Cavs rumors: Teams wanting a first-rounder attached with Kevin Love should be no-go for CLE

In the latest trade discussion surrounding Cleveland Cavaliers big Kevin Love, it’s been reported that teams are wanting a first-round pick attached with Love. Those are Cavs rumors that simply make me cringe, and that should be a no-go for Cleveland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team that will likely be linked to trade scenarios leading up to the 2020 deadline on February 6, given their bunch of expiring contract pieces. Along with that, the latest Cavs rumors involving Kevin Love and potential trades have taken another turn it seems.

To recap a bit, it was reported on Tuesday that if Love were to be dealt by the Cavaliers, he would prefer to be traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, which is understandable. Love is from Portland and the Blazers have been linked to Love in the past as a possible trade landing spot.

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In terms of a trade scenario in that sense, Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz suggested a deal involving the Cavs sending Love and the expiring Tristan Thompson in exchange for Portland’s expiring pieces in Kent Bazemore, Hassan Whiteside, to go with young stretch big Zach Collins, along with rookie wing defender Nassir Little.

In Swartz’s deal, the Blazers would send their 2020 first-round pick that is lottery protected, too. Swartz would go on to mention how two other logical trade suitors could be the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns as well, for reference.

At any rate, a first-rounder in 2020, or perhaps in 2021, is the sort of thing that is such a crucial piece of a potential Love trade from the Cavs’ perspective.

For the record, Swartz suggesting a Kings deal including most notably wing Bogdan Bogdanovic, and a Phoenix deal including most notably Dario Saric and Mikal Bridges is something I could see the Cavaliers considering, but again, a first-round pick in a deal would be something Cleveland should be looking for if at all possible.

The flip side, unfortunately, is what teams are said to be looking for in a trade for Love.

According to a report on Thursday from Jason Lloyd of The Athletic (subscription required), though the Cavs are looking for a first-round pick to be included in a Love deal, perspective teams are essentially looking instead to have a first-rounder sent to them attached with Love.

To me, that should be a total no-go for Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman and the front office.

Furthermore, in regards to those aforementioned Swartz scenarios, Bogdanovic is set to be a restricted free agent after the 2019-20 season, as noted by Spotrac, and the same goes for Saric, and those deals didn’t seem far-fetched.

The Cavaliers would be able to re-sign either of those suggested pieces, but to me, neither would provide as much of an impact as Love would, anyhow.

Love’s still putting up a solid 15.7 points per game with streaky shooting around him, he can still space the floor for youngsters such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Kevin Porter Jr., he’s a very good passer and Love is seventh in the NBA in defensive rebounding, according to NBA.com.

Anyway, though I’m well aware that Love has had his injury problems throughout his career, and with the Cleveland Cavaliers especially, he’s still Cleveland’s best player, and he has grown into being the Cavs’ primary leader, along with Tristan Thompson.

I get that Lloyd’s report, where he also essentially said every player on Cleveland is theoretically available via trade other than Garland, hit on how potential trade suitors want a first-rounder because of Love’s contract. The report said how they are asking for a first-rounder attached by Cleveland because of Love being in just the first season of his four-year, $120.4 million contract, but again, the Cavs agreeing to that would make no sense.

Cleveland is in a rebuilding scenario, yes, but Altman has emphasized countless times that he sees Love as a key core piece in coming years that can greatly help out head coach John Beilein and in the development of young players, such as Sexton, Garland and feasibly Cleveland’s likely top-10 protected first-round pick in 2020.

With the Cavaliers prioritizing player development and asset accumulation in coming years, attaching a first-round pick with Kevin Love in a potential trade, and not adding one in a trade involving him and potentially bad contract players could feasibly set the Cavs back even more.

Please don’t do that, Cavs. You have an owner in Dan Gilbert that’s always willing to spend to help you accumulate draft capital, and Love means so much to the growth of young players.