Sometimes you take a job knowing it won’t be perfect. It won’t put a smile on your face seven days a week, but it’s the right choice financially. It’s only temporary, anyway. And for a while, that’s enough. Until it isn’t. And now you want out.
Where Kevin Love and the Cavaliers go from here
Love had an on-court outburst, and clearly isn’t having fun in Cleveland anymore. What next?
This is the Kevin Love story.
When Love inked a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers in July 2018, he knew he wasn’t signing up for championship runs like his time with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. When both bolted to opposite coasts, Love was left to sign a more lucrative deal in Cleveland, or leave money on the table to go elsewhere. He chose, for better or worse, the money, and to stick with a rebuild. Midway through its second year, he’s had enough.
Tensions boiled on Saturday night as a visibly frustrated Love called for the ball at the top of the key, shouting in Collin Sexton’s direction at the end of the second half. He then rocketed a Big Mad pass at Cedi Osman, who bobbled the ball and fired up a brick.
Prior to the game, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported about Love’s frustrations. That morning, he’d had it out with general manager Koby Altman, screaming “there was no feel here.” Then he posted a picture from The Joker. He’s clearly unhappy with the team’s direction, though he took time to address the frustration isn’t with any of his teammates.
Maybe this on-court eruption and overwhelming displeasure was inevitable. Something Love should’ve known 17 months ago was just a ticking time bomb. His second-quarter flare of frustration was wrong, and he’s since apologized for it.
But his clap-backs at the front office are valid. Coach John Beilein is struggling. Cleveland’s top prospects, Sexton and Darius Garland, aren’t emerging stars. Jordan Clarkson, one of the team’s few vets, was just shipped out of town for an often-injured project. This franchise is going nowhere fast, and Love is understandably reneging.
Love should be pissed
The Cavaliers are a bad basketball team. They’ve had three different losing streaks of four games or more and it’s only January. They’re 10-26. And while that’s to be expected during a rebuild, they’re also hardly stocked for the future. That’s why Love is angry.
Choosing a 66-year-old long-time college coach as a rookie NBA head coach for a rebuild was a risky move. It’s proven to be the wrong one, as players have already started to “drown out his voice.” Selecting Sexton and Garland in back-to-back drafts hasn’t been fruitful either. And with no Zion Williamson- or Luka Doncic-like star draft pick coming in 2020, the rebuild is years to come.
The short-term hope for Love was having one or two of the Cavs pieces play well enough to attach to a trade — like James’ quick reshaping in LA a la “The Kids” for Anthony Davis. That won’t happen with Sexton, Garland or whoever the Cavs pick in June this year. Love is 31 years old, and can see his career ending a vat of misery in Cleveland. So he wants out. And while his public meltdown on Saturday was dishonorable, his signal to the front office that he’s dissatisfied with their decisions, and that he needs to be traded are not.
A basketball career is only so many years. Altman’s missteps as GM shouldn’t get to decide how Love’s ends.
So what should the Cavs do?
The best-case scenario for both sides is to have Love sit until a deal is reached before the Feb. 5 deadline. There’s no need to risk injury, and also no reason to win games. It won’t happen, but Cleveland’s pick goes to the Pelicans if it falls out of the top-10.
Four possible trade partners are the Blazers (Love’s hometown team), Suns (hey, they’re not bad this year), Nuggets (maybe one piece away from being great) and Magic (always a wildcard.) Potential trades include:
Blazers: Hassan Whiteside, Gary Trent Jr. or Nassir Little and a protected first-round pick
Magic: Aaron Gordon and Al-Farouq Aminu or DJ Augustin
Nuggets: Paul Millsap, Juancho Hernangomez, and two protected first-round picks
Suns: Tyler Johnson, Frank Kaminsky or Dario Saric, Mikal Bridges, and a protected first-round pick
The Cavaliers and Love should work to get a deal done that fits both their interests. Love saved the Cavs from Andrew Wiggins and contributed big-time in their only championship win ever. And the Cavs doled out nine-figures to an aging, injury-prone story. Both sides worked in harmony for a long time. Now it’s time to break up.
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