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Cleveland Cavaliers: Q’s Favorite Trade Scenarios Involving Kevin Love

By Quenton S. Albertie

Feb 16, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (13) brings the ball up court against the Washington Wizards at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Washington defeats Indiana 111-98. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 16, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (13) brings the ball up court against the Washington Wizards at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Washington defeats Indiana 111-98. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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With this trade, the Cleveland Cavaliers are trading Kevin Love for a player that Kyrie irving can dominate with should LeBron James ever be out for any reason. It’s become my theory that the reason that the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t often win games when the duo of Irving and Love are playing is because they weren’t looked at as a duo when Love was brought into the fold. Love was part of a trio and, if there ever was a duo to think about it was the duo of James and Love, two incredibly unique forwards.

With that being said, the Chicago Bulls look ready to trade Jimmy Butler which could just mean that they don’t see him as the future face of the franchise. Love, who will be coming to a team where Nikola Mirotic and Taj Gibson will be hitting free agency, setting the stage for him to star at the power forward position.

On the Cleveland Cavaliers, James will end up sliding down to power forward in Love’s absence unless they opt to start Channing Frye at power forward and Butler at shooting guard rather than small forward. Butler will have to improve his three-point shooting, which topped out at 37.8 percent in the 2014-2015 season. In that season, Butler took more corner threes than he is now and that’s where he’ll have to make his mark as a catch-and-shoot outlet in the starting lineup.

Butler does raise his three-point shooting in playoff time though, as he has a career three-point percentage of 32.9 percent in the regular season and 38.0 percent in the playoffs. That’s also the result of him taking a greater percentage of his three-point shots from the corner.

In either case, the Cavs will have terrific defense in the starting lineup if they replace Love with Butler, who has been named to the NBA’s All-Defensive team three times. They’ll have better perimeter defense and be a faster unit overall, one that can devastate teams in the open court.