the rumblings are also reports from insiders that they don’t see Love with the Cavs next year. There are a number of vague reports of Love wanting to be a bigger part of the offense, being interested in moving to the West Coast and not loving playing with LeBron. Zach Lowe, a great writer for Grantland, added to the Love/Cavs divorce noise:

"Griffin has repeatedly said the Cavs plan to keep Love, but plugged-in executives around the league continue to predict the Cavs will sign-and-trade Love after advancing so far without him. That would unclutter the power forward spot, and if the Cavs can recoup rotation players and picks, they’d have to at least consider it. Love needs the ball to live up to a max contract, and even Griffin has told me that watching LeBron carry a misfit cast within two wins of the title taught him a lot about the kind of supporting cast he wants around his centerpiece."

Again just noise from a “plugged-in executives” but Lowe’s notes about who to play around LeBron was interesting. Griffin was quoted later talking about not having many ball dominant players around LeBron. With Irving on the team, is Love too ball dominant to partner with James as GM Griffin sees things?

So based on all of that we bring you these 5 trade scenarios, plus 1 that isn’t going to happen but would be perfect, that make some level of sense for the Cavs and Love. These trades can happen if Love opts in or if they agree to a sign and trade. The Cavs won’t be able to acquire anyone who is a sign and trade but can sign and trade their own players without having to deal with the restrictions of the Salary Cap Apron.

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