Kevin Love buyout may not be likely

Even after the Cleveland Cavaliers added another seven footer, a buyout of Kevin Love does not appear to be happening anytime soon.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Lauri Markkanen in a surprise move over the weekend, the rumors about a potential buyout of Kevin Love were rampant. Some reports, now known to be inaccurate, speculated that a buyout was close. As time went on that proved to not be the case as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported.

A story from Wojnarowski appearing on ESPN stated that Love’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, has said his client has no interest in a buyout at this time. Considering that Love is slated to make $60+ million over the remainder of his deal, a buyout wouldn’t be in his best interest financially.

Muddying things up a bit is the report from Sam Amico which stated that Kevin Love wished he was traded and not Larry Nance Jr.

Rival NBA GM texts @WireHoops: “Kevin Love wishes it had been him and not (Larry Nance Jr) who got traded to Portland. … Cavs are in a no-win situation with (Love).”

— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) August 28, 2021

The only real solution here is trading Kevin Love, but his contract makes that quite difficult. Attaching other players or draft picks would be required for such a deal to take place and that really does not seem like something the Cavs are particulary interested in. For now the Cavs will continue to operate as an irrelevant franchise without whatever they do with Kevin Love being the focal point.