Yes because that team would be comprised of the most healthy, reliable and cohesive stars. Talk about a weird mish mash of stars. Four ball dominant players. 3 of which with major injury issues, and the other is a PG that cant hit free throws and has major character issues. I'll say this about a potential Lakers team with this weird mix of stars... Obligatory.. Spoiler
Kevin Love is a 7-year veteran. Therefore he is eligible for a max contract starting at approximately 28% of the salary cap. (It's actually 30% but there's a formula involved that brings it down to right around 28%). What this means is if the salary cap goes up to the projected $67.1 million for next season, then Love is eligible for a contract with a starting salary of aroung $18.8 million. Since Cleveland has his birds rights they can sign him for 5 years with 7.5% raises. That would be a total of 5 years and $108 million. However the salary cap is projected to rise to $88-90 million and possibly even higher next summer. That means Love, if he signed a 1-year deal for $18.8 million and was a free agent next summer would be eligible for a contract starting at $24.64 million. If Love decided to move to a different team a a free agent and could only sign that teams 4-year max deal with 4.5% raises, that would be a 4-year contract totalling approximately $105 million. Add $18.8 million to that $105 million and you can see Love would make around $124 million over the same 5-year period if he signed a 1-year deal and then re-signed for a 4-year max deal from another team next summer. (Not to mention signing the Dwight Howard 4-year deal with a player opt-out after 3 years and getting a nice bump up in the 4th year at the max.) Now...what if he signs a 1-year deal with a player option for year 2 (protecting an extra $16 million in case he gets hurt), and then he gets traded after December 15th???? Well, his new team can then sign him to a fresh 5-year max deal with 7.5% raises with his new team next summer. How much would that be? Well, an additional 4-years would be $109 million plus the $18.8 million for next season plus an extra season (probably an option season) for the 5th season of that deal at $35+million. So, why would Love opt out to sign a 5-year deal when there's more money on the table for him next summer? 1. He's worried about an injury next season derailing his value and causing him to not be worth a max deal to an NBA franchise. or 2. He doesn't think he's worth the max on the open market next summer even if he stays healthy. ====================================================== Love will either: 1. Re-sign a short-term 1+1 deal with the Cavs so he can re-up next summer and possibly even force a trade to the team of his choice if things don't go well the first part of next year with Cleveland. or 2. He'll walk to a team in free agency on a 1+1 deal so he can opt out and get a nice raise next summer. or 3. He's going to force the Cavs to the trade table over the next few days before June 30th so he can force them to trade him to the team of his choice with his Birds rights. or 4. There's a small, small chance he's going to re-sign for 5 years (or anything more than 1+1) with Cleveland. And if he is actually willing to sign for 5-years with the Cavs then I would be leary of signing him. Because he would definitely be sending the signal that he doesn't think hes going to perform well enough next season to warrant a fresh max contract at the higher projected max. I would say the odds are about 95% that one of the first 3 above materializes and the odds are probably less than 5% that #4 develops. That doesn't mean he won't sign a 5-year deal with Cleveland. But the odds are extremely against it. ==================================================== Now here's your chance to show how smart/dumb you are. What do you think the odds are that Love signs a fresh 5-year max contract with Cleveland?? :grin:
Then Kobe retires after next year. Then Dwyane Wade continues to break down even more. (he only played in 60 games last year. I expect that number to continue to drop) Then everyone finally realizes that Rajon Rondo isn't elite anymore. They have Julius Randle. We will see about him once he is healthy. They have this year's draft pick. If I had to bet money on it, I would think that Love is going to go there. They have some promising pieces. But Kobe/Wade/Rondo (or some combination of those) don't bother me. Maybe if this was 2010.
LOL. Since when did Huffingtonpost turn into The Onion. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/...erce_n_7657424.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Man I wish we could trade Dwight for Cousins because the Kings would probably be all over him IMO, since they want to trade everyone but still somehow stay in contention. Too bad a star free agent probably wouldn't trust us again dealing dwight like that.
Remember right after the WCFs there were reports that the Rockets were going after Love? Whatever happened to that?
He was injured in MN He was injured again in Clevland By the time he play for another team, he could be dead already
