Kevin Love trade rumors don’t make sense for Cavs or other potential teams right now

With the 2019 NBA Draft on Thursday, Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love is reportedly a piece being involved in trade talks, and at this juncture, I’m confused when it comes to both ends of the spectrum.

The Cleveland Cavaliers at this point have to know that Kevin Love‘s situation is not going to be one that is going to be the easiest to deal with in the near future.

The contract extension Love reportedly signed last offseason (for four years and $120.4 million, per Spotrac) is not going to be the cheapest deal for Cleveland in the years ahead, and the first year of that extension kicks in soon for 2019-20.

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Love’s been and likely will be going forward, an injury-prone player; last year, he only appeared in 22 games (per Basketball Reference), and that was mostly due to reported toe surgery.

His absence was a key factor in Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman (and likely Larry Nance Jr.) making considerable strides as important pieces for the Cavaliers, though, so that is a silver lining in what was a rough 2018-19 season in which Cleveland finished just 19-63 (per NBA.com).

That being said, I agree with general manager Koby Altman and the front office in them reportedly seeing Love as a key piece for the near future still, and it would be nice for head coach John Beilein and his coaching staff to have a veteran inside-out scoring and passing presence such as Love to lean on and help the youngsters in the next few seasons.

Players that have averages of 18.3 points per game on 56.9% true shooting (including 37.0% from three-point land, per Basketball Reference) over an 11-season career don’t grow on trees.

Love is Cleveland’s best player, and likely will be for at least the next season, and trade rumors surrounding him near the 2019 NBA Draft don’t make much sense to me, because of his absence last season, and from Cleveland and Altman’s perspective, this seemingly being considered a weak draft class by pundits/scouts.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on an appearance on ESPN Cleveland’s the “Really Big Show,” (RBS) there seems to be a good chance Love is not playing for Cleveland next season (per the RBS’ Aaron Goldhammer).

Love has been seemingly the key subject of trade rumors/discussions surrounding the Cavs for several years, though, and it’s hard for me to see Cleveland ultimately pulling the trigger now of all times.

I understand he’s going to be playing his age-31 season in 2019-20, and that the Cavaliers likely won’t be postseason contenders for probably two years in an improved Eastern Conference, but to me, with Love likely not having much trade value at this point, what’s the huge rush to deal him now considering the likely best-case scenario would be accumulating picks that probably aren’t all that high, anyway?

According to Paul Crane of 92.9 The Game, the Atlanta Hawks could reportedly be interested in trading for Love, with picks being the key to the deal for Cleveland (who would be trading the Hawks the fifth overall pick), and other pieces would be in the deal one could assume, for salary-matching.

I would imagine that the Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers could potentially be discussing trading pieces such as Atlanta’s Allen Crabbe and/or Kent Bazemore, who are both hefty, but expiring contracts after next season, along with Smith from Cleveland’s end; Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert is reportedly fine with adding more to his player payroll including players on “bad contracts,” as we’ve previously noted here at KJG, too, anyhow, and expiring contracts help accumulate future assets.

Given that, the picks suggested by Crane would work, too, but Cleveland dealing away Love in general right now centered around 2019 NBA Draft picks being the key assets in return makes little sense to me.

Love is still a really good player, and when healthy, is realistically one of the best offensive and rebounding bigs in the NBA.

He’s a five-time All-Star player and his presence would only help Sexton, Osman and Cleveland’s draft picks for this year (currently fifth and 26th and will seemingly be another due to J.R. Smith‘s contract) have more space to operate on the floor in settled offense due to his perimeter shooting prowess.

Along with that, why would the Cavaliers would trade back while giving up their best player from fifth overall and take back not even the Hawks eighth, but 10th pick, to go with the 17th, when the 2019 NBA Draft is considered very top-heavy?

I can understand Cleveland doing a deal involving trading back with Atlanta involving the fifth pick for eighth and 10th pick (of which our own Josh Friedman suggested potential pairings in those slots), but taking back likely additional salary from other teams, too, and giving up Love, really is something I can’t seem to wrap my head around.

Additionally, from Atlanta’s perspective, wouldn’t they at least want to see if Love is going to be reasonably healthy next year, and why would they want to have Love’s contract on their payroll for the foreseeable future when they have a promising young core of Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and John Collins and could reasonably be a free agent destination in 2020?

Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz also highlighted the Charlotte Hornets as a potential trade partner in a Love deal, and does Love really even make the Hornets a contender, anyway?.

In his deal, the best part of a suggested trade for Cleveland would involve Malik Monk, a player who is just 21 but is unproven, with a scoring average of 7.9 points per game on effective field goal rate of just 47.1% in two seasons, per Basketball Reference (and not to mention is a defensive liability at this point), and the 12th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

In a potential trade centering around Smith for that 12th overall pick and Marvin Williams (who has been a suggested trade piece by Swartz to Cleveland a few times, including in the Love potential trade), I’m fine with that.

With Love involved, though, and Monk and Charlotte’s pick being the best parts of the return, I’ll pass, and it’s difficult to see Charlotte being all that much better with Love, anyhow, as they’d all but certainly also lose out on keeping a very solid secondary creator and improving defender in Jeremy Lamb, who is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer after a career year.

Once again, the Love must be traded right this second narrative strikes again, and probably more than even before, I don’t understand it. Cleveland could also be missing out on a key wing player such as Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver, Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter or Duke’s Cam Reddish if they trade back out of five, too.

A calming veteran presence, and a really good player in that veteran (more importantly) isn’t the worst thing in the world, at least for a little while, for Beilein and his staff.

Love’s far from perfect and is not a plus defender, but let’s at least let Beilein, who has zero NBA coaching experience (even as an assistant), have Love’s offensive ability on the floor for him before Beilein even gets his coaching feet wet at all in the Association.