What to believe about Kevin Love/Cleveland Cavaliers trade rumors

With the NBA trade season open, the obligatory Kevin Love rumors are starting to circulate but which ones are believable or even plausible for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Kevin Love, currently of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is a name which is linked to trades as he is a high-level player on a struggling team. Love may be seen to be enough to change any mid- to high-level playoff team into a true contender.

Love has been linked to multiple teams, such is the value of his production. For his career, Love has averaged 18.2 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 683 career games. These are numbers which any contender would love to add to their roster, especially when you add in his 37.0 3-point percentage .

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Love also has some nice accolades to go with these numbers. He is an NBA champion, a rebounding champion, a five-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA honoree.

However, with Love there is now a caveat any time his numbers or accolades are mentioned. Love is becoming unreliable due to injury. In the past four seasons, Love has not been able to play more than 60 games. However, despite these concerns the Cleveland Cavaliers in July 2018 awarded the 31-year-old a four-year, $120 million contract extension that kicked in this season.

In fact, in Love’s 11 completed seasons, he has six in which he has not been able to get over 60 games. Last season he only managed 22 games, in the 2012-13 season he managed only 18 games.

Despite these injury concerns, there are a lot of rumors circulating about teams interested. In a recent Hoops Hype article, Frank Urbina suggests the Utah Jazz might give up Bojan Bogdanovic and Ed Davis for the services of Love.

He then suggests the Phoenix Suns would be willing to trade Tyler Johnson, a throw-in $5 million player and a draft pick. Urbina then suggests the Brooklyn Nets would trade DeAndre Jordan, Joe Harris and Taurean Prince. He also suggests the Boston Celtics would have to trade Gordon Hayward.

The Portland Trail Blazers have also been mentioned as potential trade partners. For that to work they would have to give up Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum. There is the potential that Hassan Whiteside could be the centerpiece of a trade as well.

This is the level of player who is going to be required in the trade. The Cavaliers are not just going to give Love away, they are also looking to rebuild.

It is very hard to believe that the Jazz are going to make another trade. They were active in the offseason and just traded Dante Exum to the Cavaliers for Jordan Clarkson. If they were going to do a Love trade, they would have done it.

It is also very hard to see the Celtics giving up Hayward, nor the Cleveland Cavaliers wanting him. Likewise, the Nets are not going to want to give up so much of their talent for a player injured as often as Love.

Of the remaining potential candidates, the Trail Blazers will find it very difficult to give up one of their two superstar guards. If they manage to interest the Cavaliers in Whiteside, they will have to give up picks as well, due to his expiring deal.

Love’s contract, combined with Lillard’s and McCollum’s, would have a huge impact on the team’s ability to have salary cap flexibility. Those three players would take up $110 million of salary cap space until the 2022-23 season.

From a rumors point of view, this really only leaves the Suns. They would have to convince the Cavaliers to take Tyler Johnson and a player such as Frank Kaminsky to match contracts. They would probably have to include a draft pick or two to sweeten the deal for Cavaliers though.

At this stage, these are all simply rumors. The Cavaliers have made Love available, but they need to be satisfied with the return that they will get. Love is willing to let the chips fall where they will. He is a lot more philosophical about being traded than in the past.

Until then, he will play, albeit frustrated, on a Cleveland Cavaliers team which is struggling. Due to his contract it may be for a few more years yet.