The Cleveland Cavaliers appear content with hanging on to Kevin Love rather than trade him away
Ever since Kevin Love signed his four-year $120 million extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers rumors of an eventual trade began to swirl. Trade rumors reached a fever-pitch when the date that Love can be traded approached, (Cleveland had to wait six months before trading him after signing his extension). Now it is being reported that the Cavaliers do not intend to trade their best player away.
When the deal was signed it drew immediate comparisons to Blake Griffin’s deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. Griffin eventually landed in Detroit last season after signing a large contract. Many assumed a similar fate was in store for Love. It appears that is not the case, Cleveland wants to retain Love and apparently Love wants to remain in Cleveland.
Why would the Cleveland Cavaliers keep Kevin Love?
This is a fair question to ask. The team is terrible and could utilize Kevin Love to acquire future assets. Assets that could vastly improve the team and Love could fetch quite the return on the trade market. However Cleveland’s front office would rather keep Love than send him elsewhere.
Coming into the season the team expected to perform much better than they have this season. An early injury to Love put Cleveland in a rough spot. Subsequent injuries to Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance Jr. hurt the team even more. Instead of relying on major playtime from the aforementioned trio, the Cavaliers are forced to play the pedestrian Ante Zizic. Sure Zizic is capable of putting together empty statistics in blowouts, but he is by no means a starting center.
Losses accumulated due to the fact injuries to important players hit the team early. Even if the team did not suffer from the injury bug, the team would most likely still struggle. Although it may have been less of a trying season than what is currently playing out on the court.
The team believes that they will be better off next season by retaining Love., building around him and various other pieces which include rookie Collin Sexton. An all but guaranteed high lottery pick will also help matters. Adding a top talent in the NBA Draft will only help the current group of players.
For the time being Kevin Love appears destined to remain in a Cavaliers uniform for the rest of the season. This could change in the future, but for now Cleveland appears to be building around Love.
