Cavs rumors: Tristan Thompson made available, while Kevin Love has ‘very little market’

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson has reportedly been made available in trade talks, while not surprisingly, in the latest Cavs rumors, fellow big Kevin Love reportedly has “very little market” to this point.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have had all kinds of struggles in the 2019-20 season, and clearly, the upcoming February 6 NBA trade deadline needs to be an active one for a team at the beginning stages of a full-rebuild. Cavs rumors this week will clearly involve the potential for plenty of roster shakeup.

The Cavaliers’ two biggest trade chips are bigs Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love, and though it’s hard to project much value at all for big John Henson and guards Brandon Knight and Matthew Dellavedova, those pieces, along with Thompson, are on expiring deals and could seemingly be involved in a deal, perhaps of the three-team variety, for salary fillers near the deadline.

Knight is currently dealing with knee soreness, however, and while he is also expiring given that Cleveland did not pick up his four-year option early in the season and previously was rumored to be a “salary filler” in a potential trade, big Ante Zizic is sidelined indefinitely due to a reported vestibular condition.

So anyhow, in terms of the latest Cavs rumors, on Monday it was reported by Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes that Tristan Thompson has “been made available for a trade” with the deadline looming.

This is about right on cue, considering the Cavaliers are again, rebuilding. Plus, considering how they reportedly traded expiring bench scorer Jordan Clarkson in December to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Dante Exum and two future second-round picks, you’d think Cavs general manager Koby Altman would be looking to move Thompson, given the state of the Wine and Gold and with TT having a career year.

Haynes also noted that according to sources, the Cavs are in “asset accumulation mode” following a horrible 131-112 loss at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to the Golden State Warriors, who have the league’s worst record, on Saturday.

Anyhow, this is again what I would’ve expected at this point, because the Cavs and Thompson have not had any concrete discussions about another contract/potential extension, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

Thompson has played his tail off for the Wine and Gold this year with what would be career-highs in points (11.9), rebounds (10.4) and assists (2.1) per game, and has clearly been the team’s primary leader, but Cleveland can’t take a chance on letting Thompson go for nothing this offseason.

Letting his contract expire would be foolish I believe, and considering it’s unclear if Thompson, even though he is a great teammate and seems to have the intangibles for this rebuild, would want to sign another deal following 2019-20 with the Cavs.

As far as a potential return for Thompson, Sports Illustrated‘s Jeremy Woo seems to believe that a “second rounder and contractual filler” is likely what TT, who is due to make $18.5 million this season, would warrant for Cleveland.

Of course, that’s far from ideal, but Cleveland shelling out potentially a big deal in the coming offseason for Thompson, who is going to be 29 in March, with the Cavs realistically needing to develop younger replacement bigs in coming drafts wouldn’t be a sound move.

So again, asset accumulation is the right move here, but either way, what Thompson gave to the Cavaliers for nearly nine years to this point is something I’ll always be appreciative of. TT gave it his all on both ends of the glass every game he played for the Wine and Gold, was a terrific screener and has been a quality defender and his number 13 jersey should be retired by Cleveland.

I agree with KJG’s Ben Korzep on that one.

Thompson feasibly going to a contender again would be nice for him personally, and hopefully Cleveland could get a few decent future seconds of which they could perhaps package down the road in a coming draft for a key developmental piece, such as how they did in acquiring Kevin Porter Jr.

Along with that, though, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on the latest episode of The Lowe Post podcast hosted by ESPN’s Zach Lowe, the Washington Wizards are a team that’s realistically a trade suitor for the expiring Thompson. Washington, though a non-contender, has a similar expiring contract to match in Ian Mahinmi who is due to make $15.45 million, but as Bullets Forever’s Albert Lee essentially hit on, given that the Wiz are rebuilding, it’s tough to see a deal happening because “Washington is reluctant to let go of their draft picks,” at least in coming years.

Again, though, it appears TT’s days with the Cavs are coming to a close; plus, according to Windhorst on his latest episode of his podcast, The Hoop Collective, emphasized how several teams have shown interest in Thompson (and h/t Fear The Sword’s Justin Rowan). Lastly, Thompson being reportedly out Monday’s game due to right quad soreness would seem to play right into him having a good chance of being moved, too, and the Cavs wouldn’t want to risk injury halting that, either.

In regards to other Cavs rumors, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on a recent episode of The Woj Pod, it seems as though Kevin Love will likely not be dealt by the upcoming deadline on Thursday at 3 PM.

Wojnarowski said, as transcribed by Bleacher Report’s Scott Polacek, that the Cavaliers are “resigned right now that there is no trade for them between now and Thursday.”

Woj then noted how that’s likely to be the case unless there is a trade that “comes out of nowhere,” then perhaps a deal could happen in the next few days.

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

Additionally, Lowe reported that while the Cleveland Cavaliers are still looking to gauge Love’s value and/or shop him, “nothing appears serious” in regards to a Love deal by the deadline (and h/t Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway).

Lowe would go on to note that the Phoenix Suns are a “wild card” as far as a deadline trade landing spot for Love, but again, a wild card seems about right.

The 31-year-old Love is due to make $91.5 million over the next three seasons following 2019-20 and with his well-documented injury history, combined with what’s happened on the floor/on the bench with him this season, Cleveland likely looking at an offseason trade and not to just essentially give Love away as Conway hit on, I get, given his skill set and seemingly without Thompson and perhaps Henson around.

Love’s a player that can keep providing a good inside-out scoring presence for the Cavaliers’ young pieces in Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and occasionally Porter feasibly for the season’s last few months, too. Hopefully, though Love reportedly prefers to be traded, according to the aforementioned Fedor, Love can stick to along the lines of what he said recently, of which he expressed that he’d be “happy” to still be with the Cavaliers after the deadline.

Based on Woj’s and Lowe’s reports, that’s likely to be the case in terms of an offseason trade, and so we’ll see how Love is as a teammate and if he really does keep playing pretty well or seems to mail it in a bit, especially with his good buddy in TT seemingly likely due to be moved soon by Cleveland.

On the season, Love has averaged a solid 17.4 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, as noted by NBA.com. In January, Love had a good month for Cleveland head coach John Beilein, too, as the big man had 19.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per contest, and shot 40.0% from three-point range.

Anyhow, fans should expect the Cavs rumors to keep coming more and more terms of trade talks leading up to Thursday afternoon with the team again looking to accumulate assets for coming years.