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ESPN’s Chris Haynes believes Cavs will trade Kevin Love if they’re swept in NBA Finals

By Quenton S. Albertie

Jun 4, 2017; Oakland, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) dunks against the Golden State Warriors during the first half in game two of the 2017 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 4, 2017; Oakland, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) dunks against the Golden State Warriors during the first half in game two of the 2017 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Will the Cleveland Cavaliers trade Kevin Love in the offseason? ESPN’s Chris Haynes believes so.

ESPN’s Chris Haynes appeared on The Dan Patrick Show yesterday and he believes that the Cleveland Cavaliers will trade Kevin Love if they fail to reach the NBA Finals.

Haynes, in mentioning why Love would be traded, cites three reasons why Love would be traded.

(1) He’s always the player being dangled in hypothetical trades.

In the 2015-2016 season, the Cavs, Boston Celtics and New York Knicks discussed a three-team deal that would bring Carmelo Anthony to Cleveland and Love to Boston according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. This season, according to Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein of ESPN, the Knicks called the Cleveland Cavaliers up about an Anthony-Love trade again.

(2) LeBron James isn’t content with reaching the NBA Finals.

Haynes, who covered the Cavs for cleveland.com before moving to ESPN, is familiar with James’ thinking. He believes that if the King doesn’t believe the Cavs have enough, he’ll want them to make a move that helps them match the firepower of the Warriors.

(3) The Cleveland Cavaliers already know what they have in Love.

Love is a “unicorn” in his own right his ability to rebound at an elite rate while being a great three-point shooter and both  a solid passer and post player. He even has stepped up his team defense, and his ability to guard perimeter players in space, year-by-year. Nonetheless, the general consensus has always been that the Cleveland Cavaliers needed a more dynamic defender than Love as James creeps towards his mid-30s.

Love, who has averaged 17.0 points, 13.7 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.0 block per game in the 2017 NBA Finals has successfully ended those conversations about how he can’t stay on the court against the Golden State Warriors.

With six steals in Game 3, Love was the best defensive player on the court and with Tristan Thompson’s general ineffectiveness, Love’s ability to rebound and score in the paint (or at least draw the foul) has been even more important.

The problem that Love has now, perhaps because of the effort he’s exerting on the defensive end, is that he’s not doing what he’s always been able to do.

Hit three-point shots.

If there’s anything to point to as a reason Love hasn’t been good enough through these NBA Finals (and he wouldn’t be the only one you could nitpick), it would be that Love is 3-14 from three-point range in his last two games and shooting 30.0 percent from three-point range for the series. Love was shooting 37.3 percent from three-point range throughout the regular season and 47.5 percent from three-point range throughout the playoffs prior to the Finals.

While J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson and Deron Williams have also underperformed, Smith and Thompson are favorites of head coach Tyronn Lue, LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Williams, who wouldn’t have had much trade value in any case, will be a free agent in the summer.

If traded, Love shouldn’t be used in a deal for Carmelo, simply because no team that he’s willing to go to will offer the Knicks an All-Star for Anthony at this stage in his career.

Love will be more useful in a trade that brings the Cavs a player who is already in their prime. Names like Paul George, Jimmy Butler and DeMarcus Cousins come to mind and while Love shouldn’t be enough for any of those players straight-up and they’d like a first-round pick as well, he should be able to net the Cavs a player whose talent level falls between that trio and Anthony.

If you were to ask me, Love has acquitted himself well this season and because of his value on the boards and on the perimeter, I wouldn’t trade him unless the Cavs could get a player of George’s caliber in the deal.

Even if they already traded a few auxiliary players in order to acquire Anthony.

Related Story: Cavs need everyone to step their games up on offense

Do you think that the Cleveland Cavaliers will trade Kevin Love in the offseason? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.