All of this chatter is coming out about Love wanting to be back in Cleveland, but would Cleveland be willing to pay top dollar with the emergence of Tristan Thompson? The potential for Thompson is through the roof and would no doubt be cheaper than for what Love would demand. With this is mind, would Houston be his target destination? Of course the Lakers would come calling but we would obviously give him the best chance to win, also forming the most hated big three with the most to prove in recent memory.
The Rockets only have 10M if they renounce every FA they have, that means to get Love you to gut the team. So my answer is NO esp. Since Love is injury prone and Dwight injury prone...by midseason we might end up with just Harden and minimum vets.
I don't think the Cavs can afford to bring him back, max Thompson, sign JR long-term, and sign Shumpert. They're going to be like $110 million next year for payroll if they make all of that work, I doubt they're willing to pay $50-$70 million in luxury taxes on top of that too. Its totally an unsustainable team, and they basically have no draft picks to even get better. Only way is if they can somehow dump Varejao's awful contract. Or if Lebron just takes a massive paycut.
If Love comes to Houston it will be via Trade or Sign & Trade. Prigioni, Papa, maybe T.J. & rights to Lull - Along with Draft pick - would be sufficient.
Ariza will almost certainly have to be included for salary purposes. Cleveland would most likely want him as a player, too. Either him or maybe a signed and traded Brewer. He did not say that he would not leave.
I always love these "through the roof" claims of potential. OP, so is your definition of "through the roof" something like Kevin Love's current ability, or less? and what is your definition of "emergence?" All role players look good with Lebron. All superstars see a drop in numbers when playing with Lebron. Thompson will never put up Kevin Love numbers at any point in his entire career. You have to stick with Love or trade him for another current all-star. You already gave up Wiggins for him, for goddsakes.
You beat me to this. TT's potential is nowhere near "through the roof". Crazy talk. I doubt he gets much better. The ONE thing he does well is rebound the offensive glass.
No doubt. Love is only 26, and if it weren't for Blatt's misguided attempts to use him as a spot up shooter, he would likely have posted another excellent season. He shot 37% from 3 and had a rebound rate equal to TT despite the fact that he was asked to play outside of the paint. TT's potential is what you see right now - dude is offensively limited but a good rebounder and defender. There is almost no metric in which Kevin Love doesn't destroy TT when he's utilized to maximize his talents. Kevin Love isn't a superstar but he's not far from one, and he's in his prime. Does he leave Cleveland? I don't know - seems silly for him to leave a chance to play with a top 5 all time player still in his prime - certainly not to be mired next to a farewell tour Kobe. For us to get Love, we would have to sell the farm - Ariza, Jones, Llull rights, K Pap, salary filler, picks out the wazoo - and it still might not be enough. Players like Kevin Love don't walk through the door every day. Cleveland would be idiotic not to pursue re-signing him aggressively.
I stopped reading here. Even T.Jones has more potential than Thompson, but Thompson has a better motor, confidence and is hustling non-stop. Sorry, but to me that is not worth 12-14M, and Thompson reportedly turned that down.
I know that almost any trade this offseason would undoubtedly have to include Ariza. But, man, I would hate to lose Ariza. At his position, the defense he brings, many other intangibles he brings, and his salary, he's perfect for our starting lineup. I would hate to lose him. TJones on the other hand........
I thought he had a shoulder injury, his feet/lower body are completely fine. He's probably even good to run right now.
Well there's two way to look at this IMHO, from a purely b-ball perspective and through a real world perspective. From a purely b-ball perspective, they don't need Love. This season has proven that Love is overrated and a large part of his statistical performance in Minny is due to having a system built around him (like when DH collected 20-20s on nightly basis because he had Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkuglu at PF and SF). A guy like Bosh, for example, saw his ppg drop due to low possessions but his efficiency was still great and you saw him doing all the intangible stuff like defense and hustle. In Love's case, the dude just walked on the 3 pt line and chucked a couple of 3's all game long. So maybe Tristan Thompson isn't nearly as talented as Love, so what? Not everyone the squad needs to be a superstar and TT scraps for the ball every chance he gets. He's also way cheaper, younger and healthier than Love, who hasn't played a season without missing games the last 3 years or so. More importantly, he's also LBJ's client so I'm pretty sure Cleveland keeps him around, so if they keep Love as well they could be paying 30M for just the PF slot. From a real world perspective though, you have to keep Love because if you don't you become the laughingstock of the NBA, giving up a blue chip talent like Wiggins for a rental....who didn't even play in the playoffs (trolololol). Even if the Cavs think he doesn't fit in their future plans they still need to resign him, at the very least they can trade him at the deadline and get something back.
His feet and lower body were injured in other seasons, IIRC there was even a season he broke his hand and had to wear a power glove type of cast. Love is damaged goods, it doesn't matter how good you are if you can't keep your body together. We already have one such guy in DH, no need to add another one. At least Dwight was relatively healthy for 9 seasons, Love can't even string together 2 years without an injury. Whoever signs him long term will regret it as he keeps missing games year after year after year.
From a Minny fan who watched him a lot last year, I'm still not sure that Kevin Love is overrated. Cleveland knew what they were getting when they got him - an elite inside and outside scorer - and they just never fully used him. By not letting him operate in the post your pretty much taking out half of what made him such a prolific scorer last year. I still think Love is a great player and a top 5 offensive player in the league, you just have to utilize him properly to get consistently elite offensive performances out of him. In the right environment, I think he can have great, Timberwolve-esque numbers. I think in the Rockets offense him and Harden could easily both score 22+ points. But in Cleveland as long as Kyrie and Lebron want to keep the lane open, I'm not sure K-Love is being utilized properly, and as a result isn't worth it for the Cavs. And expecting him to develop into a great intangible/defense/hustle player is just unrealistic because that's not the type of player he is. In terms of intangibles though, his transitional full court passes were pretty damn deadly all season. He is probably the best outlet passer in the NBA. If the Rockets were to target him, now would be the best time to do it as his stock/value has never been lower. Cleveland is probably well aware of this however, and I would be surprised if they let him go after trading Wiggins for him. I'm sure they're hoping next year he fits in better and at least his efficiency increases, but even if his play remains the same he still averaged 16 and 10 this year and even without Kyrie and Love I'm sure Lebron could still win the East. So while the trade may be a mistake in hindsight, I don't think the Cavs will struggle because of it.
It depends on how he views the salary cap. He might stay next year but after that he is gone. I am not so sure that he doesn't either ask for a trade or if the cavs might deal him to somebody. The cavs gave up wiggins for him so it would be a huge blow to them if they can't get some kind of a return on him.
LOL, that's not enough. It's gonna take a vital piece like Ariza and Dmo.. Basically gut any potential for the Rox to make a PlayOff run next season.
