The future of Kevin Love in the Cleveland Cavaliers is expected to be dictated by LeBron James and his impending free agency. If James decides to opt out of the final year of his contract and sign with another team as an unrestricted free agent, there is a strong possibility that the Cavaliers will make Love available on the trading block and start a full-scale rebuild.
However, Zach Lowe of ESPN entered the possibility that the Cavaliers may consider trading Kevin Love as a “last-ditch attempt” to convince LeBron James to spend the rest of his NBA career in Cleveland. Lowe speculated that the Cavaliers will try moving Love and the No. 8 pick in the upcoming 2018 NBA Draft for a new superstar that will play alongside James next season.
“They missed chances to trade their best non-LeBron player, Kevin Love, at something close to peak value, and will have hard time flipping him for even 50 percent of that now. Expect the Cavs to explore what they might get for a package of Love and the No. 8 pick around the draft in a last-ditch attempt to convince LeBron to stay.”
Kevin Love and the No. 8 pick are the two best trade assets of the Cavaliers. Trading those pieces for the chance to land a superstar is undeniably a huge gamble for the Cavaliers since there is no assurance that James will return to Cleveland. However, it is a risk the Cavaliers should be willing to take to show James how badly they want to keep him on the team.
Why did the Cavs never become a superteam? Blame Kevin Love: https://t.co/AX6v7IbNBg pic.twitter.com/I9DXLuMMCC
— Slate (@Slate) June 10, 2018
Despite going through ups and downs in his four-year stint in Cleveland, Kevin Love remains as an All-Star caliber player, and there is no doubt that he could still be useful to a team who is in dire need of a superstar. In 59 games last season, he averaged 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds on 45.8 percent shooting from the field and 41.5 percent from beyond the arc. Love has made a huge sacrifice in his game since being traded to the Cavaliers in 2014.
Playing under the shadow of the best player on the planet could be the major reason why he is unable to unleash the “Minnesota Love” in Cleveland. Despite being part of various trade rumors, Love remains optimistic about his future with the Cavaliers. According to Matthew Florjancic of WKYC , the 29-year-old center/power forward expressed his desire to stay in Cleveland and if he’s given the opportunity, Love wants to spend the rest of his NBA career playing alongside LeBron James.
