Dollars, not nonsense, keeping Kevin Love with Cleveland Cavaliers

Kevin Love reportedly wants to get away from the Cleveland Cavaliers. But despite his outbursts, there are 90 million things keeping him in The Land.

Kevin Love reportedly wants to be traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the reason he’s still there has much more to do with dollars and any nonsense Love has been involved with recently.

Love was fined $1,000 by the Cleveland Cavaliers after an hitting a chair on the Cavs’ bench during a timeout in their New Year’s Eve loss at Toronto and later blew up at general manager Koby Altman during the team’s shootaround on Saturday before they lost at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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According to the Associated Press, Love regrets those incidents, as well as showing his frustration with his teammates in the loss to the Thunder.

"“I wasn’t acting like a 31-year-old; I was acting like a 13-year-old. That was not me.”"

Love also said he and Altman have cleared the air about last weekend’s incident and that it’s behind them.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on Monday poured some fuel on the Love rumor mill flames, saying on his podcast, The Hoop Collective, that Love wants out of Cleveland, despite what the former All-Star is saying publicly.

"“He absolutely, totally wants to get out of there. It has driven him various levels of crazy to be there this season.”"

Not sure about Windhorst’s choice of terms there, considering Love has been one of the NBA’s outspoken proponents for better awareness surrounding players’ mental health, but the point he made still has relevance.

After all, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported more than a month ago the Cavaliers were ready to listen to offers for Love.

On his Monday podcast, Windhorst indicated the lines haven’t exactly been jam-packed with rival GMs looking to make their best offer on the two-time All-NBA selection and former Most Improved Player who is now in his 12th NBA season.

But in addition to the incidents and the displays of frustration, at least one opposing GM told Sam Amico of SI.com there are concerns about the recent report that players were unhappy with first-year coach John Beilein. The GM said many executives believe Love is “the prime suspect” behind the report.

"“Isn’t he the only one who has not refused (the report) or backed Beilein? Pretty sure everyone else who matters has.”"

The GM pointed out the obvious concerns about Love — cost and injury history — and said the newest developments make him that much harder to sell for the Cavaliers.

"“Now he’s bringing problems to the team too? All of it is cause for hesitation.”"

There are two factors — very obvious ones — behind that lack of interest. The first is the extension Love signed in July 2018, of which he is just now in the first season. That deal still has three years and $91.5 million remaining at the conclusion of this season.

The other factor comes down to one of a player’s most important abilities being availability. Love played in his 31st game of the season on Tuesday, already exceeding his total of 22 from last season, when he was sidelined for more than three months after foot surgery.

Throw in 23 missed games in 2017-18 and 22 more in 2016-17 and suddenly you’re talking about a player who has been in street clothes for 111 of his team’s last 283 games. The fact his scoring average has been in a steady decline over that same four-season period — from 19.0 points per game in 2016-17 to just 16.8 points per game so far this season — also raises red flags.

Love has a reputation for fragility. He hasn’t topped 80 games played in a season since appearing in 81 as a rookie in 2008-09 and he’s missed at least five games every season since.

That’s not to say Love doesn’t still have some value. He’s still a terrific defensive rebounder, even if playing on the perimeter has limited his effectiveness on the offensive glass, and he is a capable floor stretcher as either a 4 or a small-ball 5. He is, after all, a 37 percent shooter from 3-point range.

But is a team really going to give up meaningful assets to take on three years and $90 million plus for Love’s age-32, age-33 and age-34 seasons? With cap space being limited around the NBA, the prospect of a deal before the Feb. 6 deadline is uncertain, because the Cavs would have to take back contract(s) totaling at least $21.68 million because they are already significantly over the cap.

In order to dump Love’s remaining contract, Cleveland would almost certainly have to take on at least one bad contract in any potential trade, which isn’t exactly a prime part of the play for a team wanting to rebuild.

While Altman may look at a potential Love deal as moving an All-Star caliber player, other teams are going to be much less inclined to see it as anything other than doing Cleveland a favor by taking that money off their cap sheet. Until these perspectives are in a bit better alignment, a deal is unlikely.

There may be more ability to make a move in the offseason, when the half of the league — literally 15 teams in 2019-20 — that is hard-capped at the luxury tax apron this year will come off that restriction.

One team not burdened by a hard cap is the Portland Trail Blazers, which just happen to play in Love’s hometown, but given the Blazers’ number of walking wounded and their sub-.500 record, it’s not certain GM Neil Olshey would want to pull the trigger on a deal that would bring Love to the Pacific Northwest.

Instead, the odds are good that come the morning of Feb. 7, Kevin Love will still be a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers and if that leaves him a little hot under the collar, that’s just something he and the organization are going to have to deal with for at least another four or five months.