It’s a major plus Cavs didn’t move Kevin Love in proposed deal by Blazers

The Cleveland Cavaliers were reportedly offered an awful deal for Kevin Love by the Portland Trail Blazers, and it’s a major plus the Cavs declined.

Kevin Love has constantly been a subject of trade rumors throughout his tenure with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Earlier this season, too, I thought Love would’ve been moved, considering he seemingly wanted to be traded and showed visible frustration in games.

That being said, Love did apologize for outbursts in games, and since that point in early January, has performed really well. In January, Love averaged 19.5 points and shot 40.0 percent on 7.5 three-pointers per game, to go with 8.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists, as noted by NBA.com.

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In four games in February, he’s had 19.3 points per outing, to go with 10.0 boards and 4.5 assists per outing, too.

Anyway, though Love reportedly still preferred to be moved by the trade deadline, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, he’s been a solid citizen since after that didn’t happen.

Factoring in that, and the Cavs acquiring two-time All-Star Andre Drummond for barely anything from the Detroit Pistons, it’s a major plus that Cleveland didn’t move Love in a proposed deal by the Portland Trail Blazers before the deadline.

According to The Athletic‘s Jason Lloyd (subscription required), Portland, who has been linked to Love in the past, offered basically just expiring contract salary matching with Hassan Whiteside and Kent Bazemore (who Portland eventually dealt to the Sacramento Kings).

Whiteside, even though he leads the league in total blocks, as indicated by Basketball Reference,  is a player who historically gives questionable effort game-to-game, and he’s a complete non-floor spacer.

He’s a legitimate double-double threat every game, but he’s 30, and is nowhere near the secondary playmaker Love is, or even Drummond, who is much-improved in that realm.

Along with that, the wildly-inconsistent 30-year-old and 6-foot-4 Bazemore would be a player that just takes minutes away from Collin Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr. 

Furthermore, what would’ve been even worse from this deal is how the Blazers didn’t offer any future draft capital, either, as Lloyd highlighted.

Lloyd would then note that most clubs wanted assets packaged, too, just to take on Love, who is due to make $28.9 million in 2019-20.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers and general manager Koby Altman have remained steadfast in them reportedly seeking a first-rounder for Love, of which no teams were at all willing to do, according to Lloyd.

Love still has three years and $91.5 million remaining on his contract following this season, but with a weak free agent pool and with Love likely closing out this season strong now with J.B. Bickerstaff as the head coach instead of John Beilein (who is reportedly now in a different role with Cleveland), it makes sense that Lloyd hit on how he believes trade offers for Love will stir up again this summer.

I’d expect that it should be much easier for Altman to move Love then, as even with him being 31 and having quite an injury history, he still is an elite shooting and defensive rebounding big.

However, if this Love-Drummond experiment goes better than expected, and Drummond opts into his $28.8 million player option for next year, which you’d think he would with the tyrant-like Beilein no longer the head coach and with Drummond before reportedly likely to opt in, per Sports Illustrated‘s Sam Amico, perhaps Love will be around next season.

Either way, thank God Altman and company didn’t take just the expiring Whiteside and Bazemore back for Love, as they wouldn’t fit in with Cleveland’s rebuild following the season and wouldn’t help young players the way Love’s inside-out scoring presence does.