Trade No. 2 – Cleveland Cavaliers

Miami Heat Receive: F Kevin Love

Cleveland Cavaliers Receive: F Andre Iguodala, F Kelly Olynyk, MIA 2022 First-Round Pick, MIA 2025 First-Round Pick

Kevin Love is owed $31.2 million this upcoming season and with the Heat wanting to hold on to their core of Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, Andre Iguodala and Kelly Olynyk are the obvious choices to be traded, especially since Love plays the same position as Olynyk.

Last season, the Heat went out and acquired Andre Iguodala and he became a vital player to their playoff success. A lot of his success came on the defensive end of the court, as usual, as Iguodala has been highly regarded around the league as a terrific one-on-one perimeter defender.

The Heat and Iguodala did reach an agreement on a two-year $30M deal to keep him in Miami through 2022, but if the opportunity arises to add a player like Kevin Love, the Miami Heat would likely be willing to part with Andre Iguodala. 

Kelly Olynyk is in the final year of his contract and is owed $12.1M this season. Last year with the Heat, Olynyk averaged 8.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and shot 46.2% from the floor and 40.6% from three-point range, the best of his career. Being able to shoot from three-point land as a big man is what makes Olynyk a valuable role player, but with the Miami Heat, he did not really have a big role with this team until Bam Adebayo got hurt. 

With Kevin Love not getting any younger and the Cavaliers not in a position to make the playoffs anytime soon, why not unload his mega-contract, free up some cap space, and get two future first-round picks in the meantime? 

Both first-round picks the Cavs would receive in this trade would be valuable trade assets moving forward and if they hold onto the picks, they will be able to get two high-level talents to add to their young core. 

With a young core of Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and now Isaac Okoro already, the Cavaliers seem to be ahead of schedule in terms of rebuilding, but are still a long ways away from being a playoff team. Being able to have two impact veterans like Iguodala and Olynyk could be beneficial to this team’s growth, as well as two possible players they could flip again for more draft picks.

The Miami Heat’s biggest problem last season was that when Bam Adebayo got hurt, they did not have any big time depth behind him to play valuable minutes in the NBA Finals. With Goran Dragic also being injured, this did not help the case, but the Heat need to have another reliable and proven frontcourt option in case something like this happens again.

Last season, the Miami Heat finished second in the league in three-point shooting, but adding Kevin Love could greatly separate them from the rest of the league in this category. With two of the best young perimeter scorers in the league in Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro, adding a stretch power-forward like Kevin Love, who is a career 37% shooter from deep, the Miami Heat would be an extremely tough team to prevent shooting threes. 

Not to mention, Kevin Love is still a terrific rebounder and for a Heat team that ranked 17th in the league in total rebounds per game last season, he would provide some much needed insurance on the glass. 

If the Heat want to make it back to the NBA Finals this year, especially after the top teams in the East got better, they will need to make a big move like bringing in Kevin Love.