Kevin Love Trade: What Could Cavs Get Back?

Kevin Love trade rumors are back in full swing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Who could they get in return for Love?

The Kevin Love – Carmelo Anthony trade rumor has already been put to rest but that doesn’t mean the Cavs power forward isn’t possibly going to be moved. It is unlikely but still a possibility.

Not only is it a possibility but, according to one report, the Cavs have made some calls about it but the price is high:

2-16-16 Update

The Cavs are receiving calls about Love but they have no plan to move him before the summer unless they get a star in return:

"Love’s fit as a third wheel remains awkward, but the Cavs want to win the title, and they know their core is good enough to approach the finish line. Rejiggering things now would be a gamble. The Cavs might draw juicier offers in June; Boston dangled four first-rounders for Justise Winslow in the heat of draft night, after all. The Cavs are hunting for upgrades, but Love isn’t the bait — yet. They have a rare open roster spot, and could wait for Brooklyn to buy out Joe Johnson."

End Update

The price for Love should be high. While he hasn’t fit perfectly with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, the team has played great when the 3 of them are on the floor together. Love is an obvious talent with his shooting, rebounding and passing.

That it hasn’t worked out perfectly in Cleveland is the reason these rumors keep flying. The Cavs, looking for a title and nothing less, have to be open to doing whatever it takes to try to overtake the defending champs Golden State Warriors and the powerful San Antonio Spurs. In fact, beating the Warriors is likely a bigger consideration than “making the Cavs better” if they do make any trades this year.

Trading Love is the biggest splash they can make and, likely, the only one of the Big 3 that is even remotely likely to be moved.

According to Frank Isola, who first put out the Love-Melo rumor, the Celtics have their eyes directly fixed on Kevin Love:

"Celtics GM Danny Ainge has always been aggressive about adding a star and is intrigued by Anthony. For now, the Celtics are focused on Love, who signed an extension with the Cavs last summer."

That leads us to look at the three possible trade types that we could see if the Cavs decide to move Kevin Love. At this point we are not expecting a Kevin Love trade but anything is possible.

Multi-Team Deals

Any combination of teams and players that follow in the other two types of trades could be combined into multi-team deals. With Love, Anderson Varejao‘s creative contract and the big Brendan Haywood Traded Player Exception, the Cavs can get involved in a slew of multi-team deals.

Too many to really track here separately but combining any of the Superstar for Superstar and Quantity over Quality trades could give you some ideas of what could happen in a Multi-Team Deal.

Next: Superstar for Superstar