The sky is suddenly falling in Cleveland, and perhaps not coincidentally. In the same 24-hour span as murmurs that new head coach John Beilein has lost the Cavs locker room, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Cleveland is listening to offers for star forward Kevin Love.
After not trading Love last year, Cleveland is one year further into their rebuild and seemingly more willing to offload their biggest star. The timing is right, too, for the Cavs to maximize their return for Love. With so many teams in the playoff hunt, a talent like Kevin Love can push a team over the edge into the next competitive tier. December 15 is the magic threshold where players who were signed this past offseason are eligible to be traded. That frees up a good chunk of the league to be traded, bringing as many teams to the table as possible.
Basically as soon as Kevin Love signed an extension with the Cavaliers there was speculation about his inevitable trade out. Love has three years and another $90 million still on his contract, though the final year is a lower $28.9 million. That makes the deal a little more palatable for some teams.
On ESPN, Woj mentioned the Blazers, Celtics, and Nuggets as teams interested in acquiring Kevin Love. The 31-year-old missed most of last season nursing multiple injuries, including a leg injury that ended his season early. This season, so far, Love is injury-free. And when healthy, is one of the better stretch bigs in the NBA.
