Back in 2014, when LeBron James decided to come back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the organization did everything they could to surround him with enough talent to contend for a championship, which is when they brought in Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Cavaliers made the NBA Finals in the first season with their new core but ultimately fell to the Golden State Warriors.
They did make it back to the Finals in 2016 and became the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win the NBA Finals. Kevin Love was finally an NBA champion and the city of Cleveland finally broke through when the Cavaliers won their first NBA title.
After trading away Kyrie Irving to the Celtics in 2017 and after LeBron fulfilled his promise to the Cavaliers, departing for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, Kevin Love was the last man standing on a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was heading towards yet another rebuild.
Over the last few years, Love has been extremely loyal to the Cavaliers organization as a result, they rewarded him with a four-year, $120M contract extension ahead of the 2019-20 season. Now, looking back on this move, it may have hurt the Cavaliers’ chances of trading Kevin Love to speed up the rebuild process.
RELATED: NBA Trade Rumors: Sacramento Kings interested in trading for Kevin Love
The Cavaliers are in no position to contend and make noise in the playoffs for at least 3-5 years so it would make sense to ship Kevin Love off to a team where he can not only contend for a championship but in return, give the Cavaliers numerous draft assets. This will be something to monitor in NBA trade rumors as the deadline approaches.
Right now, Love’s value has greatly declined from what it was at the beginning of the season due to him dealing with a calf injury, but there are still some teams who have been targeting the veteran forward, the Sacramento Kings being one of those teams. The Kings have the flexibility to move around numerous contracts to acquire the veteran big man and this could end up being a really solid move for them if Love can remain healthy.
Let’s take a look at one trade scenario between the Sacramento Kings and the Cleveland Cavaliers involving Kevin Love.
