Why the Cavs won’t trade Kevin Love during this season

Another year, another swirl of rumors flooding in stating that Kevin Love could potentially be moved off of the Cleveland Cavaliers before the trade deadline.

This has become a cycle that Cavalier fans are becoming accustomed to. Ever since his first couple of years with the Cleveland Cavaliers, it has been rumored that Love would be traded from the Cavs to retool the team to fit LeBron James’ needs better previously.

After LeBron James left for the Los Angeles Lakers, it was predicted that Love would be quickly moved to a contender. However, the Cavaliers went in the absolute opposite direction and gave Love an enormous extension that they have had to live with ever since.

The contract extension that the Cavaliers gave Love has made him almost untradeable to any team that Love would want to play for. Love is nearing the end of his career and seemingly would naturally want to be on a team that is capable of winning a championship or playing some sort of meaningful basketball at the end of the season, though he’s not stated that outright or demanded a trade, for instance.

But the Cavs won’t likely be able to trade Love during this season.

It appears that neither the Cavaliers or Love will be able to move on from each other. No contender wants Kevin Love on their roster for around the $91.5 million he’s set to make over the next three seasons, albeit they’d obviously not be paying all of this season out to him, if a deal were to come near the March 25 deadline, for example.

You get the gyst during this season, though, and even while the Cavs will reportedly look to deal Love when he is healthy (high-grade right calf strain/aggravation), per Sam Amico of OutKick and Forty Eight Minutes earlier this month, it’s tough to foresee Cleveland dealing him during this season.

Along with this, the Cavaliers are also trying to ship off the large expiring contract of Andre Drummond before the trade deadline is over, as Amico hit on as well. There is still some interested in Drummond around the league, and the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat reportedly had trade discussions involving Drummond with the Cavs, but, it seems to be quickly fleeting and nowhere near where the Cavaliers wish they would be.

A buyout could eventually be what plays out, and The Athletic‘s Jason Lloyd (subscription required) gets the sense that the Brooklyn Nets, Heat, to go with the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks could be logical buyout landing spots, if that were to occur. Regarding other potential trade destinations/reports on that sort of thing, though, you can view those here.

It is likely that the Cavs will take this time to field calls and make the best deal for Drummond that they can. After that is over, they will spend their offseason scouting draft prospects and working on finally getting Kevin Love’s contract off of the Cavaliers books, one would assume.

Once the Cavs can get Drummond and Love off of the books, they will officially have a clean slate and will be able to better invest their money in core players of this rebuild like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and further down the line Isaac Okoro. Allen, who is set to be a restricted free agent this upcoming offseason, will almost certainly be locked up, one way or another, and Sexton reportedly could be.

Moreover, while Love, who had 17.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game last season, and hit 37.4 percent from three-point range, is a high quality player, the Cavs this offseason should seemingly have a much more realistic shot of finally dealing him. He’ll only have two years left on his deal.

And frankly, the 32-year-old needs to be dealt then, again in the scenario he’s not by this 2021 deadline.