Kevin Love trade rumors: 'Fresh optimism' that Cavaliers can find a deal before February deadline

At a certain point, Cleveland is only going to be hurting itself hanging on to Love

When Kevin Love signed a four-year, $120 million extension with the Cavaliers in the summer of 2018, there was some thought that the deal was struck, from Cleveland's perspective, simply to make Love a more attractive trade asset. Given the way star players were starting to prefer shorter-term deals, having a player of Love's caliber locked up through 2023 would seemingly sound pretty good to a lot of teams -- particularly the ones likely out of the running for top-tier free agents in the summers to come. 

Of course, there's a flip side to that coin. Having Love -- who will be 32 years old by the start of next season, and who already has a significant injury history -- on your books for some $92 million over the next three seasons takes a bit of a gulp to swallow. Imagine if Love's game ages poorly and you're paying him almost $30 million when he's 34 in 2022-23. That could be salary-cap suicide. 

So Love, for now, remains with the Cavs, who are in turn on the clock to get at least something in return for a still very good player who serves little purpose on a rebuilding team. Per Marc Stein of the New York Times, there is "fresh optimism" that the Cavs will be able to find a "workable" deal for Love by the Feb. 6 trade deadline. 

There remains a number of teams that could use Love, who is averaging better than 16.7 points and 10.6 boards a game on 39-percent 3-point shooting. He's still a top-end passer for his size and an elite rebounder. We know he'll stretch the floor for any offense while playing pretty disciplined, if somewhat individually limited, defense. 

In early December, I listed five teams that would make varying degrees of sense for a Love deal: Miami, Dallas, Portland, Denver and Boston. I think you can cross Miami and Dallas -- both of which figure to be top contenders for Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2021 and want to keep their books clean -- off that list. I think you can pretty safely remove the Celtics, too. They're not giving up Marcus Smart or Gordon Hayward. 

Meanwhile, you can consider destinations like Phoenix and Brooklyn, perhaps Chicago, maybe Utah and Sacramento as teams that all have a need for a player like Love and have the salary/assets to swing a deal. 

Bottom line: Kevin Love would make a lot of teams better, and a lot of teams with immediate contention in mind need to get better. Where there's a will there's a way. The money is a hurdle, but that part can always be figured out. Personally, I would be stunned if Love were still playing for the Cavs past the February deadline. Whatever sense he might've made in Cleveland when he signed that extension, which wasn't much, is evaporating by the day. His trade value is going to start doing the same thing.