Hoops Habit
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Will Kevin Love Truly Consider Leaving Cleveland Cavaliers After This Season?

By Sam Richmond

Nov 10, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) warms up before the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New Orleans Pelicans at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 10, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) warms up before the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New Orleans Pelicans at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kevin Love is only six games into his Cleveland Cavaliers career and there are already rumors flying around that he might already want to leave #TheLand.

Bulls.com’s Sam Smith is reporting that Love will seriously contemplate exercising his opt-out clause this summer and signing with the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It’s not going to get as much discussion during the season, but one of the biggest issues for the Cavs is that both LeBron James and Kevin Love own opt outs after this season. LeBron James basically cannot afford to go anywhere after his return to Cleveland. But watch out for Love. Indications are he will seriously consider the opt out and has his eyes on a return to Los Angeles, where he attended college and where the Lakers long have had him on their free agent wish list."

Let’s start with the obvious: Love, in all likelihood, will opt out of his contract with the Cavaliers.

There’s simply no benefit to opting in. Even if Love simply wanted the benefit of the opt-in (only committing to Cleveland for one year), he could receive that benefit and make more money by opting out.

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Love stands to make $16,744,219 next season in his current contract. However, he could make $18,602,898 next season by opting out and signing a one-year deal. Regardless if Love wants to commit to Cleveland for the short-term, long-term or leave the team, opting out is the way he’ll undoubtedly go.

So, Love will become a free agent next year.

However, that does not mean Love is likely to leave the Cavs.

Smith is correct in suggesting that Love wouldn’t deal with the irrecoverable image hit by leaving the Cavs that LeBron would if he were to make the same choice.

But Love would still be heavily scrutinized if he left the Cavs for the Lakers.

In even the worst-case scenario for the Cavs this season (excluding those that involve serious injuries), they’ll enter the playoffs as one of the top seeds in the Eastern Conference and have moderate postseason success.

On the other hand, the Lakers are currently 1-7 and poised to finish this year as among the worst teams in the Western Conference.

Even considering the Lakers can open up cap space and improve their team this offseason, a move from Cleveland to Los Angeles would be a major step down in winning and seem strictly about Love wanting to be in the bright lights of Hollywood.

Decisions of that nature generally don’t sit well with the public, especially considering Love wrote a first-person essay in theplayerstribune.com prior to the season explaining that he was tired of putting up big numbers and losing in Minnesota and “came to Cleveland because I want to win.”

Furthermore, Love would be doing the unthinkable and leaving a LeBron James-led team. James is the best player in the league and the surest bet to make the NBA Finals every year. No player that actually values winning above all else leaves LeBron.

Make no mistake: Love would get crushed for making such a non-basketball decision.

Also, Love wanted to be a member of this team. He pushed for the trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Cavaliers and he got it. The Cavs were willing to part with No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins with the belief that Love would be with them for a long time.

Love would certainly look bad if he then turned around and left the Cavs in a year.

Simply put, it’s truly hard to imagine Love is actually contemplating leaving the Cavaliers for the Lakers.

He’s spent just six games with the Cavaliers, a team he pushed to be on, yet is already looking to bail? That doesn’t sound right.

Tack on the fact that Love has to understand that by leaving the Cavs for the Lakers he’d be taking a major public relations hit and forgoing the chance to play with a great team, and the idea of the 26-year-old big man teaming up with Kobe Bryant next summer sounds absurd.

Rumors and speculation about Love’s free agency are bound to pop up this season, but bet on the UCLA product re-upping with the Cavaliers in 2015.

Next: NBA Power Rankings: How Close Are The Cavs To The Top?