It’s hard to see the Cleveland Cavaliers trade Kevin Love to the L.A. Lakers

Yesterday, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Kevin Love to the Los Angeles Lakers, and I just don’t see that happening.

Since the beginning of free agency in July (when LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers), the Cleveland Cavaliers have said fully intend to compete for a postseason birth. I understand that may not be realistic for the whole year, but trading Kevin Love to L.A. seems far-fetched.

As was previously mentioned, Smith raised the possibility. He wasn’t reporting anything, to be clear, but the idea popped in his head with the James connection and with Kevin Love previously being a UCLA Bruin.

The Cavaliers are a small market team, and I can’t see them wanting to go full-rebuild, at least in the near future. The team is in much better shape than they were when LeBron left in 2010 with pieces around Love in Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, George Hill, Kyle Korver and Larry Nance Jr., among others.

Cleveland is not going to have an easy road to a postseason birth, even in the Eastern Conference. Even so, owner Dan Gilbert and general manager Koby Altman have all the indications to compete, and not completely tank.

That hinges on Love being available as the team’s first offensive option for at minimum, this season, to a large degree. He’s going to have an uptick in usage, even with more offensive balance without James, and Sexton said Love will be the captain, per Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies.

Now with the Cavaliers signing Love to a four-year, $120 million extension, he can’t be traded right away. Ashish Mathur of Clutch Points noted the details on that.

"“As a reminder, the Cavs can’t trade Love until six months after the date he signed his extension. Love signed his new deal on July 24.”"

The Cavaliers are planning to feature Love in a variety of ways, not primarily as a spot-up guy, as they did much more often in his four years with James. Love is one of the league’s best shooters, but he’s always been a very good post-up threat.

Love is coming off a season where he had a career-high true shooting rate (61.4 percent), and in a faster-paced offense this year, he could have near that again with more free throw attempts. It’s hard to believe Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue would allow Love to be dealt.

Plus, on the flip side of things, this deal wouldn’t make much sense for the Lakers, either, even if Smith sees the LeBron connection. Mathur’s take on this trade is as logical as it gets.

"“If the Cavs and Lakers were to make this trade, it’s hard to pinpoint which players Los Angeles would give up for Love. Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma have bright futures, and it wouldn’t make sense to move either of them for Love, who has a history of injuries.The Cavs already have their point guard of the future in Collin Sexton, so they likely won’t have interest in Lonzo Ball or Josh Hart. Maybe Smith is just trying to stir the pot, because even though Love is a high-level player and would make the Lakers better, there doesn’t appear to be a potential move that makes sense.”"

Hook, line and sinker. I don’t understand why L.A. would give up young assets to get a 30-year old Love that has had a ton of injuries throughout his career.

The way the Lakers have built their team on athleticism and allowing their youth to develop around LeBron, reverting to Love wouldn’t work well in the jam-packed, fast-paced Western Conference.